We were quite tired today as last night an alarm went off in our apartment building and woke us up. We had no idea what it was but no one evacuated the building so I guess it was nothing serious, which is lucky as according to Steve I was still asleep for about 10 minutes after the alarm started!

We'd planned to go to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) today as it was included in our CityPass, but there was another gay rights protest going on outside City Hall and the protesters did another march down Market Street so we had to wait to get a bus until they'd moved on a bit. Luckily we have an excellent view of everything from our apartment and can see the bus stop and when the road was clear.

MoMA was really easy to get to on the bus, we just took the F-Line streetcar which goes along Market Street and got off at 3rd Street (near the Virgin Megastore, where we overheard a woman talking on her mobile saying "So you want me to be outside the Virgin?" which Steve found very funny), then it's a very short walk from there.

The MoMA building is quite a distinctive looking building so you can't really miss it. Also located in this area is the Mexican and Jewish Museums with a big angular structure outside.

The museum has 5 floors and includes a wide range of art from classics like Matisse & Dali to much more modern pieces and exhibits. Unfortunately my appreciation of art does not stretch to splodges of paint on canvas, as in my opinion that does not constitute art! So we didn't really like what was on show on the first two floors and we took more photos of the architecture of the building than the "art".

On an upper level there is a whole floor dedicated to photography and there was a photographer who was taking portraits of museum visitors and then these were hung on the gallery walls. I liked the photography exhibits the most, especially the pictures made using telescopes and microscopes.

There was also a floor dedicated to The Art of Participation which examined how artists have engaged members of the public as essential collaborators in the art-making process. There were two TVs side-by-side showing video footage of Yoko Ono's Cut Piece (where members of the audience were invited to cut her clothing until she was naked) that she performed in the 60's and more recently in 2003.

More interesting was the TV showing a naked man and woman standing in a doorway facing each other, with only enough space for someone to squeeze thru. This experimental art captured people's reactions to the naked people and it was interesting that no one was bothered and they just passed thru the doorway. I noticed most of the men faced the pretty woman as they squeezed past!

The last exhibit we saw was by Martin Puryear who used a variety of natural materials like wood, tar, rawhide, and stone to create scultures. These were quite interesting to look at as you could appreciate the amount of work that went into making them. Steve took some photos before the security guard spotted him and told him photography wasn't allowed in this exhibition!

So we pretty much raced around the museum and I think we only spent about 1.5 hours in there. We found sitting out in the sunshine in the Yerba Buena Gardens more enjoyable. It's a really calm and relaxing spot in the hub of a busy city and there were lots of people just chilling out or playing games (we were impressed with the little kid throwing/catching a baseball with his Dad). There aren't loads of flowers or fantastic plants to see, but the water features and fountains are pretty nice. We saw a couple with a professional photographer and we guessed they were having test shots for their wedding, so it's quite a scenic place.

As well as the MoMA there are quite a few other attractions surrounding the gardens. There's the Sony Metreon which is a cinema with IMAX, an Arts Gallery and Theatre, the Moscone Centre used for conferences and exhibitions, the Rooftop Children's Centre and Carousel and Zeum which is a hands-on arts & technology museum where kids can explore animation, sound & video production, live performance, and visual arts.

I definitely wouldn't have paid to get into MoMA, but it's worth going if you have a CityPass and you should go and sit in the gardens if it's a sunny day.