The Great American Road Trip: Day 38 - Laundry adventures and the Exploratorium

I got to do a lot of the "must see" tour activities in previous trips to the Bay area, so this time I happily took it easy and just focused my attention on seeing friends and the one thing I most wanted to see again, the Exploratorium museum. Elena and I started our day by moving my car, since it would be up for ticketing after 10am, and then went to go take her laundry to the laundromat we'd seen the night before. Apparently neither of us had taken a good look at it beyond the "free wifi" sign, because the shop was for sale! We googled the nearest laundromat (not close) and set off towards it, although in hindsight I think I should have suggested we take the car with us because at noon I had to go move it again anyway - city parking problems.

We did, after a surprising amount of confusion, locate the Fillmore Laundromat and figure out what we were doing. The owner was very friendly and helpful, introducing himself, asking about us and where we were from (not in a creepy way), and told us a bit about himself. When he said he had his MBA as his second masters degree, a lot of things about the place made way more sense - everything was set up in a way that felt surprisingly thoughtful, useful, and clean (as someone who hasn't spent much time in laundromats, but still), repair crews were in the process of fixing several machines, and his introduction and the care he took to make a connection so that we would feel welcomed and come back...clearly it all worked, it was a memorable trip to a laundromat!

We were both hungry by the time I got back with the car so we consulted UrbanSpoon and then ignored it in favor of the Korean restaurant we walked past, which turned out to be an excellent choice (Arang Restaurant, if you're near Fillmore and Geary around lunchtime). I had made plans to meet up with Hilary, a friend from Mount Holyoke who moved to the Bay area last week from DC, so I dropped Elena off at her place and started towards the Exploratorium.

The last time I was here, the Exploratorium was over by the Palace of Fine Arts (and of course the iPhone map took me there) but as of April the museum moved to Piers 15/17 on the Embarcadero. While this made parking a car particularly unfun and (in my mind) crazy expensive, the space did allow the museum to really showcase a lot of things that I didn't remember seeing at the old location, and they even have a rotating exhibit area. This time it was focused on case histories of mental health patients at a turn of the century ward, with the contents of each person's suitcase on display with their individual story (the trunks were recently found in an attic), and there was an interesting little section on the DSM and the changes it has undergone over the years. They even had copies of each edition and revision - the first two were more like little booklets and then the third one was the massive tome we know today, in fact the current one (the fifth) looked smaller than that third one.

Hil and I hadn't seen each other in a few years, and after exploring a bit we ended up out on the observation balcony overlooking the bay, just catching up. Not the best way to see the museum, but certainly a good use of our time :) We got kicked out when they were closing at 6, then wandered around for an hour, found a sushi place for dinner, and just kept talking until it was time to walk back to the car and get Hil to the Bart so she could get back to where she's staying. A fantastic way to spend the day!