bay area discovery museum

today grandma and i took ava to visit the bay area discovery museum. i've known of it's existence for ages, but somehow managed to never quite grasp a) the incredible location and b) how much fun it would be for ava. i blame most of this on the lousy pictures on their official website.

to visit the bay area discovery museum, you cross the golden gate bridge, take an immediate right, and keep winding your way down the hill, always turning right, until you've done a big circle and wound up almost directly underneath the golden gate bridge. it's worth a visit just for the bridge view alone. inside the museum one of the features is a gigantic toy train set featuring a miniature version of the bridge.

the museum consists of seven exhibits, one of which is designed especially for small tykes, with a maximum height of 40 inches. in tot land, everything is soft and padded, the kids all wind up dressed up as insects and there are large buttons on the walls that make the most surprising things happen.

other exhibits are targeted for an older crowd, but every room contains a creative solution for keeping the wee ones amused. ava particularly enjoyed bay hall which contained the train, as well as life-sized fishing boat, that rocked back and forth dramatically and included an elaborate setup for fishing