San Francisco Day Three: Fisherman's Warf, Pier 39, Sea Lions, Aquarium, and Meo's First Carousel Ride

Monday was the first day that Meo and I went exploring on our own. You see, the real reason we all went to San Francisco was Robbie's work paid for him to go to a conference. Robbie is a software developer and this was a huge conference called Oracle Open World that is held every year. Robbie's company paid for all his travel expenses included the conference fees, air fare, hotel, and food. They even allowed Meo and I to come, all we had to pay for was my air fare, and for our food. Since we couldn't really afford to go the west coast, and this was probably the only way we could swing it, we had to jump on the opportunity to go even though we have been trying to save money to buy a house.

So Monday morning, the three of us all went to breakfast at Pat's Cafe. They served amazing food! I had a San Francisco omelet with sour dough bread (San Francisco is known for having great sour dough bread) and home fries, Robbie had french toast, and Meo had a fruit cup as well as a bit of what we were eating. My favorite thing about this cafe was that they served really delicious fruit. Rather than being really heavy on melons, their fruit cup was full of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, bananas and grapes...some of Meo and I's favorite fruits!

San Francisco omelet

French Toast

Fruit Cup

Yummy fruit

I am concerned the Meo appears to be choking/coughing in this photo

Note "Meo's area of influence" as we called the clear area in front of Meo necessary in restaraunts

Next we went our separate ways. Robbie excitedly headed off to his conference, where he did computery things like this:

Fancy

Java mascot

And Mattimeo and I began our big west coast adventure. For our first day, I decided we would stay close to the hotel and explore the famous Fisherman's Warf. I didn't really feel like figuring out all the public transportation stuff just yet and figured there was plenty of stuff for us to fill our day with all within walking distance. I was right!

Fisherman's Warf is huge! It's full of piers, little shops, restaurants, sculptures and street performers.

Fisherman's Warf

Awesome sculpture

I thought this store front was funny

So many ships!

Street Performers

The most famous area of Fisherman's Warf is Pier 39.

View of Alcatraz from Pier 39

View of Alcatraz from Pier 39

I had to save a woman who was trying to get her drink away from this gull

Another view of Alcatraz from Pier 39

It was still fairly early in the morning when Meo and I got there, so there wasn't a lot of people walking around yet. So right when we got into the vicinity of Pier 39 we were able to hear the distant barking of sea lions. Robbie had told me about the sea lions when he came to San Francisco last time, but I had no idea that there was so many that you could hear them from so far away. Being the animal lover I am, I immediately had to follow the sounds and find these sea mammals. Now, you will have to forgive me, I am about to show you a lot of sea lion photos. I promise this isn't even a third of what I took! Besides the redwood forest, these were one of my favorite things to see in San Francisco. There was just so many of them! And they were fascinating to watch! Mattimeo loved them too, and he was laughing at them from his vantage point on my back.

Approaching the sea lions, note Alcatraz in the background

Catching some rays

Meo and I by the sea lions

battling

battling

Sea lions and the San Francisco skyline

a little information about how the sea lions came to be at Pier 39

Next, we went to the Aquarium of the Bay. Really, our trip to San Francisco should probably be called "A Nature Lovers Guide to San Francisco", as most of what we did was somewhat nature related. But by now, that shouldn't surprise you.

Look at that face!

The cool thing about this aquarium in particular was that it had huge, tunnel tanks that you walked through so that you had a 180 degree view. I hadn't been to an aquarium that had this feature since I was Japan, and it was really fun to walk through and have manta rays, sharks, and even divers swim over our heads. Meo seemed fascinated by all the sea life too. He was talking up a storm and pointing to things the whole time we were there.

Divers cleaning the tank

Shark

Ray

On the top most floor, they had some land animals in exhibits, as well as two really cool touch tanks. One had a shark and ray in it (which I did not let Meo put his hand in), and the other was full of starfish. Meo loved standing up and touching the cold, rough starfish in the tank! I loved seeing him investigate and take interest in sea animals.

Chinchilla

For lunch, I wanted something quick. I thought Meo was getting tired and hoped that he would take a nap at the hotel. So I went to a Johnny Rockets and picked up a grilled cheese and fries. I had never to one before, it was pretty cool.

Johnny Rockets at Fisherman's Warf in San Francisco

To my dismay, Meo fell asleep on the short walk back to the hotel. At that point my shoulders were aching and I couldn't keep him on me for his entire nap, so I tried laying him down. But he woke up. Oh well! We shared lunch together, and then he wanted to read about redwood trees in the book I got him at Muir Woods.

My next goal was to find the famous carousal in Pier 39. This really shouldn't have been difficult as it was right in the middle of everything, but for some reason, I kept missing this section of the Pier. So, in my hunt, Mattimeo ended up getting in another nap. Once he woke up, he was ready for his first carousal ride! I wish Robbie could have been there for it, but he insisted that I bring him there on my own. Meo loved it! I picked out a handsome brown horse on the second floor of the carousal. At first, I thought I would sit on the horse with Meo. But once I got him strapped in, he seemed very secure, so I decided to just let him hang on by himself so I could see his face and snap some photos. He had so much fun looking around and he was so happy that every time the horse rose up, he kissed me! He melted my heart!

Carousal in Pier 39

Meo's first carousal ride

Concentrating

Kiss!

So happy!

Meo and I liked the sea lions so much that we ended up going back to see them in the afternoon. I let Meo walk around this time so he could get a closer look.

Checking out the sea lions

Robbie had dinner plans with some people from his work, so it was up to Meo and I to find dinner on our own. I looked through my lonely planet guide and found a vegetarian restaurant that looked promising. It ended up being quite the long walk, but we got to see some more of the city in the process as well as Fort Mason Park.

San Francisco is ridiculously hilly

more hills

more hills

Fort Mason Park

Fort Mason Park

View of Golden Gate bridge from the park

I thought the paths were cool

The place we ate at was called Greens. We got there at 4:30 hoping for an early dinner before Meo got sleepy and cranky, but they didn't start serving dinner until 5. So Meo and I hung out by the water to watch gulls and practice climbing up and down stairs.

Greens

hanging out by the water

The restaurant was a little more classy and expensive than what I had anticipated. But I found a couple reasonably priced items on the menu, and ended up getting a salad and some polenta. To start with they served fresh bread and organic almonds which were delicious. Meo kept busy feeding me almonds.

Starters

My salad

yummy polenta

Meo ate a little bit of bread and a piece of apple, but was not interested in anything else on my plate to my dismay. He also started getting cranky very quickly. He was starting to put things on the ground and get upset when I wouldn't let him grab gobs of food to feed me. I ended up having the waiter pack up my polenta and almonds to go so that we couldn't create a scene.

Cranky baby

Meo was indeed very tired, and so was I! So it was a very long walk back to the hotel because I had to keep bouncing him and singing to him on my back so he wouldn't fuss, which was difficult considering my low energy levels. But we made it back, and Meo fell right to sleep.

Our hotel, a very welcome sight after a long walk home

Sleepy baby!

It was a very full, but fun day for Mattimeo and I in the big city. I enjoyed laying in bed with Meo watching "My Best Friend's Wedding" (which never fails to be on when I am in a hotel) as I drifted off to sleep, waiting for Robbie to join me in our ginormous bed.