Steve recognised the Palace of Fine Arts in the guidebook as it was in the movie Kuffs, so he was quite keen to see it. We had to take 2 buses to get there but that wasn't a problem with the CityPass as you have unlimited use - the only problem was the crazy bus driver who drove too fast and stopped too suddenly! On the second bus (the number 30) we went down Chestnut Street, which I'd heard had lots of nice shops and restaurants and it seemed like a really nice area to spend a day walking around.

The Palace is located in the Marina district which is very upmarket and a very nice looking area to live - all the houses and streets looked safe and clean. It's very easy to find as you first see the dome and the columns and then you see a lake, which surrounds the Palace, with fountains and lots of lovely grass and trees and it's really stunning. There were lots of people there chilling out or having a picnic, which is something we should have done, as it was a lovely sunny day.

Bernard Maybeck designed the Palace and it was originally a temporary structure at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition, which was to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal and also a chance for San Franciscans to rejoice in the rebuilding of the City after the devastating 1906 earthquake. The Palace is one of two buildings of the exposition not to be demolished (the other being the 5-storey red pagoda now located in the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park).

The tinted plaster edifice was so beautiful that it was preserved and rebuilt in concrete in the late 1960s. It's a beautiful building, with its classic Roman rotunda and columns decorated with ladies. Unfortunately the Palace was covered in scaffolding because it is falling apart and they are trying to raise money to restore it to its former glory.

The exhibition hall behind the Palace, which originally housed Impressionist paintings during the exposition, is now home to the Exploratorium, which is one of the world's first hands-on science museums.

Entrance was included in our CityPass so we went in and messed around on lots of different exhibits that covered different subject areas such as light, electricity, weather, vision, colour, sound and motion. Our favourites were the magnetic black sand, the tornado and the giant chair. There was some nasty stuff on display too, like a magnified view of live termites munching their way thru a nice bit of wood and a tank full of dead animals, such as a mouse, a bird and a tortoise, covered in maggots and flies to show the different stages of decomposition.

We got there about 1pm and luckily a bunch of school kids were just leaving so it wasn't too busy and there was loads to see and do for big kids too so we stayed until about 4.30pm. We had lunch in the café but the food wasn't that great so I recommend taking your own picnic and eating it by the lake.

If you exit the Exploratorium and head to your left you can see the Golden Gate Bridge. There is an area called Crissy Fields where there is a stretch of golden sand and green area where a lot of people go running. Even though it was a chilly evening, there were still quite a few people playing on the beach and we even saw one crazy person in the sea!

From here we got some great shots of the bridge as the sun was setting and I think it was one of the best parts of our trip and I highly recommend going there. Pascal told me you can hike all the way to a place called Land's End where there is beautiful scenery and wildlife.