The annual Jellyfish Cotillion

Jellyfish, along you came,

and right away I'm stung.

Sweet words I long to whisper,
But you've paralyzed my tounge.

The jellyfish in the top picture are real, and can be found at the Aquarium of the Bay at Pier 39. The ones in the bottom picture are the tackiest souvenirs I saw in San Francisco, and can be found at a shop at Pier 39 and possibly in someone's home.

So, San Francisco has a small aquarium. It's not the Shedd, but it's a fun (if you're a science nerd, and I am) way to spend an afternoon.

The Under the Bay exhibit is super-cool. You get to walk through two long-ass tunnels smack dab in the middle of two different Bay environments. The first one is a shallow water habitat, and has stuff like sea anemones, starfish, and the prettier Finding Nemo-esque fish. The second, a deep water habitat, has the bigger, scarier stuff like sharks and sturgeon. There's also a gigantic swirly school of anchovies, which is also sort of scary if you've got a thing about swarms of stuff (yep) or you've gotten sick from eating anchovies (done that too).

Even cooler is the Touch the Bay exhibit at the end. There are a couple of shallow pools overseen by aquarium-ologists with bat rays and sea urchins and rays and starfish and leopard sharks that you can touch. You get to touch a fucking shark.

If you time your visit right (we didn't, damnit), you can you can go to an ocean-themed demo that will probably involve watching the animals eat.