Day 127 … San Francisco

Today, we will take on San Francisco. The weather is sunny, but slightly chilly. After waking up in Half Moon Bay, we hit the road headed north along Rt 1. We weren’t far from the San Francisco city limits. Before long, we made it to the Fisherman’s Wharf area. We found a spot to park along the street for an hour and decided to go out and explore Pier 39 and the local shops. Our first stop was at a camera shop where we picked up a Polarizing Lens for our camera. This lens reduces glare and acts as a filter for the camera. Across the street, we walked down Pier 39 to see the San Francisco Sea Lions. The sea lions have called Pier 39 home for 21 years now. In fact, yesterday was the 21st anniversary of their arrival at the pier. Ironically, the seals had been scared off by some construction nearby and didn’t show up for their own anniversary party. When they first appeared 21 years ago, most of the locals didn’t like the sea lions because they were noisy and smelly. Once the tourists started coming to visit the sea lions, everything changed. Now, they are a free family-friendly attraction for all. Next on our walk, we stopped at an antique arcade. It was really neat to walk around the building checking out all kinds of games from the past century.

We spent the afternoon exploring Golden Gate Park. This oasis in the city is 3.5 miles long and a half mile wide making it slightly larger than the famous central park in New York. The weather was nice and plenty of people were out and about in the park today. Even in January, there were flowers blooming. We even spotted a few hummingbirds on our walk. We walked around the conservatory, past the Rose Garden and along a small lake. It was dark by the time we finally got back to the car. Tonight, we treated ourselves to some hot, fresh off the line Krispy Kreme doughnuts.