Outfit of the Day: A Special Birthday Outing

This past weekend my husband took me out to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco for my birthday!

I've been wanting to go check out this museum for ages now and a birthday seemed the perfect occasion to make an excuse to go. While it isn't far from us, about 40 min on a light traffic day, we do tend to avoid driving to the city like the plague, so it's not really all that surprising that it's taken us years to finally check this place out!

The California Academy of Sciences has been newly renovated and moved from it's old location to its new location in Golden Gate Park. Of course when I say newly I mean like within the last 7 years. I totally don't keep up with these things!

While I knew about the museum from a field trip I took to it and also knew about it being moved to its new location in Golden Gate Park, I didn't really hear much about it until I read about in Hemispheres magazine on a United flight while on the way to vacation one year. The article really blew my mind! This museum showcases a living roof and an indoor rainforest! I read about how in the rainforest you travel up five stories until you are up in the tree tops. Once at the top you then get to walk across a suspension bridge through the trees! Now, when I got there while there was a living roof and an indoor rainforest, the rainforest was not 5 stories high, only 3, and there was no suspension bridge. How my mind remembered things so wrong! But there were tons of butterflies fluttering about all over and even some birds though they were much harder to spot. Overall the rainforest room was a lot smaller than I pictured in my mind though it was still cool to see. Also, with museums I always forget that it's usually all about seeing not touching so there was no tramping about the living roof. Though, at the same time it was pretty cool that there was even access to go up and out to see the roof up close.

Despite my many disillusions with what my mind made up after hearing about the newly renovated California Academy of Sciences there was still tons about the Cal Academy that I was not expecting such as the in house aquarium which was much larger than I would have ever expected it to be as well as the planetarium, all which were included in the normal price of admission!

While that was basically all we had time for since we made it to the museum a bit late, there was still tons left to be seen at the museum including all of the non permanent exhibits, as well as just about everything in the natural history part of the museum (African hall, the pendulum, the geophysical exhibits, an exhibit on human genes, and so much more!)

It would have been great to have more time to see everything but at the same time I'm so overwhelmed that we even got to see as much as we did! It was a great day outing and so much fun to finally get to check this place out!

Inside the Rainforest Room, California Academy of Science, San Francisco, CA

Birds inside the Rainforest Room, California Academy of Science, San Francisco, CA

Frogs inside the Rainforest Room, California Academy of Science, San Francisco, CA

And Butterflies! Inside the Rainforest Room, California Academy of Science, San Francisco, CA

More Butterflies, Inside the Rainforest Room, California Academy of Science, San Francisco, CA

The Living Roof, California Academy of Science, San Francisco, CA

Baby, It's cold outside! California Academy of Science, San Francisco, CA

Outfit of the Day:
Knowing there was going to be a rainforest room with real butterflies flying all about, I coudn't resist wearing the Butterfly dress I'm borrowing from a friend. In fact, as soon as I found out that it was going to be possible to borrow this dress I knew I would have to wear it for my birthday, and because I love dressing in themes so much this dress was actually the reason I decided on finally going to the museum to check this place out for my birthday outing! I paired this with my most comfortable flats, a pair of black ankle straps by Blowfish, and a cropped mohair black cardigan because I knew it was going to be cold in the city! Also, because this was my first time wearing the butterfly dress out and about I made it extra fancy and special by topping the look off with a brown and black feathered fascinator.

Butterfly print dress- Front View

Butterfly print dress- Front View

Butterfly print dress- Side View

Butterfly print dress- Front View

Butterfly print dress- Front View

Butterfly print dress- Side View