Boxing Day in San Francisco

     After waking up at the crack of 4AM today, taking a very overpriced taxi to the airport and sitting in cattle class seating for 5.5 hours, I finally made it to San Francisco.

     The only thing I wanted to do was tour Alcatraz Island but after taking a train & a street car to get to Alcatraz landing I found out that the tour is sold out until Thursday (today is Sunday!).  Bummer.  So I decided to walk around the waterfront and see Fisherman's Wharf at Pier 39.  The place is a tourist trap but I had a great time watching the sea lions bask in the sun on the floating docks at the pier.

    Apparently there are relatively few California Sean Lions at the pier this year (just a few hundred compared to 1,200 last year) and everyone is very concerned about them.  The current theory is that they disappeared because the fish stocks have diminished this year and the sea lions go where the fish are.  Another theory is that they disappeared before the big earth quake :)

     Otherwise, it was a nice day spent in San Fran.  Can't believe I only have 2 more hours left until my 13.5 hour flight to New Zealand.