Redwoods and Seals

Great day today with the family, after a traumatic day being dragged through shopping malls yesterday - I can certainly say I am not a good shopper!!! Back to today, on the suggestion of my new colleagues, the family and I headed up to Muir Woods, which is only about 25km north from the centre of San Francisco. Muir Woods is a secluded valley that is practically untouched, and is largely forested by giant Redwood trees, several of them that we saw were more than 4 metres across. The photo with the family is one tree, that was easily 6 metres from one side to the other.

We walked about 3km into the forest along the paths and boardwalks provided by the National Parks Service. On the walk we saw about 4 deer, including a reasonably mature buck, a river otter(which I unsuccessfully tried to label as a beaver - wrong apparently as they have the platypus like tail - one to Deb, none to me....) and a chipmunk (which was the favourite of the family) plus lots of birds, trees and banana slugs (not a family favourite). 

The forest floor was really cool and damp, to the extent that my wife's freshly straighten hair was curly again by the time we left. Truly a spectacular little part of the world - and so close to the city, we will definitely come here again. It was possibly the most peaceful time we have had since arriving in San Francisco, other than the occasional group of swedish tourists, fresh off the cruise ship loudly walking past sounding like a gaggle of mad chefs from the Muppets.

From here we drove back into the city and down to Fishingboat Habour to see the sea lions on pier 39. These guys are a comedy act, with all sorts of antics ranging from sleeping in the most uncomfortable looking ways possible (this accounts for about 95% of the seals), then the remainder fighting for their little space in the sun. We had a nice lunch looking over the bay, and then walked down the pier for an ice-cream and some trampolining by Grace.

In all it was a really nice way to finish the weekend. We are certainly starting to work our way around the city and are enjoying it very much. Back to work tomorrow!