Summer Family Travel: Lookout Cove

The Bay Area Discovery Museum, located at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, welcomes families this summer to its new 2.5-acre "Lookout Cove" outdoor exhibition. Developed for children ages 8 and younger, Lookout Cove provides family fun while visiting San Francisco.

Lookout Cove's hands-on features include a 100-foot-long shipwreck (based on the 1595 San Agustin shipwreck in nearby Drake's Bay), sea cave with tide pools (based on a rocky shore community at neighboring Point Reyes), a Golden Gate Bridge replica "under construction" with 23-foot-tall towers, and a 20-foot-high crow's nest for climbing and viewing the surrounding Bay.

Areas such as the gravel pit are set aside for toddlers and preschoolers, while older siblings imagine steering the shipwreck or excavating cargo like faux Ming Dynasty porcelain. Designed to stimulate curiosity and imagination, Lookout Cove also instills a sense of place-based learning. The sea cave mimics tidal fluctuation and helps children realize how organisms adapt with high and low tides through the use of faux sea stars and anemones that cling to crevices within the rock.

Families also learn the fundamentals of animal architecture while building large-scale spider webs or a wood rat's lodge. These lessons resonate while children don vests and hard hats to rivet, add railings, raise materials in buckets and attach cables to our Golden Gate Bridge "under construction." The Bonnie fishing boat, a favorite among Museum families, makes its return as well.

Lookout Cove involves four local Bay Area artists and one internationally-exhibited artist whose pieces represent natural forces, species and features of surrounding Fort Baker. The artistic works embody the Museum's mission of integrating scientific exploration and discovery with creative expression. Each piece also encourages hands-on interactive and sensory learning through observation, touch and manipulation. Pieces include a maze-like willow branch cottage, a 12-foot-long steel fish skeleton, an 800-square-foot central mosaic with marine images uniting Lookout Cove, a two-ton sculpted frog head, and nine metal raptors mounted on poles that cast their shadows on the ground.

Located at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge, the nationally recognized Bay Area Discovery Museum is a one-of-a-kind indoor/outdoor family museum that offers a full range of activities for children ages 8 and younger. The Museum's unique programs feature hands-on art and science exhibits, performances, workshops, and special events . . . all with a focus on FUN!

Families can explore a life-size shipwreck in Lookout Cove, climb aboard a real fishing boat, encounter a simulated tide pool, net plastic crabs in Bay Hall, create art in Studios 5 & 10, discover science in Wave Workshop, and frolic in the Tot Spot, an interactive learning environment for kids 42" and under.

Hours:
Tuesday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Saturday - Sunday, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Closed:
Mondays, Easter, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year's Day

Phone:
(415) 339-3900

Address:
557 McReynolds Road, Sausalito, Calif.

Web:
www.baykidsmuseum.org

Directions from San Francisco:
Cross the Golden Gate Bridge and exit onto Alexander Avenue. Follow signs to East Fort Baker and the Bay Area Discovery Museum.