A fishy weekend

San francisco lies on the coast and is surrounded by the Ocean and bay. With me being the "aquatic" kind, decided to explore the fishy places and headed out to the "Aquarium of the bay" on Pier 39.

We took the combo of the Golden gate "cruise" and the aquarium visit.
The exhibits are pretty decent with it more inclined towards showing the inhabitants of the immediate surroundings, with coldwater fish dominating. What was also nice was the underwater viewing area with the "false" bay simulated.








There were also other tropical displays with the mini-reef systems.













Talk about gaudy colors!


The Pipefish were awesome to watch.


The "tree frogs on a frog tree" was fun to see, all of them almost using the "level parking".




Jellies with their jumpy movements!






Mr. Crabby threatening...


Then the shrimp with the killer looks


Done with the aquarium visit, headed outdoors again with a slight drizzle picking up. The winds got pretty chilly as we took the ferry to go around the Alcatraz island and the Golden gate bridge. The heavy weather hindered viewing the Golden gate in all it's beauty. Having seen it earlier, did not hurt that much.

Back ashore, the little droplets of rain provided some interesting subjects.









And also this amusing sight of nickels on the pillars.


Pier 39 is pretty lively and it being New year's day, people were thronging that place.
The docks wore a deserted look though.


Also took a few night shots of the streets




Later that evening, Rahul pointed me to the Steinhart aquarium (Thanks mate!) which is part of the California academy of Life Sciences.
so it was the next "target".



Waited in the long serpentine queues for tickets and entry.



A look inside and it was all worth the wait :)
A Jurrasic fossil greets visitors to two levels of displays.








First went into the "Rainforest" display - a dome which is temperature and humidity controlled. Which is what our camera lens' found out with condensation! The temperature outside was "pretty" cold.



Enormous lights coupled with a series of designed ducts which maximise light and help in ventilation. While a giant mister generates mist to keep the humidity


Outside view


Inside view.

The display in itself was very nicely done!

Birds of various colors n shapes...










The reptiles Horned frogs, lizards and the orchids were nice to see.















Talk about a crooked look ;) !!








Hissssss




A "flooded forest" with the Amazon giants like RTCs, TSNs, Pacus, Arapima and the Arowana.









Then it was all systems GO! Entered the "aquatic" section and maximised all of my time there (much to the angst of my friend :D )

Freshwater displays, salty ones, wow!

some freshwater ones





The angelfish setup was nicely done


A beautifully done planted tank with Cardinals


The "african" tank in the african hall







Both the tropical as well as the Bay setups were pretty huge, with tons of color :)














The "Odd" creatures provided some lovely sights

Diving beetle


Holding his fort, the knoght with Armor!


The "Garden of eels"



Scorpionfish with it's ever so intricate design






Frogfish






The corals and anemones magical as always.






Ended the day with a 3-D Bugs movie and an awesome Stellar ride in the planetarium.

Adios till the next visit/ride!

Have a super new year ahead :)

PS: A small video of the schooling fish from within the tunnel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Afi-g0u3lI

Cheers,
Hayath