The SF Bay Area has some of the best museums around, but getting the whole family inside these world-class doors can get expensive.Now you can take your Mom, your kids, your cousins, or just yourself to any of 17 Bay Area museums absolutely FREE on Mother’s Day 2009 (Sunday, May 10).

The Mother’s Day free event comes courtesy of the Koret Foundation as their 30th anniversary celebration. The foundation’s 25th anniversary event, in 2004, drew 55,000 visitors, so expect crowds.

Here are the options. Choose one, or drive fast and see them all:

Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
Bay Area Discovery Museum, Sausalito
Chabot Space & Science Center, Oakland
Children’s Discovery Museum, San Jose
The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco
M.H. de Young Museum, San Francisco
Exploratorium, San Francisco
Legion of Honor, San Francisco
Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley
Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley
Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco
Oakland Museum of California, Oakland
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
San Francisco Zoo, San Francisco
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose
IMAX movie at The Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose
Zeum, San Francisco