May 1
Today we said goodbye to the ocean up close. We saw the Black Scoters who were always on the waves in front of the motel. The ocean was high and blustery and sent spray up over the rocks regularly. We had listened to the pounding all night long. The power of the ocean is awesome.
We headed directly to Muir Woods which is north of San Francisco. Muir Woods is renown for it Giant Redwoods and these are amazing as one can see in the attached photo. We were looking for one particular bird, the Pacific Wren. We started looking when we got there and then we saw a fellow doing point counts and we asked him. He found one on a wild fern. We had great looks however briefly and did not see another Pacific Wren for the rest of the morning. By 10 am bus loads of people were arriving from the cruise ships and tour buses. I counted 12 buses when I left. The trails were crowded and the toilets were out of order and so they brought in portapotties and lots of them. It was like a zoo. When I got to our car in the parking lot, a man came and asked me for the parking spot. We left at 11 am with the one lifer. We were very happy with that lifer.
We birded a bit next in the Golden Gate Parks and had a picnic lunch in the car. Then we checked into the Holiday Inn at Fisherman's Wharf here and parked the car. We then took the hop on hop off bus tour. We crossed the Golden Gate bridge for the fifth and sixth time today on the open top of the double decker bus. It was sooo cold and windy up there and we were glad we did it. Tomorrow we are going back on the bus and stopping at the Rose Gardens to bird and then to have tea at the Japanese Tea House.
When we were done with the bus tour we walked to Pier 39 to see the Sea Lions on the docks outside. There were tons of them and we watched them for quite a while in the cold. Some of the Sea Lions just slept, others crowed or called out and others fought each other. It was quite interesting to see. By then we were frozen and we had gloves and hoods and windbreakers on. We went for a fish supper at the Fish Market and it was very good. I had the Teriyaki Salmon, Connie has fish and chips and Jane had Clams with linguini. We walked over to Ghirardelli's chocolates and I tried out their ice cream, it was sublime. The evening was typical San Francisco weather, don't leave home without a windbreaker and a fleece, you will need it plus gloves. It gets so cold so fast and it is always windy here each time I visit the place.
We did a lot of walking this morning and we all got chilled to various degrees on the bus, so tomorrow we will have to dress up for the weather better.
Our room is pretty big and we have a wonderful night view of the Oakland Bridge and the financial district's buildings. We can see homes up the sides of the hills of SF and on the bus tour we saw the street where the car chase was filmed for the movie named Bullet. So it was fun playing tourist. Connie had never been in SF before and we thought we would at least spend some time doing some tourist things. Tomorrow it is back to birding. Here are some of today's photos.
Today we said goodbye to the ocean up close. We saw the Black Scoters who were always on the waves in front of the motel. The ocean was high and blustery and sent spray up over the rocks regularly. We had listened to the pounding all night long. The power of the ocean is awesome.
We headed directly to Muir Woods which is north of San Francisco. Muir Woods is renown for it Giant Redwoods and these are amazing as one can see in the attached photo. We were looking for one particular bird, the Pacific Wren. We started looking when we got there and then we saw a fellow doing point counts and we asked him. He found one on a wild fern. We had great looks however briefly and did not see another Pacific Wren for the rest of the morning. By 10 am bus loads of people were arriving from the cruise ships and tour buses. I counted 12 buses when I left. The trails were crowded and the toilets were out of order and so they brought in portapotties and lots of them. It was like a zoo. When I got to our car in the parking lot, a man came and asked me for the parking spot. We left at 11 am with the one lifer. We were very happy with that lifer.
We birded a bit next in the Golden Gate Parks and had a picnic lunch in the car. Then we checked into the Holiday Inn at Fisherman's Wharf here and parked the car. We then took the hop on hop off bus tour. We crossed the Golden Gate bridge for the fifth and sixth time today on the open top of the double decker bus. It was sooo cold and windy up there and we were glad we did it. Tomorrow we are going back on the bus and stopping at the Rose Gardens to bird and then to have tea at the Japanese Tea House.
When we were done with the bus tour we walked to Pier 39 to see the Sea Lions on the docks outside. There were tons of them and we watched them for quite a while in the cold. Some of the Sea Lions just slept, others crowed or called out and others fought each other. It was quite interesting to see. By then we were frozen and we had gloves and hoods and windbreakers on. We went for a fish supper at the Fish Market and it was very good. I had the Teriyaki Salmon, Connie has fish and chips and Jane had Clams with linguini. We walked over to Ghirardelli's chocolates and I tried out their ice cream, it was sublime. The evening was typical San Francisco weather, don't leave home without a windbreaker and a fleece, you will need it plus gloves. It gets so cold so fast and it is always windy here each time I visit the place.
We did a lot of walking this morning and we all got chilled to various degrees on the bus, so tomorrow we will have to dress up for the weather better.
Our room is pretty big and we have a wonderful night view of the Oakland Bridge and the financial district's buildings. We can see homes up the sides of the hills of SF and on the bus tour we saw the street where the car chase was filmed for the movie named Bullet. So it was fun playing tourist. Connie had never been in SF before and we thought we would at least spend some time doing some tourist things. Tomorrow it is back to birding. Here are some of today's photos.
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