Free Admissions to Museums and Cultural Events in San Francisco & Berkeley

With the economy in the United States and elsewhere in shambles and joblessness increasing, my friends and I were looking for places to go to on our vacations and Spring Break that provide the fun without breaking our wallets. Museums, zoos and cultural events offer a variety of activities and things to see or do like: Asian Art Museum, Bay Area Discovery Museum, California Academy of Sciences, Cartoon Art Museum, De Young Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Exploratorium, The Legion of Honor, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley Botanical Garden, Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology, and many more. These places open their doors to the public free of charge one day a month, so if you are interested check out their website for the schedule. Also there are festivals like the Cherry Blossom Festival and Cinco De Mayo that are free and fun for the whole family to enjoy.



The Cherry Blossom Festival in Japan town in San Francisco attracts thousands of people every year.







The Cable Car is one of the tourists' attractions in San Francisco.



People love the Taiko drummers, the children, the dancers...



And the Fire Fighters.





The Segway and motorcycle cops.




Nga and Wendy with a pretty Japanese lady in her beautiful Spring Kimono.



Anh-Vu making a tough samurai face and myself.



A window full of plastic samples of Japanese foods.



From left to right: Bao, Benjamin, Wendy and Nga.



San Francisco Police were everywhere. I have never seen such a "show of force" in dark blue uniforms before.







We also saw some magnificent and sophisticated origami displays in an origami store.









These bonsai trees cost hundreds of dollars each.



Outside the SF Museum of Modern Art. The line wrapped around the building even on a rainy day. Wow! It was a free day after all.





Inside San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This artist found a fountain, and said it was "his found art". No wonder no one was interested in his piece. There were also some rectangular works with one color on each, either in dark brown, gray and blue, or in white, gold and black. I don't understand these kinds of works or what message the artist tried to convey- there was not much else to observe and see, but one piece of wooden-colored rectangle.



Inside SFMOMA store looking out.





The children's corner in the store.



Display of modern art chairs. They are designed for the look not for comfort and use - the chair on the right is made of colorful balloons.





The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. We were not allowed to take pictures of the installation inside.





The Cartoon Art Museum in SF.







The main attraction that day was the artwork by Stan Sakai.



True to the song, I Left My Heart in San Francisco - Heart sculptures are all over in the downtown area and in the Union Square.



The Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology in Berkeley is free every Thursday.

Beautiful weavings and fabrics from South America were on display.



Bao tried his hands at weaving.