As a silent auction prize from school we bought tickets to the Aquarium of the Bay at Pier 39. Honestly I am not a fan of Pier 39, there are too many people and not enough good places to eat. Anyway we decided to be tourists of a day and met some Aussie friends of ours at the Aquarium and decided to explore a little bit more away from the tourist traps at Pier 39. Of course the little ones loved the Aquarium, it is small but fits in a lot of information about taking care of the ocean and its creatures. The Giant Pacific Octopus came out and it was a wonderful site to see, the kids of course enjoyed the tropical fish and the starfish in the touch pool. The tunnel of rays and sharks is a lot of fun to wander through and they have an a new exhibit of river otters that we found had climbed a tree in their enclosure to watch the passers by.

My favorite creature of the Aquarium the Giant Pacific Octopus

As the aquarium excitement wore off and we had seen all the exhibits twice, we took a walk to the Musee Mecanique – The Mechanical Museum. Here you can take a bunch of quarters and play old arcade games like my favorite Galaxian and the like or even check out the dioramas from back in the day. A wonderful way to see what people enjoyed playing before everything went computerized. Be warned that Laughing Sal can be a bit freaky – she is huge, I had seen her before at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.

Love the artwork on this game – an original stand up game!