This week: Kids capture Tenderloin in photos; Rainbow Sierrans hike decades-strong; “HOLE” digs theater at the beach; Fairfax still hums Summer of Love; Bimbo’s has secrets; Butterfly Fest blooms; Wonder Funday sparks STEAM; Architecture + the City unfolds; Voices of Adventure screens outdoors.

Back patio school talk

SFUD families are invited to attend San Francisco’s Education Alliance’s monthly Education Meet-Up. They’ll be taking over Hot Johnny’s back patio in the Castro this month on September 16.

The gathering brings together families, advocates, and neighbors to talk about creating a fully funded, inclusive, and supportive local school system. — SF Education Alliance

Butterflies in the garden

The Secret Garden in Elk Grove hosts its annual Butterfly Fest over two weekends, September 13–14 and 20–21. Visitors can take guided life cycle tours at 11 am to see Gulf Fritillaries move from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to orange-winged adult.

Alongside the butterflies, there’s face painting, a coffee cart, and a fall plant sale with perennials discounted for would-be pollinator gardeners. — Sacramento 365

Win tickets to Exploratorium’s Wonder Funday

Enter by September 15 to win a family four-pack of tickets to Wonder Funday, when the Exploratorium transforms into a festival of STEAM-inspired play.

On October 5, Pier 15 will be filled with demos, design challenges, crafts, and performances — all to support science access for Bay Area kids. — Exploratorium

A community built on the trail

For nearly four decades, the Rainbow Sierrans have met monthly, trading laughter and coffee on ridges and redwood paths while shaping queer outdoor organizing. Founded in 1986 as the Sierra Club’s first gay-and-lesbian affinity group, they overcame early pushback to thrive.

Co-founder Bob Walker helped secure huge swaths of East Bay open space (there’s a ridge named for him in Morgan Territory) and left a trove of landscape photos now at the Oakland Museum. The group later created the Bob Walker Conservation Award in his honor.

Today the Sierrans are often older, often women, and still a safe, expert place to learn trails and meet people — many  members found partners on hikes. Leaders are looking to bring younger folks into the loop. Monthly outings vary in distance and difficulty. — The Oaklandside

Fairfax, where the Summer of Love lingers

In Fairfax, peace signs and free parking still coexist. The town of 7,500 has a rhythm all its own: four-hour meters, redwood-ringed parks, and a ballfield once home to a pickup game between Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. Shops like Revolution 9 sell $9 posters and D&D dice, while the Fairfax Variety store remains one of California’s last true five-and-dimes.

At Wu Wei Tea Temple, you can sip golden milk, join a Sunday open mic, or simply practice the Taoist art of “doing not doing.” Even with new housing proposals stirring controversy, Fairfax feels like a pocket where the Summer of Love never ended. — SFGate

Swimming in San Francisco’s secrets

Bimbo’s 365 Club has held on to its old-world glamour since opening in 1931, and nothing captures that mystique more than Dolfina, the Girl in the Fishbowl. Tucked behind the bar in a velvet-lined alcove, she appears to float and swim in a tank of water — an illusion of mirrors and light that has outlived nearly every other nightclub trick of its kind.

Current performer Hanna Longwell, who is also directing a documentary on the tradition, described the thrill of sliding into the role, hearing whispers from above as guests tried to guess if they were seeing a mermaid, and later discovering a whole sisterhood of past Dolfinas. Some added glitter, seashells, or wigs; one even juggled a political career while secretly performing. For Longwell, collecting those stories has felt like piecing together a hidden history of San Francisco nightlife — one where empowerment, secrecy, and spectacle all converge inside a fishbowl.

Celebrating architecture in the city

San Francisco’s streets, parks, and skyline are constantly in flux, and the 22nd Annual Architecture + the City Festival celebrates that ongoing transformation. Through September 25, explore three weeks of walking tours, film screenings, panels, youth workshops, and more.

The festival kicks off with an Opening Night Party and the launch of The Reimagined City: San Francisco 2000–2025, an exhibition highlighting the city’s changing architecture and civic life over the last 25 years. — Architecture in the City

Voices of adventure under the stars

On a crisp September evening in San Carlos, the beer garden at Devil’s Canyon Brewery transforms into a gathering of outdoor storytellers and explorers. POST and SYRCL invite you to the Representation Matters Film Festival: Voices of Adventure, where films from the Wild & Scenic library spotlight diverse experiences in the outdoors—activism, community, accessibility, and the thrill of finding where you belong.

Between reels, guests wander among booths for local environmental groups, sip drinks, grab free pizza, and swap stories with kindred spirits. The air is full of curiosity, camaraderie, and the quiet hum of inspiration, both in person and online from September 27–October 5. — Peninsula Open Space Trust

Tenderloin through young eyes

Disposable cameras in small hands capture a side of San Francisco’s Tenderloin often overlooked. For a week in May, 28 students from grades two to five wandered streets, parks, and playgrounds, framing their everyday lives.

The photos record soccer games, family moments, colorful murals, and fleeting moments of childhood — quiet, intimate, and full of pride in a neighborhood usually seen only through crisis headlines.

Mohammed Haidar Khaled, 9, calls the shots through selfies, neighborhood corners, and glimpses of friends at play, preserving a Tenderloin that’s vibrant, connected, and alive in the eyes of its youngest residents. — KQED

Digging together

On an undisclosed San Francisco beach, five performers—and sometimes their audience—dig. Shovels slice through sand, creating a space for sitting, for sweat, for contemplation. HOLE is about obsession, endurance, and the strange joy of shared labor.

Each 75-minute performance shifts with wind, fog, and passerby interruptions, turning digging into theater, theater into meditation. Here, a hole is never just a hole: it’s communal, exhausting, and full of possibilities. Runs the first three Sundays in September at 2 pm and 5 pm.  — Mission Local

Image: SF Neo-Futurists

Previously: Field Notes: Michelle Tea’s 'Valencia,' Boozie Brunch, Culinary Cinema, and California Turns 175

Pi Day, which was founded at the Exploratorium here in San Francisco, falls on Friday this year. Plus, some special lunar eclipse viewing parties are happening at Lawrence Hall of Science and Chabot Space and Science Center on Thursday.

Pi Day:

• Math enthusiasts have a couple of options for Pi Day, including the Exploratorium's 38th annual celebration, featuring an array of hands-on, pi-inspired activities, as well as a Pi Parade led by brass band Mission Delirium — all topped off with a free slice of pie. There will also be a limited number of Moon Pies in celebration of the lunar eclipse.
• Free peasant pies will be served at 111 Minna for public radio station KALW's special live Science Friday event. Science Friday host Ira Flatow and Ethan Elkind, host of KALW's State of the Bay and Climate Break, will discuss with a panel of guest speakers the science world's role in tackling climate change and creating solutions.

Viewing the Lunar Eclipse:

• Both Lawrence Hall of Science and Chabot Space and Science Center are hosting late-night watch parties for the total lunar eclipse, also known as the Blood Moon, which is visible in the United States for the first time since 2022.
• The eclipse will be visible starting at 10 p.m. on Thursday with the peak happening between 11:26 p.m. and 12:31 a.m. Here's how you can view the eclipse from home.

Image courtesy of The Exploratorium

Previously: Pie, Science, Kate Bush: Celebrating Pi Day

That VIP event for APEC week hosted by President Joe Biden happened at the Exploratorium on Wednesday evening, and you might have seen or heard the fireworks going off as it was winding down.

As near as we can tell, the only press that attended the big party was ABC 7 — with reporter Dion Lim newly back from maternity leave — whose studios are directly across the Embarcadero from the Exploratorium, and the SF Standard, who may have had an in through Silicon Valley types in attendance like Garry Tan and Chris Larson.

Brief speeches were given by President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Governor Gavin Newson, and Mayor London Breed — and the Standard notes that Biden called Newsom a "helluva governor," and most awkwardly given all the press attention Newsom has courted in the last year for his non-presidential bid, Biden said somethting to the effect of "one day he could have the job I’m looking for." (Newsom even upstaged Biden's meeting with Xi Jinping by meeting with him in China three weeks ago.)

"There's reason to be optimistic," Biden said in his remarks. "I was once asked by Xi Jinping in China... he said 'Define America for me,' and I said, 'I can, in one word.' And I mean it, I said, 'Possibility.'"

As ABC 7 reports, other dignitaries in attendance including Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Philippine President Bongbong Marcos, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who all made appearances at the reception.

Also there, per the Standard, were Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, OpenAI's Sam Altman, former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, both California Senators Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler, and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.

There was also a lavish food spread at multiple stations, including tamales and clam chowder, and open bars all around.

Thankfully the rain dissipated in time for Gwen Stefani to perform her three-song set at an outdoor stage, which reportedly included "The Sweet Escape," "Hollaback Girl," and "Don't Speak."

And then there was a brief but showy fireworks display to cap things off, before sending the president off to bed by 9.

Photo: Elisha Terada

The sex lives of flowers, animals, and insects will be intimately explored in Thursday night’s return of Sexplorations at the Exploratorium, featuring Dr. Carol Queen and a sea urchin live sex show.

SF’s offbeat science museum the Exploratorium has been doing their Thursday night adult-focused cocktail night After Dark series since the Exploratorium was still at the Palace of Fine Arts. And in hopes of getting you laid on Valentine’s Day, the Exploratorium has always made the second Thursday of February their annual After Dark: Sexplorations series since at least 2010. (Bull testicles were served that year). The popular annual science-and-sex program returns this Thursday night with After Dark: Sexplorations 2023, if you like to watch “the mating rituals of insects to the naughty bits of flowers,” and the “the varied and creative ways in which the natural world gets it on.”

It’s not just animal and flower sex. The always titillating Dr. Carol Queen will be a featured speaker in the erotically charged presentation “Va Va Va Voom: Vintage Vibrators,” with powerful specimens from her Antique Vibrator Museum.

The event’s famed Live Sea Urchin Sex Show will also return (a previous year’s Live Sea Urchin Sex Show is seen above), and milkweed bugs will also do the dirty deed before your eyes in a separate show.

Other sexually attractive attractions will include Endangered Species Condoms, a Shark Anatomy Show-and-Tell, an insect sex lecture, and an in-depth exploration of flower parts with human-resembling genitals.

After Dark: Sexplorations is an 18 and over event, though that’s the case with every Thursday’s After Dark. And realize the Exploratorium’s Tactile Dome is still closed over COVID-19 restrictions.

After Dark: Sexplorations is Thursday, February 9 from 6 p.m.-10 p.m. at the Exploratorium, Pier 15 Embarcadero. $19.95, Tickets here

Related: Exploratorium’s New Executive Director is a Former PBS Exec Who Is Quite Buff [SFist]

Image: Bruno Kelzer via Unsplash

A national search for the Exploratorium’s new chief has yielded the former CEO of PBS North Carolina Lindsay Bierman, who digs weightlifting and CBD.

This evening’s installment of the Exploratorium's popular Thursday night cocktails-and-DJ museum night will be After Dark: Sexplorations, featuring sexy talks and exhibits like Sex Lives of Zebrafish, Live Sex Show: Sea Urchin Egg Fertilization, and Gonad A-Go-Go ("Take an inside look at bull testicles, pig ovaries, and other impressively sized organs").

But what the Exploratorium is really swooning over is that they’ve completed their national search for a new executive director. The Chronicle reports that the Exploratorium has announced a new executive director, 56-year-old Lindsay Bierman, most recently a UNC chancellor and CEO of PBS North Carolina

“I think I will spend 110% of my time on fundraising,” Bierman told the Chronicle, in a statement that might not necessarily turn on the zebrafish. “There is nothing more gratifying than aligning philanthropic interests and goals with institutional vision.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lindsay Bierman (@lindsaybierman)

Yet Bierman does have an interesting resume and biography, as seen above with his weightlifting and “CBD at bedtime really helps!” recommendation. The Detroit native has a master’s in architecture, and for the last seven years has served as Chancellor of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and as CEO of PBS North Carolina. He left, however, in part because North Carolina’s same-sex marriage laws have made healthcare benefits difficult for his partner to obtain.

Bierman’s first day on the job is April 15, 2022.

You may want to pop over to the Exploratorium to congratulate them sometime on the new hire. But sorry, the pitch-black but very fun Tactile Dome remains closed over COVID-19 restrictions.

Related: ‘Dinosaur Train’ Host Named New Director of the Academy of Sciences

Image: lindsaybierman via Instagram

Museums around the Bay Area are either temporarily closing or curtailing some exhibits as fears of the novel coronavirus spreading widely take hold.

The Tactile Dome at the Exploratorium has already been shut down for fairly obvious reasons — it involves a lot of strangers going in and touching things in the dark. Also, as the Business Times reports, the museum has added hand-washing stations to each of the gallery floors and new signage about hygiene.

The Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio has also decided, oddly, to close for a deep cleaning until Monday. It then plans to reopen for its regular hours — only to maybe have to get cleaned again as people become more paranoid about community spread of the virus?

In the case of the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose, the facility is now closed through the weekend, at least, following a possible coronavirus exposure, according to NBC Bay Area. A worker at the museum had contact with a coronavirus patient and is now awaiting results of a test, and now the museum is closed as a precaution.

Meanwhile, as the Chronicle reports, a chocolate festival at the Palace of Fine Arts is moving on as planned this weekend. The event, called Craft Chocolate Experience: San Francisco, features a pair of cacao bean pits that are meant for people to sit in and shoot Instagram photos — and the organizers say they're still keeping those. The event will include extra tongs and gloves now, and attendees will not be allowed to "self-sample" from the chocolate offerings.

This got the Chronicle thinking about another Insta-happy "museum" in town, the Museum of Ice Cream, with its pit of plastic sprinkles for photo purposes. The MOIC tells the paper that it hasn't seen any impact on ticket sales and has no plans to close the museum. MOIC spokesperson Devan Pucci offered a high-toned bit of press-release copy as well: "It is during these challenging times that we remain steadfast in our mission to unite and connect."

Dear Rain,

If you wanted to take someone on a tour of the San Francisco of your childhood, where would you take them?

Signed,
Gen-X'er

Dear Gen-X'er.

I don't have kids myself, but have often wondered, if I did, if I would have ended up taking them to the same places my parents had. And if that turned out to be the case, would it have been due to lack of imagination, or because all those places remain parental go-to's? (Current parents out there, you'll have to let me know if the latter is actually true.)

Sticking to that theme, I'm going to concentrate on that era of my childhood where I still required adult supervision. (Perhaps we can look at those later years, and all the unsupervised mayhem that ensued, another time.)

Ghirardelli Square looms large in my childhood memories, for better or worse. Indeed, it was a major tourist trap (and parts of it still are today), but I loved it, and we would always make it a point to go there every summer when my paternal grandmother came to stay with us. Of course the ice cream parlor was a draw, but even bigger was the fact that it had a Jeffrey's Toy Store and a Magic Pan Restaurant. Toys followed by crepes that were cooked on upside down pans on a rotating stovetop is just guaranteed entertainment. Plus, it had great views of the Bay, and cheese balls I still dream about.

Me and my parents by the fountain in Ghirardelli Square, ca. 1976

There was also a small outdoor stage in the square, where jugglers, mimes, comedians, and magicians would perform for donations, and I remember seeing Harry "Night Court" Anderson performing there a couple of times; he even did this gruesome bit once.

As a real youngster, I also loved going to the beach at Aquatic Park, because the waves are non-existent, so it wasn't as potentially scary as other beaches. Eventually I got over that fear and we moved on to Baker Beach, which was always preferable over Ocean Beach, because it's less windy, slightly warmer, and has calmer waves.

The San Francisco Zoo in the 70's was kind of a dump but I still loved it, especially Monkey Island, which was a tragic pile of concrete slabs surrounded by a dirty moat, clearly the natural habitat of spider monkeys. Anyone who knows me knows I love me a monkey, and I think that love must be a result of frequent visits to that island, staring for what felt like hours at those comically human-looking monkeys. They got rid of Money Island after the '89 quake, which frankly was for the best, but I still miss it all the time.

If we wanted to look at some wildlife for free, we'd probably go to Union Square and feed the pigeons raw rice. Clearly this was before that widespread falsehood about how feeding raw rice to birds results in their certain death. Like Ghirardelli, Union Square was also a good place to check out free entertainment, like street mime Robert Shields. Here he is at the beginning of The Conversation.

Just as I'm sure is true now, if a place was interactive, we kids loved it, which means many weekends spent at the Exploratorium, when it was at the Palace of Fine Arts. I remember the Tactile Dome and the Shadow Box, and how that always smelled like dirty socks since you had to take your shoes off to go inside. And, of course, the hourly dissection of a cow's eye, which probably gave me more than a few nightmares.

I also loved going to the Academy of Sciences, and have such vivid memories of the aquarium, and being afraid to touch any of the glass, lest it shatter. I also thought all taxidermied animals in the dioramas were just sleeping. Standing up. With their eyes open. (I still kind of want to believe that.)

Shhhh! The zebras are sleeping!

Golden Gate Park in general was a constant in my childhood. As you may have gathered, free entertainment was always a plus for our family, which meant I was taken to many a free concert in the park, surrounded by all the other hippies' babies. Of course, the park had a lot more to offer than that, and it feels like we were there at least once a week as I was growing up, to ride the carousel and play in that playground, or just have a picnic, even in the freezing cold.

My mother, my grandmother, and me in GG Park. I’m in a wool hat, so it must be summer.

So, in hindsight, I bet my childhood doesn't look that different from the childhood of any other young native these days. And it's refreshing to know that I actually could take someone on a tour of most of my youthful haunts, and for the most part not just have to show them a condominium where something awesome used to be.

Rain Jokinen was born and raised in San Francisco and, miraculously, still calls the city home. Her future plans include becoming a millionaire, buying a condo complex, and then tearing it down to replace it with a dive bar. You can ask this native San Franciscan your questions here.

A man ended 2016 with a bang, as police say he was caught in a fire he started near the Exploratorium Friday.

Police say the they were called to the 1000 block of Front Street, which is between Green and Union Streets, at 12:08 a.m. Friday.

When they arrived, they discovered a 43-year-old man who "was standing in fire," according to the San Francisco Police Department.

Upon investigation, police say that the man had "set fire to the ground and his shoes." He was transported to San Francisco General Hospital for treatment of his injuries, which police say were not life threatening. After he received medical care, police say he was taken into custody, where he remains as of Wednesday afternoon.

The Barbra Streisand Museum may be long gone, but SF has a great tradition of small, neighborhood-focused and niche museums, some zanier than others, dating back to the late 1960's when physicist and sometime cattle rancher Frank Oppenheimer (brother of atomic bomb maker J. Robert Oppenheimer) decided to create a museum in San Francisco devoted to the oddities of science and human perception, which became The Exploratorium. You may want to hit our city's larger cultural institutions when you've got guests in town, but if your guests have more specific interests, you may want to consider some of the odder attractions below.

The Beat Museum
San Francisco will forever be associated with certain things — fog, cable cars, and earthquakes all come to mind. Near the top of that list sits the Beat movement, which in 1950s San Francisco was centered in North Beach. The Beat Museum, open since 2003, seeks to "[spread] the spirit of The Beat Generation" and is home to letters, manuscripts, and other memorabilia from the writers associated with it. It aims to be both a place for the well-studied Kerouac fan and someone just hoping to figure out what the hell their parents keep talking about. There's both a free and a paid section of the museum, and both provide a peek into 1950's and early '60's San Francisco — for that alone it's worth the visit. — Jack Morse
540 Broadway at Romolo Place

Cable Car Museum
We all ride Muni so frequently that it's perhaps easy to forget the public transportation system's storied past. And with the cable car, which at the Cable Car Museum you will discover had its first run in 1873, the process of learning about the transit system is really the processing of learning about San Francisco's history. Here you can see photographs of historic cable cars alongside the genuine article — think antique cars dating to the 1870s. For those curious as to how the cable cars actually work, the museum also allows the opportunity to see the engines and wheels that actually pull the cables (see the above photo). It's a one-of-a-kind museum and a treat — just like riding the cars themselves. — Jack Morse
1201 Mason Street at Washington Street

Image courtesy of The Exploratorium

The Exploratorium
Probably the funkiest, oddest, and most psychedelic museum experience you'll have in SF apart from the LSD Museum mentioned below, the 47-year-old science, art, and human perception museum known as the Exploratorium makes for a great date night, or a stoned adventure with friends, or even a sober adventure with friends — but bear in mind it is often full of kids, and might best be enjoyed on Thursday evenings for their adults-only After Dark events, from 6 to 10 p.m. Enjoy the longtime favorite Tactile Dome, learn about tides in the Bay, and check out newer pieces like artist Leo Villareal's Buckyball, a giant geodesic dome of LEDs. — Jay Barmann
Pier 15 at Embarcadero and Green

Photo: Lenore Chinn/Facebook

The GLBT History Museum
Founded in 1985, the Castro-based GLBT History Museum is world-renowned as one of the oldest and richest collections of cultural artifacts and art, much of it donated and bequeathed to the GLBT Historical Society by gay, lesbian, and trans people who lived and died in San Francisco. The small museum on 18th Street has rotating exhibits as well as monthly events, and currently they're showing a collection of erotic art from gay porn magazines through the ages, and an exhibit about groundbreaking defender of gay and transgender peo­ple Dr. Magnus Hirsch­feld, who visited San Francisco 85 years ago this year. — Jay Barmann
4127 18th Street between Castro and Collingwood

Good Vibrations via Yelp

Good Vibrations' Antique Vibrator Museum
Those high-tech buzzers and wands sold today at Good Vibration sure aren't your grandmother's vibrator. Nope, these are: Tucked in the back of Good Vibes' Polk Street store, the Antique Vibrator Museum is a blast from the past. It's free to peruse the recreational (and clinical) devices of yesteryear, and staff sexologist Dr. Carol Queen and her team of docents provide monthly tours to contextualize devices that were cleverly and vaguely billed in stores and catalogues. "Almost like a miracle is the miraculous healing force of massage when rightly applied," reads one ad, "Relieves All Suffering. Cures Disease," reads another bit of copy. —Caleb Pershan
1620 Polk Street between Clay and Sacramento Streets

The Institute of Illegal Images, a.k.a. The LSD Museum
Out of his home on Mission Street, Mark McCloud runs a free museum of blotter art, i.e. the often elaborate art that has been printed on sheets of LSD since the rise in the drug's popularity in the late 1960's. McCloud's collection has twice been seized by the FBI and dragged into court, but he insists that the framed and archived sheets have either never been dipped in the good stuff, or the chemicals have all been neutralized by UV rays and exposure to air over the years, and all they are is art now. The collection, some 33,000 sheets strong, is rumored to be larger than the DEA's own of confiscated sheets, and McCloud says he's just doing the good work of preserving this important form of folk art. Try to make an appointment to check out, but don't expect any regular hours or strict schedules, man. (Mark's email: mark@blotterbarn.com.) — Jay Barmann
2475 Mission Street

Royboy C. via Yelp

Lyle Tuttle Tattoo Art Museum
Lyle Tuttle's 85-year-old, thoroughly-tattooed skin might be the most interesting "piece" of all in his museum and shop. There, his team does contemporary tattooing in the traditional style, making them one of SFist's best tattoo shop picks, and Tuttle has a thousand-and-one tales to tell and artifacts to show off from a lifetime of tattooing rock royalty like Joan Baez to Janis Joplin. —Caleb Pershan
841 Columbus Avenue between Lombard and Scotland Streets

Photo via Yelp.

Museum of the African Diaspora
The Museum of the African Diaspora is one of the only museums in the world exclusively to focus on the cultural heritage of both Africans and their descendants. It opened in 2005, and since that time has addressed everything from ghost ships to the work of Grace Jones. The museum itself is small, which both lends an intimacy to the galleries and somehow makes them feel even more powerful. Also, the museum recently underwent a renovation, so the physical space itself is beautiful. And if you've been before, you know that exhibits change frequently — so there is always a reason to come back. — Jack Morse
685 Mission Street, between New Montgomery and 3rd Street

Photo of the Barber Shop Quart at the Musée Mécanique by Krista Kennedy

Musée Mecanique
Though you have to get past Pier 39 to get there, SF's Musée Mecanique is a must-visit for locals and tourists alike. The place is like a crazy curio shop dedicated only to antique arcade games and coin-operated musical instruments, all of which are in working condition. Some of the games — no doubt salvaged from Playland By the Beach — date from the early 20th Century while others are from the 1980's, like a vintage Whack-a-Mole game. It is, for real, a seriously cool place, it's open 365 days a year, and it's free to enter. — Jay Barmann
Pier 45 near Taylor Street

Photo: Facebook

The Tenderloin Museum
The city's longtime seediest, most rough and tumble neighborhood, The Tenderloin, has also been home over the years to famed jazz clubs, speakeasies, and countercultures, including some of the earliest LGBT hangouts in the city. You'll learn about Wally Heider Studios, the recording studio where the Grateful Dead, Santana, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young all recorded seminal albums, and check out the rich collection of photographs from the neighborhood. Also, if you want the full experience, the museum offers walking tours. — Jay Barmann
398 Eddy Street at Leavenworth

Honorable Mentions:

The Walt Disney Family Museum, which will appeal to families and Disney fans and contains stuff from Walt Disney's life, including tools and equipment that Disney developed in service to that art.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum, with its Yud Gallery and its thirty-six diamond-shaped skylights.

Related: San Francisco's 10 Best Museums

'Strandbeests' is Dutch for beach animals because it's the beach that physicist/artist Theo Jansen designed his kinetic sculptures to navigate.

"They have to survive the storms, the water, the sand," Jansen tells ABC7, "There have been many generations of strandbeest. It's an evolution process."

Indeed, Jansen began designing his creatures, which look like strange, scurrying monsters or models of Howl's Moving Castle, in 1990. And, as evolution is always a work in progress, he's still iterating on his designs at his workshop in Ypenburg, a Netherlands town near Delft.

Jansens' works are made from PVC piping and other light hardware materials, propelled by wind to walk, sometimes briskly, on mostly flat surfaces like beaches. But now Strandbeests will roam the Exploratorium as part of Strandbeest: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen, the first North American tour of the works. The exhibit runs through September 5th.

Jansen's work was the subject of a New Yorker magazine profile in 2011. Speaking of their mysterious, seeming autonomy, “The Strandbeests themselves have let me make them,” Jansen told the magazine.

Related: Check Out The Exploratorium's Sweet Video From Yesterday's Eclipse

According to the Exploratorium, there are just 100 miles in Southeast Asia from which a total Solar Eclipse, the astronomical event of the year, will be visible. Wait, you couldn't get to Micronesia in time? Well, even if you're out of the zone, you're in luck thanks to them.

The Exploratorium, after all, has been expanding the audience for eclipses and the like with live video since 1998, and this time is no exception.

"We sent a production crew thousands of miles by plane and by boat to the coral island of Woleai, in the Pacific Ocean 500 miles north of New Guinea," the Exploratorium explains on their dedicated site. The journey was even documented on their blog.

From four telescopes, follow along above as the moon blocks out the sun for what NASA tells us will be about four (or fewer) glorious minutes. There's more, too, as a partial eclipse in areas along the "path of totality" will be visible for more than an hour before and after the main event. So make sure to start watching before it starts at 5:00 p.m. PST and expect the show to go on until 6:15 p.m. In fact, the telescope feed starts at 4 p.m. and goes to 7.

And for those who snoozed through astronomy class, check out this NASA eclipse explainer below.

"The coolness factor is off scale high," Exploratorium staff scientist Paul Doherty, Ph.D. tells ABC7. "I've seen 10 solar eclipses and they still thrill me to death."

Last, if you're near Exploratorium HQ, swing by for free after 5 p.m., and you can watch and learn from Exploratorium staff — the whole program is here.

Art world luminary Leo Villareal is having another Bay Area moment. See: The reprise of his now-permanent Bay Lights thanks to $4 million from Caltrans and Illuminate the Arts, a solo exhibition at Fused Space that runs through March 11, and now a shiny new addition to the Exploratorium in his "Buckyball."

Lighting up in surprising computer generated sequences and 16 million distinct colors, 4,500 LED nodes shine from Villareal's 25-foot hexagonal ball, a structure inspired by architect Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes.

“I have always loved the Exploratorium as a space for open-ended discovery. The combination of multiple disciplines is powerful,” said Villareal. “I am an artist first, but my work could not exist without LED technology, advanced fabrication methods, and the custom software that I have been developing over 10 years.”

In this video of the piece as it appeared in 2013 at Madison Square Park in New York, please embrace the elevator music from the 1981 album Computer World by Kraftwerk: "Computer Love, Computer World and Computer World Part 2."

Buckyball will be on display at the Exploratorium through September 11.

Related: Let There Be Bay Lights: Bridge Installation To Return In A Flash

Check out our top 5 unique items from the Exploratorium store that will impress your friends, family, and colleagues.

NUMBER 1
Keith Newstead's Automata
Just about anything is possible in artist Keith Newstead’s world. His whimsical, deceptively complicated bring delight and wonder to all ages. Turn the handles and watch these move with a realistic flying motions. All of Newstead’s pieces are lovingly handmade and constructed from head to tail. Each piece is signed and numbered by the artist. Three versions to choose from: Flying Pegasus, Flying Pig, and Flying Fish.

NUMBER 2
DIY aKNITomy Lab Rat Kit
Artist Emily Stoneking is fascinated with biology, and she approaches her dissected knit lab animals with an artisan’s touch and a sense of humor. Emily Stoneking's DIY aKNITomy Kits let even the most squeamish makers try their hand at dissection. This Rat aKNITomy Kit is suitable for intermediate and experienced knitters and includes yarn, unspun wool, pins, thread, and pattern (you provide the frame).

NUMBER 3
Things Come Apart
The dismantled parts of common analog objects and run-of-the-mill electronics are transformed into poetry in Todd McLellan’s hands. His prints showcase everyday objects’ components tossed into the air or carefully laid out like puzzle pieces according to their own visual logic. Choose from a selection of prints or purchase the book for a collection.

NUMBER 4
The Art of Tinkering
This is not your average art book. Brought to you by the Exploratorium's Tinkering Studio, The Art of Tinkering is an unprecedented celebration of what it means to tinker: to take things apart, explore tools and materials, and build wondrous, wild art that's part science and part technology. Join 150+ makers as they share the stories behind their beautiful and bold work-and learn a few lessons in tinkering yourself.

NUMBER 5
Beer and a Shot
Toast to good times with these smart pieces of barware.

Pint Glass
This beautifully etched sturdy pint glass contains Polish mathematician Adam Kochanski's attempt to square the circle.
Shot Glass
This unique shot glass is etched with several digits of Pi.

Don't forget you can also find these gifts and more at Exploratorium's main store at Pier 15 on the Embarcadero.

This post is brought to you by Exploratorium.

Five easy steps to create an unexpected (and totally Instagram-worthy) Thursday date night along the Embarcadero.

1. Meet in front of the iconic Ferry Building.

There's no denying that San Francisco's Ferry Building Marketplace is a not-so-secret gem for locals and tourists alike. Currently dressed in its 1915 glory in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the Ferry Building is a great spot to start your journey along the Embarcadero. Peruse the shops before they close for the evening. Local favorites such as Heath Ceramics, Miette, and Far West Fungi are not to be missed.

2. Set the mood with a view.

Shed the stress of your day and get into a date-night mindset over happy-hour drinks and tapas at Michael Chiarello's Coqueta. Returning for a second year to the San Francisco Chronicle's venerable Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants curated by Michael Bauer, Coqueta matches the most beautiful, flower-infused gin and tonic you'll find in the city (or anywhere) with authentic, delicious bites—and a breathtaking view.

3. Take time for the perfect selfie.

If it's not on social media it never happened, and a stroll down Pier 7 provides the perfect opportunity to capture some of the best sites of the Embarcadero. Take in panoramic views of the Bay Bridge, Treasure Island, Coit Tower, and the San Francisco city skyline. Don't forget to throw on a hashtag or two. #Wishyouwerehere #SanFrancisco #Embarcadero #bestcityever #unexpecteddatenight

4. Arrive at the main attraction on your date night.

The Exploratorium has settled nicely into its new home at Pier 15 by expanding its adults-only evenings, After Dark to every Thursday night. Depending on the week, you can catch programs that will titillate your taste buds by pairing different types of food with scientific knowledge; will have you experiencing physics with dynamic, interactive presentations; will illuminate the cinematic experience on and off the screen; and will bring the periodic table to life. In addition, the first Thursday of the month focuses on events focused on a single theme that features a full immersive experience with fascinating performances, hands-on activities, discussions, film screenings, and more.

The best part about After Dark at the Exploratorium is getting to play with the 600+ hands-on exhibits without the many children who often explore during the daytime and at a discounted price. There’s so much to see and do that one night may not be enough. Learn more.

5. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.

The Exploratorium closes at 10:00 p.m., but that doesn’t mean your date has to end. Finish the evening with a nightcap and live music a few doors down at the quirky Pier 23 Cafe, which features waterside food and cocktails. Beloved by all—including Giants' fans, techies, tourists, and even Anthony Bourdain—Pier 23 is the perfect way to end your Thursday date night.

This post is brought to you by the Exploratorium.