#tactile dome

[exploratorium]

Touchy-feely inside the Tactile Dome!

[exploratorium]

OG Tactile Dome love for Throwback Thursday. 

All images and illustrations © Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu 

[a-story-of-floffie-blog]

02.14.15

After months of planning, the day FINALLY arrived in which we had our... *drumroll*

OUT OF CITY SAN FRANCISCO VALENTINES DATE WOOOOOOOOO~

It took us multiple Microsoft excel worksheets, many many Google maps, a legitimate sounding phone call and a partridge in a pear tree to plan out this day and lemme tell ya, I broke a bit of a sweat getting it all together. Like, everything was planned out to the exact time we leave, to our ETA per locale, to when we should leave, how long the walk will be, how long it’ll take us to park. It was quite the mastermind operation.

BUT ANYWHO. After she came over to my house to kick off the plan, we exchanged gifts, spoiler alert I got her a Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran CD and she got me the most amazingly packaged hand-carved candle ever (check it out on our IG: a.story.of.floffie #shamelessplug), got the rest of the goods together and made way to the hipster capital of the US of A.

Great car ride BTW, I do HORRIBLY in one to one interactions with people. I’m just so socially awkward that I don’t know what to say and I just hope for time to go as fast as inhumanly possible, but with the gal or guy of your dreams, it alllll just goes so smoothly. Made me appreciate her that much more.

So we get to SF, first stop on the itinerary, The Exploratorium! Full of wonders and amazement, come one come all and bring your extra pairs of man panties cause they’ll be blown straight off when you experience the scientific marvels at the Exploratorium~ (trademark). It was really cool to be honest, sure there were a lot of kids there, but I’m a 20 year old kid so don’t judge me I like sciencey things.

It was really nice to be able to just let loose and have some fun with all the little exhibits and gadgets, seeing the optical illusions and playing around with our senses. The biology area was a nice little tidbit as babe started firing off her knowledge of the organelles located in an animal cell, I still remembered a few too *coughcough*. Then there was the huge concave mirror that inverted the reflection in most angles, but reflected a larger, 3-D like reflection of yourself if you got right in the middle. Easy to say that I did my best to replicate The Creation of Adam with wonderful success. Then we went to the sound area where we tried to walk across gravel as quietly as possible (I won ;D), then the marine biology place where we took some cute AF photos, then the snake game where we both controlled two directions each, and so on and so forth.

Then we finally we hit time for our Tactile Dome reservation, and boy was that fun. We walked, crawled climbed, sidestepped and hit our heads to get our way through the interesting pitch black pathway. Let me just say, being the gentleman I am, I do let my lady go first just because I feel like she should have a really good initial experience. Now let me say this, when in the tactile dome, you have absolutely no visibility, so when you move around, you tend to move slowly. I did my best to catch up with her and well I did, but we were both crawling on the floor. And I was using my hands to navigate. And let’s just say, I may have navigated myself to her rear bumpers on accident. Yes I swear it was an accident. Did I enjoy that? I plead the 5th.

So after the adventures at the Exploratorium, our stomach went a grumbling, our mouths went a watering and we were slowly falling into the growing abyss that is...hongry. We gave each other that look of agreeance, headed for the Mini and rushed like the wind to the pier. And man, I’ve walked the pier multiple times before, but that was probably the fastest I’ve ever walked it...my stomach thanked me for that. Like a pearl in an oyster or a toy in a Happy Meal (I mean like in the actual meal like cooked into the McNuggets) there it was. Boudin. In all it’s sour dough bready goodness.

If you asked me what my favorite food is, I’d tell you easy. Chicken mother freaking adobo. My second favorite however, I wouldn’t be able to decide, but one of the strong contenders would definitely be some good ol’ SF clam chowder in a freshly baked sourdough bread bowl. I would like to say that I devoured that thing in a heartbeat (and in other situations I could have), but man that girl I love her. She’s got some tight abs an incredible stomach cause she will, without fail, always finish her plate before me. I don’t know how she does it, but I’d look up every couple of seconds and it would just disappear chunk by incredible chunk. Literally, I’d finish my soup and she finished up   And goddamn I love her.

After lunch, we decided to walk it all off by walking the rest of the pier that we glossed over from anticipation of chowder. This was the part in the movie where you’d play the “having fun doing little things” montage in a movie. It was a cute little adventure through all the stores, some window shopping here and there and a nice little visit for all the big ol seals. And just like that, we decided to get a head start for our next stop...

...LAND’S END!!! So after a bit of a confusing car ride through nice houses and traffic, we reached a parking spot and started the little hike down the trail to a nice view point of the sea and the bridge. BTW, the hike consisted of going down tall stairs in sneakers and boaters. It was like walking through a bed of big rocks in sandals. Take note: bring the right shoes for every occasion. But foot sores aside, it was a very scenic path with plenty of natural flora, ambient noise, a gentle breeze that carried the salt of the sea and some drop dead gorgeous sunset lighting. It didn’t take us long to find a nice little cliffside view that got the bridge and some great looking good rays from the sunset. Just check out the pictures, they talk for themselves.

When the evening started to set in, we headed back to the car and went to our next destination, Burma Superstar. A nice little burmese restaurant with some great burmese catfish curry and some fun ambiance. Well that’s what I’d like to say if we did actually end up going there. The line ended up being at least an hour’s wait, so we quickly recovered and headed to the second on the list, Mandalay. The other Burmese choice with a much smaller line ;D

So being the team that we are, babe offers to step in line at the restaurant while I go looking for parking, that way we maximize both of our times. To those of you who have attempted looking for street-side parking near a restaurant on a Valentines day weekend, you know my struggle. I went allllllll up and down the streets, backtracking as far back as the previous restaurant’s block to find parking. It took me the entire 20 minute waiting time us to get a table and then some until I finally found parking in a parking lot directly in front of the restaurant when a van backed out and almost hit my front bumper doing so.

After the whole parking fiasco, I finally get in, poor babe had to let 2 parties go ahead of us and we got stuck with a fold out table fit for one person, some fold out chairs and we’re stuck between a booth divider and a 4 person table seating 5. Gotta love busy nights. So we order our food with two glasses of jasmine tea and boy that was quite the spectacle. Being the civilized human beings we are, we both take turns washing up in the bathroom while we wait for the food to arrive. Babe goes first to the lady’s line and I’m greeted by the tea. Now I am a simple man of simple pleasures and the littlest things entertain me. Am I a simpleton because of this? Quite possibly. Do I still think I’m classy? Absofuckinglutely. So the tea, like I said previously, comes in glass to actually show the dried up tea ball bloom, in the hot water, into a beautiful flower. I can’t tell you how much time had passed and how goddamned intrigued I was with a flower sprouting in water. If you saw me in the restaurant, I would have looked like I was witnessing the creation of the whole damn universe.

Thankfully, babe got back, I took my turn in the bathroom, we talk sprouting flowers and BAM! Food arrives. Babe got a delectable plate of fish fillet in black bean, while I still got my catfish curry ;D Now being the culinary genius I am, I dig into my dish, completely disregarding the possibility of having a slow braised catfish dish...with the bones. And boy, that first bite was pretty much allllllll bone. Did it hurt? Like hell. Did it taste good? Oh hell yeah it did. My stupidity aside, it was quite a nice meal, the table was still cramped, we had to get rid of unneeded dishware but the servers accommodated us to the best of their abilities and the food tasted great. Final opinion. Pretty damn good.

After dinner, the day was finally winding down to a close, my girl continued to amaze me with her incredibly fit physique with an amazingly American-sized, yet well controlled, appetite. So we set off for the last stop of our adventurous SF date, Bi-Rite Creamery for some well-deserved ice cream. We drive up, go through street parking part II, waiting in line part II, and ordering food part III and man that...that was some damn good ice cream. Babe got honey lavender and Earl Grey (I loooooove me some good Earl Grey) and I myself got coffee toffee and creme brulee (I know, makin’ your mouth water thinking about it.) That was seriously some damn good ice cream, the lavender had that nice sweet, floral tone where the Earl Grey had that niiiiiice sophistication as a proper Earl Grey should. And that coffee was right on the money. Strong, not too bitter, with the almond toffee placed just right so you get one in each bite and it balances it out. And the creme brulee was daaaaaaamn good n sweet with the caramel, the nice hints of vanilla and damn it went well with the coffee, it went TOO damn well with that coffee and goddamnit I want ice cream again...

So after savouring the last spoonful of ice cream, we looked at the plan, checked the time, and smiled. Our adventure was done. Successful. And oh so damn wonderful. We got in my car and got on 101 to head home. I let her get some well deserved sleep in the car, held her hand, gently stroked her fingers and the ring, and sang along to “Lay Me Down” by Sam Smith thinking about all the memories we made throughout our time together. We drifted down the road under the stars by the bay, just sailing across the asphalt together and in love. I am so happy to call her my Valentine.

(Flo)

[exploratorium]

Our brand new Tactile Dome is nearly complete! As we conduct final testing before its October opening, it basks in rainbow glory. Photo by Jean Cheng © Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu

[exploratorium]

The Exploratorium's infamous Tactile Dome through the years.

The exhibit, an interactive experience through total darkness, is encased in a geodesic dome about the size of a large weather balloon. The purpose is to disorient the sensory world so that the only sense the visitor can rely on is touch. After 42+ years at the Palace of Fine Arts, it is moved along with the rest of the Exploratorium, to Pier 15 in San Francisco.  Images are:

1) Circa 1996 2) Last look before leaving the Palace of Fine Arts 3) Ghost footprint left after the Tactile Dome is removed from the PFA 4) New makers of the Tactile Dome layout at Pier 15 5) Rendering of new Tactile Dome at Pier 15.

The new Tactile Dome will be ready for visitor crawl-throughs this summer, 2013. More info on the Tactile Dome at http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/tactile-dome