Day around the Bay

On Saturday April 14th we got the chance to hang out with our friends the Spoons. We met up with them at a marine mammal center and watched the volunteers feed the sea lions that were there rehabilitating. We also spent some time at the beach, and a discovery play center. As we were driving around we were also able to see some amazing views. Here are some pictures from our day with the Spoons:

Like we said before, the weather was beautiful all weekend.

Sea Lion's lounging at the mammal rescue center.

Ducks enjoying the cool lagoon.

View of the Golden Gate from outside the harbor; San Francisco is in the background.

We barely managed to get set up in time to catch the sunset.

It was so windy on the point that we could not leave our camera on the tripod to shoot both of us.

Enjoying the beauty.

Berkeley

During our trip to San Francisco we stayed in Berkeley for two nights with friends.  Berkeley is one of the more interesting towns I have visited and has earned its reputation.  One of the pfotos below is a sign we came across walking back from a breakfast diner.  The sign proudly proclaims the city of Berkeley as a nuclear free zone.  I find it ironic that a place so fueled by the hippie movement in the '70s and environmentally conscious would shun nuclear power; but even more ironic is that the University of California at Berkeley is still one of the few schools left in the United States with a nuclear engineering program.  Below are pictures we snapped walking around the neighborhood and driving through Berkeley's campus.

The diner we ate at had model trains decorating the walls and one running along a track.

I managed to capture a great shot of Mackenzie and Willie laughing during conversation.

See above for my thoughts on this.

The Golden Gate, prominent across the bay, from the rooftop.

Berkeley in the distance (also from apartment rooftop).

Pier 39

We also explored Pier 39 on our day driving around the city.  We walked around and got some clam chowder, enjoyed the sea lions, took in the views, and got 1.5 pounds of salt water taffy (YUM!).  The sea lions have now been at the pier for over 20 years.  After the earthquake in 1989 destroyed the docks in the area, the sea lions came in and pushed some docks out.  They have been on those docks ever since and are now protected to live their.  Here are some of the pictures we took on the pier: 

Awesome kite shop 

The wind was perfect to capture the lawn decorations from the kite shop.

These two sea lions look like they are cuddling but they were really playing and pushing each other off of the dock. So much fun to watch. 

This guy just decided to hobble over everyone else. The others weren't very happy. 

This was the king of the Sea Lions 

Alcatraz

Yummy Taffy

Ghirardelli Square

One of the things we did while in SF was explore Ghirardelli Square. We were expecting a tour of a grand chocolate factory, you know something along the lines of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Turns out it's a bunch of cool shops and restaurants in Ghirardelli's old buildings. Still pretty cool though. We did get to see the cool buildings, got a free chocolate sample, and got to see some of their machines for making the chocolate. Here are some Pfotos from the Ghirardelli adventure: 

San Francisco

While we were in San Francisco we had some time in between meeting with friends and different activities we had wanted to do to just drive around and take in the sites. The pictures below are some of our shots from these adventures. All over San Francisco there are some great views and cool things. Some of the things we explored were: a windmill in golden gate park, Lombard street, and some awesome views.  

The view from the top of Lombard street

Driving down Lombard street

Ghirardelli clock tower

Looking up Hyde street

View of Alcatraz

Alcatraz

Cool windmill in GG Park 

Alex taking a stab at climbing the windmill

Hiding out in the windmill