The Locals Go Tourist

Over the past few weeks - while we're waiting to see if the pets have produced sufficient rabies antibody to allow us to get them back into the country (I swear, it's easier for us to go home than for the pets) - we've been playing tourist and taking one-day excursions to various nearby sights and attractions. We're a few trips behind in our posting; in future we hope to get these up much closer to the day we take the trip.

San Francisco Bay Cruise - Jan 10

The weather around San Francisco, particularly at this time of year, is a bit of a lottery and it's pointless trying to predict whether the Golden Gate Bridge will or won't be blanketed in fog on any given day or hour. As you can see from the photo on the left, we were lucky (either that or we did a hell of a good cloning job in Paint Shop). The cruise, which lasted for about an hour, left late-morning from Pier 39 and took us out to and then under the Golden Gate Bridge. Enroute to the Bridge and looking back to the shore, we could see the Ghirardelli store, Fort Mason, the Presidio and the Palace of Fine Arts.

I, of course, took the obligatory 300 shots of the Bridge - "Bridge on Approach", "Bridge from the Other Side", "Bridge from Underneath", "Bridge with a Yacht", and so on - but you're spared these until we put the photo album pages up

It was quite breezy but sunny offshore and we were escorted to the Bridge by a ragtag flock of seagulls (as seen in the dramatic photo on the right). They make flight look just so easy ... and they just kept turning up in every second shot, sort of like that guy who goes to sporting events and carries the John 3:16 sign. As we headed back to shore the gulls left us for another cruise and we motored past a distant Angel Island (originally San Francisco's quarantine facility), then slowed to view Alcatraz, surely the most effective high-security prison ever devised, closeup.

As a final treat, we witnessed spectacular views of Pier 39's most recent tenants - the Sea Lions. Let's just be kind and say that Sea Lions generally don't do very much and that this day they were taking it easy even by their own subterranean standards. I imagine that even their sloth friends call them lazy. Anyway, their lack of movement did simplify the photographic challenges but, alas, you'll need to wait for the photo album pages to see these visual extravaganzas too.

Originally posted by TC