10 of the Best Geeky Places in San Francisco

San Francisco is a treasure trove of geeky places to visit with kids. A little while ago I asked what my family should do for two weeks in San Francisco. So here, in no particular order, are the ten best geeky activities we found: 1. The Children’s Creativity Museum has the stated aim to “nurture the 3 […]
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San Francisco is a treasure trove of geeky places to visit with kids. A little while ago I asked what my family should do for two weeks in San Francisco. So here, in no particular order, are the ten best geeky activities we found:

1. The Children’s Creativity Museum has the stated aim to "nurture the 3 Cs of 21st-century skills – Creativity, Collaboration and Communication" – and it does this wonderfully. We made stop-motion videos with the help of experienced staff, produced our own green-screen films and used a box of random things to come up with a solution to a problem pulled out of a hat. This place is a complete winner.

2. The Exploratorium is the granddaddy of hands-on science museums. The sheer size of the place is breathtaking and there is an amazing number of exhibits, many of which are genuinely clever. Their presentation leaves something to be desired, but that's just nit-picking in a truly entertaining place.

__3. __The California Academy of Sciences can easily be overlooked in the shadow cast by the Exploratorium, but is worth a visit. The enormous building houses two huge domes - one a great planetarium, the other a self-contained multi-level rainforest. The talks are professionally presented and really entertaining.

__4. __Navigate the tiny streets of Chinatown to find the hole-in-the-wall factory that is Golden Gate Fortune Cookies (use your nose more than Google Maps for this one as getting there is half the fun). A tiny factory where a couple of ladies use ancient machinery to make fortune cookies by hand. It's just great to watch and tastes good too.

5. The city has two Lego Stores. That may not be such a thrill for those of you in cities with a Lego Store of their own, but for the rest of us it is just ... wow.

__6. __Ride on a cable car, stand on the running board as you negotiate the hills. Then go to the free Cable Car Museum to understand how they work and see the machinery in action. Really this is quintessential San Francisco geek.

7. The Pirate Supply Store at 826 Valencia was our favorite. The store is absolutely enchanting; it could not be a better experience. And what makes it truly special is that it's just the front for an organization helping with children's literacy. Dave Eggers' wonderful TED talk sets out the details, but you have to visit to appreciate the sheer joy of having a chest full of mops land unexpectedly on your head. If you do visit, make sure your kids have a pirate joke ready to barter for treasure.

8. Wander around the Golden Gate Park, see bison and high-speed remote controlled boats on the Spreckels Lake - well, not together, obviously.

9. The Musee Mechanique is a warehouse filled with ancient games - from those 1980s table-tops the kids consider ancient back to the wonderful clockwork dioramas we all think of as old.

10. Alcatraz is a great day out if for no other reason that it introduces the kids to Rule Number 5 of the prisoners' rulebook: "You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention. Anything else that you get is a privilege."