Saturday morning we eventually surfaced at around 11ish after a good long sleep. Took a walk down to the waterfront, where we found a Farmer's Market was on. Spent a little while walking around there, and grabbed some breakfast, then continued walking along the waterfront past all the piers up to Pier 39, where all the shops and restaurants are. Had a little walk around, then Gooch heard what sounded like a Sea Lion. On further exploration, it turned out to be hundreds of Sea Lions, all in one little area next to Pier 39. Apparently they started turning up there after the 1988 earthquake, and most haven't left since! Walked back into town and caught the BART (metro service) over to Oakland as we were going to the Arts and Soul Fest there. Not that it was really our thing, but it just so happened that The Wombats were playing there so we thought we'd go check them out again as it was only $10 admission. The hiphop band on before were pretty terrible, but after a few technical issues The Wombats played a great set, probably better than the one in Portland. In the evening, we had dinner in a diner then went for a few drinks in a few bars.
On Sunday we had a fairly leisurely morning, then Mark heard a call in reception saying they had two free baseball tickets if anyone wanted them. Luckily he was first up, so that afternoon we went to watch Oakland Athletics vs. Minnesota Twins. Having never been to a baseball game before, I wasn't sure what to expect. It turned out to be a thoroughly one sided affair, as Oakland were well and truely beaten 12-4. My first impressions of baseball are that it's interesting from time to time, but it does get fairly boring for long periods. That evening we went to a place that claimed to be 'famous' for steaks. We weren't particularly impressed though. Maybe they're famous for being bad? Grabbed some Ben & Jerry's afterwards and headed back to the hostel for an early night.
On Monday we had to be up bright and early (5.15am!!) as we were going to Yosemite National Park for the day. We had been told that we would be picked up sometime between 6am and 7am. Annoyingly we weren't picked up until well after 6.30am so we could have had a bit longer in bed. I certainly needed it; I slept most of the way to Yosemite, until the tour guide's bad driving woke me up as he consistently hit every curb when going round the bends up one of the
hills. Arrived in Yosemite to beautiful mountainous scenery all around us. Saw all the best sights and took loads of pictures (they should be up on facebook soon). Unfortunately the two main waterfalls (Bridal Veil Fall and Yosemite Falls) were dried up, but that didn't really detract from the beautiful views on offer. Had lunch, bought some souvenirs, then started to head back towards San Francisco. Stopped off at a Giant Sequoia grove on the way back and had a little hike through the forest there, taking more pictures along the way. Arrived back in San Francisco at about 9pm after a long day, so chilled out for a bit then went to bed.
Tim