I recently had the chance to visit San Francisco, CA, to explore, for the first time, America!

A popular tourist destination, San Francisco is known for its cool summer fog, intimidating rolling hills and streets, famous land marks such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz federal penitentiary, cable cars and its massive Chinatown.

The sprawling city of San Francisco was definitely a fascinating and remarkable experience for me, the first time ever I crawled out of my comfortable and familiar shell of Canada. Green, and occasionally blue, cabs will grab and astound your attention, if you are not first thrilled by the steep, descending and ascending hills which many streets and houses are built upon. Expansive and sprawling masses of wire hang overhead, many like gathered cobwebs, (called “lines”), which zero emission buses transport and ride. Its summer time, but it may not feel like it, what with the cool fog subtly creeping and rubbing its chill into all parts of the city, you can barely feel the sun’s dim radiance.

With snowfall even more unlikely than once in a blue moon, gigantic palm trees (and other oppressive kinds of vegetation) grow rampant; these massive trees reining for miles and miles on end, creating awe-inspiring landscapes and parks.

Mistakenly referring to San Francisco’s merry and antique cable cars as “trolleys,” I also discovered San Francisco as a relatively liberal city, lined with many breathtaking harbours, bridges and beaches.

I didn’t get to ride the cable cars though.

My favourite place that I visited was California’s Academy of Sciences, with a planetarium, aquarium, and is one of the largest museums of natural history! It contained some pretty amazing sights, such as an extremely rare albino alligator.

There were impressive exhibits, such the realistic dioramas containing common African creatures, a translucent overhead glass aquarium, an interactive, hands-on display of shore creatures such as sea urchins, starfish and seaweed, a spiralling staircase exhibiting rainforest butterflies and other insects, plus more than enough skeletons, preserved, and stuffed animals to satisfy the biology nerd in me.

Second to the California Academy of Sciences that I thoroughly enjoyed was the San Francisco Zoo!  Of course, it goes without saying, that seeing unusual and fascinating animals are always enjoyable.

However, there were several bizarre and unusual animals worth mentioning, such as the Mandrill. Being related to baboon, males have bright red noses, pale blue cheeks and equally colourful butts.

Not to mention that San Francisco being the liberal city it is, there just had to be a gay penguin couple at the zoo! Pepper and Harry were a male-male couple that reared another penguin, Chuck Norris, together. These penguins also reminded of the hilarious penguin troupe in the movie, Madagascar, standing cautiously aloof atop the rock platform.

San Francisco is definitely the place to visit if you get the chance!