Aquapalooza at Aquarium of the Bay, San Francisco

June 4, 2014 - Aquapalooza at Aquarium of the Bay, San Francisco

 

While reading through my emails on Tuesday, June 3rd, I came across one from "FunCheapSF".  Their site sends a weekly email with "fun, cheap" things to do in or around San Francisco.  Often they have free events, and they always include one event that you can win tickets to through their website.  I decided to look at this week's contest.  It was for "Aquapalooza", an adults-only (21+) pirate-themed party with science and a silent disco.  Given that the event was taking place the next day, the site asked if you were "100% sure you could make it", and I said I was.  Not an hour later I received a confirmation email saying I was the winner!

Chinchillas

Turtles

 We headed to the City Wednesday night for the 7 - 10 pm event.  The Muni workers of SF happened to be on a "sick-out" this week (since striking is against the law, they're all calling in sick), so traffic was snarled and we ended up not leaving until 7 for the hour long drive to Pier 39/Fisherman's Wharf.  I've walked on this Pier tons of times but never gone in the Aquarium. I was very excited for our first trip here and to learn more about the place. 





Indoor pools

 I really had no idea what to expect in terms of size or what animals they displayed to the public.  We parked at Pier 39 parking garage ($9/hour), conveniently located across the street.  It was foggy and very cold and windy! We practically ran to the Aquarium and up the stairs to the entrance where we were ID'ed and let in, but hardly greeted by any of the four employees we encountered.  We were each given complimentary drink tickets (won with the VIP ticket prize) - which was awesome because the rum punch they were serving in the tiny rocks glass was $8.00!

There were several displays with land animals.  I didn't know why they would keep two chinchillas in a tiny glass cage.  An animal that loves to run fast and far in a small glass cage was very odd, especially inside an aquarium. We had these as pets when we were younger. (Also kept in cages way too small for what they deserved.) But the ones at the Aquarium didn't move or look around at all.  It was sort of sad to see them trapped like this.  Chinchillas can be very social. The frogs and snakes and turtles seemed more fitting.

 

A woman spoke to the audience while we were being fed nachos, sliders, and a noodle dish, from three local restaurants (Wipeout Bar and Grill,Fog Harbor Fish House, and Pier Market, who ran out of the scallops they were serving with the noodles before we arrived.) The food was very good and the speaker was very entertaining.  She is the sustainable initiative manager for the Aquarium and has studied the effects of plastic pollution in the ocean. It was amazing to hear her speak about the pollution she saw as her expedition team sailed across the Atlantic. 

 We waited in a slow line to go downstairs to the tunnels where we were able to view many more fish. The Aquarium was actually very full with several different species. Some of the fish were HUGE! Even the starfish were much bigger than I expected. It was really neat to watch them swim past us. I loved looking at their eyes and faces, searching for smiles on their fish lips.






 

The Aquarium has a gift shop near the entrance.  They sold trinkets and fish-themed necklaces and tee-shirts, as well as photos they took of their guests (in pirate costumes) earlier in the evening.  The $21 package of less than 5 pictures wasn't a sell for us, but we did go back and take some pictures on our own phone with the pirate gear!

 

 

The "silent disco" meant wearing headphones as you walked around that had 3 music stations to choose from. Many of the guests were drinking and dancing and having lots of fun in the tunnel. It was definitely not a silent disco for them as they stomped and danced.  You had to give your ID over to the staff in order to "check-out" a pair of the headphones. (Which was why the line was so slow getting down to this level.) The system they used for holding the MANY driver's licenses and passports they were collecting was surprisingly disorganized and we waited a long time in line to receive AND return our headphones.  With $9/hour parking you'd think they'd have a better idea of how to keep the IDs in some sort of efficient (alphabetical) order. But standing in the line did give us time to finish our second free beverage (went with a tasty bottled Hefe beer). 

 The event was really cool....for free.  The regular $25 tickets plus Eventbrite fee would have left me very disappointed had we actually paid to attend this.  I thought the staff was terrible.  The woman operating the elevator to and from the tunnel told us about their switch to a non-profit only a few years ago, and the work she does to bring children to the Aquarium free of charge. She was the only person who told us anything about the place and there were lots of staff walking around.  I know this is a huge tourist destination, given the location, but we would have loved to learn more about the place.  It's also much smaller than the Monterey Bay Aquarium, so if you've been into that gorgeous Aquarium, don't expect anything near the same size.  The jelly fish displays were probably my favorite thing here. The beautiful boneless fish are mesmerizing. I was really glad to get to see this place and especially for such a unique event; hopefully they continue to improve their execution of nighttime events for guests.