Sunday, June 24, 2007

Day 2



Hello!!! So let's start off with mom waking up at four in the morning because it was actually seven in our heads and we started off the day reaaally early. We took a walk over to Pergamino's breakfast joint and had a good hearty, homemade meal. The coffee was self serve and they had a large choice of really homey mug (see image one!). Instead of a cup o' joe, mom had a cup o' bob. We all had eggs, Mike had a crab and tomato omelet, yum! We all had really good juice and a meal and then we headed out. We walked down to Fisherman's Wharf and spent a lot of time at Pier 39. The weather is gorgeous, about 70-80 degrees in the sun, 50 in the shade! Dad was very content with the temperature today! Down at Pier 39 there are a lot of shops and we got to see sea lions on the docks that they have all set up for them and we saw a mom with all her little babies! We walked around the Pier for a while, we had checkout at noon, so we headed back to the hotel with plans of going back to the wharf to go into the aquarium! If you don't know, I love fish. I especially love aquariums, so you can assume that I was very excited to get back. We were able to check in early to the Hilton for one of the rooms, so we did so and then realized how exhausted all of us were! We planned out the rest of the afternoon with time in the middle for a well-needed nap! We headed back to Pier 39 (me, with more comfortable shoes) and got tickets for the aquarium! It was really cool!!! First, there were a whole bunch of round tanks with neat fish, one filled with anchovies. There were some crabs, and an eel and some pencil fish. Then we went up a floor to the tunnels!!! First was the shallow water tunnel, and there were a whole bunch of starfish, rockfish and a REALLY HUGE FISH that was like 7 feet long! Then we went into the deeper water tunnel and there were sturgeon and sharks and rays! It was so cool, they were swimming all around you and we got to see the sharks get fed. It was neato. Then we went down a floor to the touch tanks and got to feel rays, baby tiger sharks, starfish and sea cucumbers. Sea cucumbers are really gross and squishier than anything squishy you could imagine. So the aquarium was really fun! After the aquarium we got some ice cream cones and enjoyed the view of the bay! We wanted to take a trolley to go up to Lombard Street... which is a big street that goes downhill and back and forth and back and forth and basically makes a huge zig-zag. We went to the trolley station and the wait/price was a bit ridiculous so we bit the bullet and decided to walk up the near vertical six blocks to Lombard street. WE ALMOST DIED. But the view was BEAUTIFUL!!!! We walked down Lombard, watching all the brave drivers taking a try at the vehicular playground. After that, we came back to the hotel to relax, and Mike and I conked out for a few hours. We woke back up around six and went to have dinner. Mom and I had delicious salmon and Mike and Dad had Tequila chicken, which apparently was delicious with the fresh salsa. We had our little tour briefing where we were introduced to Peter, the tour guide and now (well they just got back as I was typing) Mike and Dad went to celebrate Mike's 21st and shared a beer. Mom and I are watching awesome time lapse video on the local tv channel. So I'm going to sign off and say goodnight!
I've made a Flickr account for you to see all the other pictures I didn't post: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kategoestocali

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