San Francisco to Bodega Bay

4/25

San Francisco to Bodega Bay

We left our hotel at about 9am this morning and drove to Pier 39. Pier 39 is a tourist trap full of weird shops and restaurants. There was a shop where you can buy salt water taffy by the pound, another which sold only socks, as well as an Irish gift shop and various restaurants. But they have sea lions sitting on floating platforms in the bay. The males are constantly barking and putting on a show, trying to knock each other off the platforms, like an epic game of king of the hill. They also tend to lay on each other when sunbathing, leading to piles of seals.

The seals were definitely my favorite part of Pier 39, but we left there and headed to visit my Aunt Anne. When we were about 20 minutes from Sacramento, in Davis, I realized I had left my laptop in the hotel room. I called Aunt Anne and expressed my sincerest apologies, as well as promises to visit at a later date, and we turned around and drove another 70 miles back to San Francisco.

After braving traffic yet again, including a pile up on I-80 that had traffic stopped for about an hour, and crazy city traffic, we picked up the laptop and headed out over the Golden Gate Bridge. We decided to walk part of the way along it. You really can’t tell by driving over it how big it is. The columns that hold up the suspension are absolutely huge! Once on the suspension portion, you begin to notice the bridge is swaying back and forth as the wind blows as well as the up and down motion of the hundreds of cars passing. It is not a peaceful experience. The cars streak by on one side at 55 miles an hour, while you look down into the depths on the other. The water is 245 feet below, and you are separated from falling by a 4 foot high metal fence.

Leaving the Golden Gate behind, we headed out highway 101 toward Bodega Bay. After finally leaving the freeway behind at Petaluma, we cut across the rolling hills and farms that make up inland California. The cows looked quite happy, eating grass and dandelions. We were fortunate to arrive in Bodega Bay at 5pm, at Doran County Park, and snagged a campsite next to the Bay. After setting up camp and obtaining firewood, we settled in for a chilly evening.

As night fell I decided to try a couple night photographs with the help of my lovely assistant. After that, it was bedtime.