After very little sleep in our down town hotel, we rose early to undertake an hours walk to be at the dock by 7.30am. It was a cold and gloomy day. Was this going to be the first bad day of the trip? We brushed those thoughts away in the cold wind as we traipsed down the empty streets. We arrived early at pier 39 so had just enough time to go and see the Sealions and found a great ‘heart of hope’.
The time had come for our boat trip to see what wild life their was in the Pacific.
We set sail in to the cold dark morning, under the Golden Gate Bridge, to see many birds, porpoises and more sealions and seals (unfortunately we were moving fast and so were the creatures, so photography became difficult)
As the boat went further out to sea the colder and darker it became. The ‘heart of hope’ was not on our side, so it seemed. It’s strange that when things seem grey and dismal, you can start to believe that, that is how life is. But we wouldn’t give up, we kept on looking and then about an hour into the trip the shout came and there they were
A mother and calf. It’s so easy to give up but perseverance usually wins. We looked on in wonder for several minutes as the whales came up and dived back into the water. The two hump backs keeping there distance but there for us to see. The weather may have been gloomy and we may have been cold, but the warm feeling inside was real.
As we made our way back the sun started to shine and there were more and more creatures about, jumping the waves, flying overhead or just floating in the water.
As the temperature warmed, someone had quick nap on the boat!
Back on terra firma and what to do? The sun was shining but we were still cold, time for a drink and plan.
Coffee 
& 
Plan
We decided to wander and view the city. As we did this we realised that there was so much that we couldn’t do it all like:
And we saw but did not go in/on:
So so much, and much more but today was about taking it all in, being amazed by everything around us. However it did strike me how quickly we become immune to the poverty, to the people asking for money, until we saw a group of, I guess, volunteers bringing out food and blankets for those who were in need. This created areas of the city that attracted the homeless, once again I ask myself, with so much wealth in 2018 so many powerful brains, why have we not solved this?
We had walked for miles around the city taking in all the sights and were starting to feel hungry, when we came across an amazing diner. Amazing in many ways.
The first, the place:
The food and drinks:
YUMMY 
The atmosphere:
But most impressive and the thing that brought a tear to my eye was when the member of staff who could sign was called from his job to come and take the order from a couple whose first language was signing. They didn’t have to point and be embarrassed they had a full conversation smiling with pleasantries. That’s how this world should be, accepting and communicating with all.
Just a little time for retail therapy (did you know there are spiral escalators?) before returning to the hotel.
Who knows if we’ll sleep tonight!