Tourist Trap Excursion

A few weeks ago, I saw a commercial about the Aquarium by the Bay in SF. Since Sam is into all things sea-like, I thought this would be a nice excursion into the city. After all, their website boasts about their underwater tunnels, their large exhibit halls and thier remarkable jellyfish collection. Having read all that, I was starting to feel kinda bad that I hadn't taken the kids to this joint before. What kind of mother was I if I didn't take my kids to our local aquarium?

Well, $118 later, I decided I was better off NEVER having gone to this aquarium because it took us exactly 20 minutes to go through their entire set up. That 20 minutes included coaxing my children to "look at the fish" in the tunnels as well as a visit to the bathroom and gift shop. Oh, and for those of you wondering why a 20 minute visit to the aquarium cost so much, let me break it down for you:

$26 = tickets
$24 = parking
$18 = gift shop visit (FYI: These toys broke at lunch)
$40 = lunch at Hard Rock Cafe (FYI: This was the only respectable place)
$10 = chocolate treats (FYI: This cost was incurred as bribery for good behavior)

And here's what I learned about our trip:

1. When I think something might totally suck, it will. I should listen to myself more often.
2. Pier 39 is a tourist trap in every sense of the word.
3. I will NEVER, EVER go by myself to tourist traps for fear of my children being kidnapped.

Despite the cost and the constant arm pulling done on my behalf because I feared my kids would be taken from me and my pregnant status would slow me down from kicking the perpetrator's ass, we still had a good time. The evidence is below...














Sidenote: I have no idea why an aquarium would have a display on bees but, alas, I took this cool shot of the little guys working on their honeycomb. I thought this was mighty "artsy" of me.



And, no visit is complete without having your children pose with shark teeth: