Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf

Note: if you want to start at the beginning of this 3-day weekend, go to Day 1.

After the ball game "yesterday" (Day 2, June 9th) we relaxed at the Sheraton Hotel and then spent the obligatory two painful hours in the Shell Vacation boiler room at The Cannery on Beach and Leavenworth Streets, where they played tag team trying to get us to buy "vacation points." My queries about the price of points were always deflected to what we would get for points, so I still don't know their price, but don't much care. They finally gave up on us at 9:30 p.m.

"Today" we got up early to tour Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 (sans rain) before our noon checkout from the hotel. We skipped breakfast and instead had coffee and a muffin at a little coffee shop near the entrance to the pier. We easily killed the two hours before the rest of the activities on the pier opened at 10 o'clock, by looking into store windows on the ground level on our way to the end of the pier and then continuing the same along the upper decks until we were again at the pier entrance. Then we made another quick end-to-end tour with everything open and, more importantly, with the sun shining.

The entrance to the pier at the beginning of our second round, just as shops were opening.

A bit earlier, looking back toward the entrance and downtown San Francisco.
Coit Tower and the Trans America pyramid are prominent in the skyline.

Approximately the same scene taken on our second pass, with a blue sky and sunshine.

A passer-by offered to take our picture just before I took the above shot.
(It's interesting how the modest increase in exposure has turned the sky white).

The two-story merry-go-round, from the upper deck looking toward the bay.

Partially-zoomed view. It had just opened and was turning.

The Oakland Bay Bridge divided by Yerba Buena Island,
looking east from the upper deck.

Alcatraz as a freighter passes and a seagull heads my way,
taken from the end of the upper deck.

Closer view of Alcatraz prison.
Work shops on left, shipping dock on right with docked tour boat.

Seal platforms, taken from the west side (left, facing the bay) of Pier 39.

Close-up of the seagull in the foreground of the above picture.

This black seal is looking for some action -- the seal below him (her?) has opened one eye.

More aggression has succeeded in getting both eyes open,
and the ire of the next seal, who has raised her head and flipper as if to to say, "Knock it off."

Mary snapped this on the bridge to Pier 39, near the entrance to the pier.
I'm clutching under my jacket a shopping bag I'm holding for Mary to free her hands.

Fisherman's Wharf looking west from the bridge to Pier 39 (about the same spot as above).

Same spot, with camera turned and zoomed a bit.

We were going to use the two $25 coupons given to us by Shell Vacations to have lunch at Neptune's Palace on the end of Pier 39 but we weren't too hungry. Instead, we had hot dogs bought from the red stand in the above picture and ate them on a nearby bench which was shielded from the wind by a high shrub. We then walked back to the Sheraton, checked out, and were on the Bay Bridge less than an hour later, heading east and back home to Lake Wildwood.

We'd had a great weekend and the trip home was a pleasant drive with no backups, even though it was Friday afternoon.