High art (the first one is free)

Like a moth to a flame, or Sarah Vowell to quirky historical landmarks, I find myself drawn to museums. But my tastes border on unusual. I suppose you could say I like the non-fiction side: I prefer black and white photography, and socially motivated modern art, over, say, the still life or landscape. In the right light, I'd even argue that an X-ray can be art.

The guidebooks pointed out that the first Tuesday of each month offered free admission to the Museum of Modern Art, the Asian Art Museum, and the Legion of Honor. The first Wednesdays were free at the Exploratorium at the Palace of Fine Arts, the San Francisco Zoo, and the National History Museum of the California Academy of Sciences (which sounds dry, but has an exhibit about chocolate).


The MOMA is a surprising 5 floors of potential wacky goodness. Well, make that 4 floors: we flew past the boring Richard Tuttle exhibit. We were hoping to see their Kara Walker installation, which would have fit right in with their thrilling 5th floor pieces, but they had temporarily taken it down.


It's nice that the sculptures in the city hall area are so welcoming to the homeless. Anyway, I was hoping the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco would be like its counterpart in Seattle that I visited last month. Sorry, no. It focused heavily on centuries-old Chinese, Korean, and Japanese pieces. A lot of the India artifacts -- of personal interest to our family -- came from remote parts of the motherland and were often mixed with Tibetan finds. Oh well.


Creative sign, or a tribute to the ancient Greek peephole? You decide. We spent slightly more than an hour at the Exploratorium, but without a kid in your group the fun decreases precipitously.


You can't go wrong with giraffes. (That should be the zoo's slogan.) Very photogenic creatures. Though they have this blank look, like they'd attack you if they weren't so busy munching on grass.


Far more entertaining were the penguins. These two seemed to interact in some non-judgmental lovin', but after seeing male lions nonchalantly go at it in, ahem, Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden, I've learned not to question what I see in an animal exhibit.

So we missed out on the Legion of Honor (which features some Rodin sculptures), that chocolate thing, and the always-free Cable Car Museum. Our loss -- maybe next time.