California Day 3

We considered doing a hike the morning of our 3rd and final day in the Sequoia National Park – Jay had seen beautiful pictures of the lakes the trails lead too. We decided against it, because it would have eaten up too much time, and it would have been really cold. We would have had to get up at 5 in the morning, check out then hike.

Which meant that there would be no shower after the 4-5 hour hike, just straight to the car and riding for 5 hours to San Francisco in our sweat.

Um…no.

I promised Jay that for our 10th anniversary, we’d come back to California and spend the entire week in Sequoia.

On the way out, Jay had to stop and take a million more pictures of the scenery. Good thing I had my word find puzzle easily accessible in the glove box.

After about 5 hours on the road – we finally made it.

Beginning on the Bay bridge, Jay started complaining.

“I hate this place, I hate this place!”

Actually, he just meant he hated the traffic. Or so he later said when I told him it was our anniversary and he needed to have a good attitude.

We checked into our hotel, and then headed towards Pier 39. We weren’t really sure what to expect, we just knew that it was a popular tourist destination.

Since we weren't too impressed with the shops at the pier, we walked toward the actual pier and (once again) Jay decided it was a perfect spot for a million photos.

We had noticed a couple of people in the same area as us, but we just assumed they were taking a breather from the crowds and enjoying the view like us.  Then I looked down at what they were pointing too.
 

We'd been standing there at least 15 minutes before we had noticed them.  As we watched, the one reminded Jay of me.  It kept "snuggling on in" as we call it.  He was taking his nose and rubbing it in the neck area of the sea lion he was laying on top of.  It was incredibly cute!  (And I'm not even that big of a fan of animals.  Especially stinky ones.)

As we walked along the pier, I noticed a smell that was growing more and more obnoxious as the more we walked in that direction.  When we rounded the corner, we saw the source.

From what I understand, when the sea lions first started to gather here, the city tried to shoo them off.  The area where they were hanging out was very expensive to construct.  The sea lions became such a tourist attraction (they have risers built to get a better view) that the City decided to just leave them alone.

Most of them were just sunning/sleeping, but one territorial sea lion caught Jay's attention.

He would knock any sea lion that tried to get on to his square off.  While he was distracted with one, another would climb on and he would have to go take care of him.  It was odd to see him that agreessive, considering he was surrounded by sea lions not really doing much of anything.

 
We wandered back towards the shops and noticed a performer mid-routine.  We stopped and watched awhile. 
 

Street performers are very common in Fisherman's Wharf, as are pan handlers.  One had a sign that said "Due to inflation, I can no longer buy weed.  Can you spare $1?"  Another offered Jay a hit as we walked by.  When Jay turned him down, he said "Cops don't care, its just weed."

My young, naive nose now knows what pot smells like...

As we were souvenir  shopping, Jay noticed a shop he'd like to go in, but I grabbed him by the ear and pulled him away.

We found a romantic spot on another, much less crowded, pier.  After another round of pictures, Jay decided to...well...not sure really what he was doing...

As the sun set in the bay, we got back to being romantical. 

 
We walked hand in hand down the sidewalk.  As we passed some street performers, some said to us "beware the bush man!"  About 3 steps later a guy holding some shrubbery jumped out and scared us.  Well me.  I screamed so loud that the people on the other side of the (four lane) street stopped to see what was happening.  Jay offered to buy  me this t-shirt, but I declined.

Apparently he's the talk of San Francisco.

Then it was time for dinner at Boudins, a famous sour dough bakery. 
 

After dinner we walked back to our room and called it a night.

Happy Anniversary baby!!