(Gabi) Thomas and I are massive Disney fans so when a friend recommended visiting the Disney Family museum in San Francisco’s Presidio we were all ears! The Presidio is a stunning former military base at the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula. The whole area is rather posh and very green and leafy.

And there’s loads of fun military things like this canon.

When you first enter the Disney museum (located in an old military barrack) you see all of the awards Walt Disney won in his lifetime. As you can imagine, there’s loads like this beautiful one for Snow White.

There was a heavy focus on Walt’s animations. This wall shows how incredibly time consuming it was just to draw one short 15 second scene from Steamboat Willy.

This is the first ever sketch Walt Disney made of Mickey, the mouse who started it all.

Look at all the Mickey Mouse merchandise!

Thomas’ favorite Donald Duck was developed as a character who is allowed to lose his temper. Because Mickey was always supposed to stay nice and calm.

This was my favorite part of the exhibition, a huge model of the Disneyland, Disney’s first theme park. The detail is astonishing.

Disney invented Audio-Animatronics for their Tiki Room and Pirate’s of the Caribbean attractions in Disneyland. They’re basically robots which are programmed with movements and sounds. Very revolutionary for the 1960s. The exhibit let you control this talking parrot from the Tiki Room. Very cute.

Another Disney invention that really changed the game in animation was this multiplane camera. This allowed animators to film through several layers of animation so it felt like you were ‘zooming’ into the picture. Or flying over a city, moving through trees.

And here’s the whole gang in front of the museum. A fabulous place that really makes you appreciate how much Walt Disney achieved. Really re-ignited my love for Disney and we really can’t wait to visit the original Disneyland next week!