Day 4: California knows how to party

Day 4 of our California adventure took us into the city: the one and only San Francisco. It was Tom's first time, so he was taking pictures like crazy.

My uncle dropped us off at Pier 39 so we could walk around and hang out until it was time for our 3:30 tour out in the bay.

 

Tom and I walked around and looked at all the little shops along the pier (to include Houdini's Magic Shop where we purchased some fake dog poo for my sister! More on that later.)

Then we enjoyed some fish and chips on the pier while watching these sea lions.

     

ALCATRAZ . . .

It wasn't until later in our trip that I found out they don't keep prisoners here anymore! (Now it's just used for tours, which I have no desire to take.)

They had all kinds of Alcatraz paraphernalia in the gift shops. I still think Tom should have bought the scrubs with the black and white jail stripes. Haha. Just kidding.

We also got to watch some pretty sweet street performers. . .


This guy played the guitar, the harmonica, and sang while playing the drum set strapped to his back by moving his arms and legs around. It was pretty impressive!

These guys paint themselves silver and stand so still they look like statues or robots. Seriously, you can't even tell they are breathing. It's amazing. Tom thought they were quite entertaining.

My first experience with these guys was when my Nana took me into the city when I was 5 or 6 years old. This one guy was painted a copper color, and I seriously thought he was a statue. I went up and approached him and much to my surprise, he moved! I think I was pretty scared.

We should have given this guy some money. I still feel kinda bad about that.

Then began our eco-tour of the bay! Woohoo! We boarded a catamaran called the "Kitty Kat" (isn't that a cute name?) and began our tour. I was a little nervous about getting seasick, but had no trouble at all. The ride was so awesomely awesome!

We sailed out underneath the Golden Gate Bridge and had some amazing views. . .

Tom and I got as close to the front of the boat as we possibly could. At one point we hit some pretty large wakes from other ships out in the bay.
I got a little too close to the edge and this was the result . . .

One of the joys of having glasses.

We were able to see lots of different wildlife such as birds, porpoises, and kite surfers.

The kite surfing looked pretty sweet. But I doubt I possess the upper-body strength that would be required for the sport.

The captain of the boat even spotted spray from a Minke whale at one point, but we were on the other side of the boat and missed it. Bummer!
Apparently, Minke whales (pronounced "minkey") are pretty elusive, so the fact that one was even spotted during our tour made me feel quite privileged.

My aunt and uncle met us down at the pier after our boat tour and we wandered around some more as we searched for a place to eat dinner; crab to be specific. We found a cool place right on the water which had delicious food and garlic-roasted crab. Prying out the crab meat was kind of tedious, but it tasted so good! 

After dinner, we walked to Ghirardelli Square where we indulged in ice cream sundaes!
(Yep, more eating!)

What better way to end a great day?