San Francisco

I don't know what it is about this city, but I enjoy visiting it every chance I have. This past weekend, my parents and I journeyed over to the city. The pulse, the energy, the city itself is so much fun to be surrounded by it all.

We made the day into an adventure so we decided to take the ferry from Oakland into Pier 41 in San Francisco. The Bay Bridge or Oakland Bridge was closed for the holiday weekend. They had removed 300 feet of bridge so they could replace it. But the ferry ride was so much fun! Being out on the water and pulling into the piers at the Ferry Building and Port of San Francisco and Pier 41 made the day perfect before it even began.

We walked Pier 39 which is one of the biggest tourist place in San Francisco. A person can rent bikes to tour the city or ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. Other activities include buying tickets for cruises along the bay, tour of Alcatraz Prison, ferries to Angel Island or Sausilito and other options.

If you listen closely, you can probably hear almost every language in the world. People from all over the world come there to visit and their native language mixed with the regulars makes this place a virtual world in itself. I have heard Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, and other languages by just walking the pier.

The biggest attraction at this pier are not the fancy tourist stores, the boats, the restaurants but more a native of the bay. The sea lions. They have their own homes in the pier and they are so fascinating to watch.

More than 50+ sea lions call Pier 39 their home. The city has placed floating ramps for these animals to lay out in the sun or sleep. You can hear their honking across the pier so you know they are there. Once you are there, you will see a mirade of responses of the sea lions. Some are sleeping, others are sunning. Some are standing on their fins honking at the visitors while others are fighting against one another. Some slip into the water while others jump onto the ramps. The one thing that cracks me up is their fighting. This past weekend, I watch two sea lions play King of the Mountian on one ramp. They were the only two on the ramp and yet one sea lion would not share it with another. They would shove, push, butt the other one until one of the fell off. It was quite an interesting site.

This time they had babies at the ramps. I watched one little sea lion swim through the water. He got to the ramp in front of me. He wanted so badly to get on it but I do not know if he was just too tired or the ramp was too high. He would put his head on the corner and just sit there for a moment. The a little fin would come up on the ramp, yet he just could not get up. He finally went to another corner that was resting in the water and pulled himself up on the ramp. He found a spot to rest on the ramp and stayed there.

Ferry ride. Great lunch. Sourdough bread. Just walking the strip. Watching the fog roll in throughout the bay. It was a great day. I love San Francisco.