We were on the bus driving along the road. My best friends Jacqueline and Evan kept asking me the same exact annoying question again and again.

“Are we there yet?”

“No.”

“Are we there yet?”

“No stop it you two.”

“Are we there yet?”

“No. We. Are. Not”

“Are we there yet?”

“NO.”

“Are we there yet?”

“N- Wait a minute.”

I hesitated as I looked at the structure standing in front of me.

“You have the window seat. And we know you are going to say no but are we there yet?” Asked Evan.

“Yes.” I replied in awe at the site before me.

“Wow, didn’t see that coming.” Evan said despite her shock.

We had finally arrived at The Academy of Sciences, San Fransisco, California. We were visiting there for a school field trip. I was  in third grade at the time so I tended to exaggerate a lot in my speech. Like I did today:”THIS IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I HAVE SEEN OUT OF ALL THE SCHOOL TRIPS WE HAD. HOW CAN YOU NOT BE EXCITED. THIS IS LIKE A DELICACY FOR OUR EYEBALLS. SOMEONE PLEASE HOLD ME.” I said that in my mind so no one else had heard.  Luckily my two friends seemed to have had the same thought because while we waited for the chaperone we started babbling about how amazing the architecture was how excited we were to go inside. Since my dad and another chaperone were both chaperoning , it took forever for him to get there.

When we entered a gargantuan skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex greeted us, it’s feet looked like it was in the position of pouncing at it’s prey. It’s mouth had rows and rows of sharp jagged teeth, I could almost imagine it ripping up a herbivore. As we walked closer I realized just how small we really were compared to this magnificent carnivore. The dinosaur itself is 40 feet( 12 meters.) While the average human’s height is 5 foot. So it is exactly 8 times taller than most people. Either way, it would tower above you like a skyscraper. As we continued on, my dad decided to let us explore a while with the other chaperone, and our teacher while he would meet us at the Early Humans Exhibits.

As we continued walking, we came to a stop at the rain forest dome. It was basically a large sphere built into the structure. But it was designed to look and feel exactly like a rain forest. Inside there were trees everywhere. There was a bridge and we started walking, it spiraled all the way around the sphere. ending at the bottom. At the top there were a bunch of areas where you were allowed to look at the view and sights. I stopped and looked. Below there was a pond with a cream colored crocodile swimming and greeting it’s visitors. The temperature was sticky and humid. The heat made my clothes stick to my callused and a sweaty skin. But what really made me want to stay was the butterflies fluttering endlessly everywhere. A beautiful blue and black butterfly land on my outstretched finger. It had actually stayed there for about 5 to 10 minutes. My other friends attempted to get a butterfly but had failed multiple times until finally a butterfly landed on each of there fingers and stayed there. For 4 seconds.

As we continued to walk we slowly started to merge into the underwater tunnel. I watched as I slowly walked through the underwater tunnel. I saw fish of all types. But my favorite was a beautiful whale shark swimming along in the distance. When we reached the end of the tunnel, we arrived at the entering area of the aquarium. There were tanks and walls of glass everywhere. One of my favorite ones was a tank that took up an entire wall. It was filled with small fish swimming through the murky waters. As we looked around, I noticed that unlike other aquariums, they filled the small tanks with natural rocks and sea stones just like the large tanks, instead of artificial colored “rocks.”

About an hour or two had passed since we arrived. The entire grade was called for lunch in one of the main rooms near the entrance. As I ate my sandwich and water, I made plans with my friends on what we should visit next with the maps we were each given. I put my trash in the recycling and walked along. We next visited the Space and Exploration area. (Since each place in the museum was so large, it took us a while to look at each of them.) We saw a small place where you could try on a space helmet. It felt huge and heavy against my skimpy shoulders. My friends and I next went to a small spacecraft where you could climb in and sit in the seats. The seats felt leathery and firm. The craft itself was small and tight. It had at least a thousand buttons. Since there wasn’t much in that exhibit, when went to the Early Humans Exhibit, and met my dad there.

My dad led me and my friends to a glass case that had skulls from each human species. The Homo Erectus had small skulls. Thus leading them to have small brains as well. The Homo Neanderthalensis( or just The Neanderthals) had large thick skulls, therefore encasing a fairly large brain. Finally the Homo Sapiens had medium sized skulls, and supporting a bit of a smaller brain. But definitely larger than a Homo Erectus’s. Each skull( besides the Homo Sapiens skull) looked extremely old and aged. It looked almost tarnished. Beside the glass case was a taller and thinner one. But encase inside was the skeleton of one of the first humans( Homo Erectus.) It was very short and looked extremely skinny and frail. We looked around some more and read the information given in each case and artifact. The next exhibit we went to was the animals one.It showed there skeletons and fossils. They even showcased a couple dinosaurs.

It was 1 o’clock. Time to leave. As we boarded the bus, I looked at the museum one last time before I settled in my seat.