Jeremy and I were convinced that the puffer above was broken. All it did was swim into the glass of the tank. Poor thing. She wants out!

By the time we made it over to the penguins, I think they were all tuckered out. Most of them were napping, or just standing there and staring off into space. Do penguins have third eyelids that allow them to sleep with their eyes open? I'm going to Google this....
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Yes, yes they do. So they were probably just sleeping standing up.

There were two penguins doing... um... naughty activities, but I decided to not share the penguins' intimate moment. Ha! My sister, Jeremy, and I had a good laugh about it though.

I loved the Sandy Shore & Aviary exhibit, because I love looking at all of the different birds. The bird pictured below is a phalarope.

One of the other birds featured was the western snowy plover, which reminded me of the adorable birds in the Disney Short, "piper".PS, the bird in the Disney Short is a sandpiper.

After dinner, we did drive out to an ice cream place, so I was pretty happy with how the night ended! Thank you, family, for showing us the West Coast, and we can't wait to be back! Love you all.

After we finished our ice cream, we headed over to this gift shop called Wish Gifts, which was right across the street. It's a super cute store and I highly recommend it for gift shopping. We ended up buying a birthday present for Jeremy's youngest brother, Joshua, and we bought ourselves a new coin bank that looks like a globe.

We walked down the rest of the block, crossed back over to the other side of the street, and went to this coffee shop called Ink!. 

We woke up early the next morning after staying at Yosemite View Lodge the previous night. We had no idea how spectacular the view was from the lodge until the morning, as it was dark when we checked in at 11pm the night before. We were greeted by the sunrise and cliff faces, and it couldn't have been a better start to the day.

You feel like you are already in the park before you technically are.

It was definitely worth it to make it down to the river. It was beautiful seeing the river, which was low, trinkle its way around the boulders and rocks.

We even found a big rock to climb up on, for a better view, and of course, for poses.

Jeremy and I stood at the base of Yosemite Lower Falls with my mom and Katy. Then, thinking Jeremy was following me, I set off unto the woods to the left of the viewpoint to try to get a different angle of the waterfall. I had barely walked into the woods and turned around when I noticed he was not following me, and he was no longer within my view. He had gone somewhere else. I decided to continue hiking my way up towards the base of the fall. Eventually I made my way back out towards the open rocks, and who do I see on the other side? My bearded man.

We got to the park in the early afternoon, so the sun was quite fierce. We got to the park entrance gate, and my parents purchased the America the Beautiful pass as Jeremy's and my Christmas present. The pass allows you to have free admission to any National Park for one year. 

If you plan on visiting more than one National Park within a year, I highly recommend getting the America the Beautiful pass. It only costs $80.00 which is usually about the same or cheaper than two admission fees into different parks. For example, the admission fee into Sequoia National Park costs $35 for a vehicle, and is the same for Yosemite National Park. We were just on vacation, and happened to go to two national parks. For $10 more, the annual pass is well worth it. 

Jeremy and I live relatively close to Rocky Mountain National Park where I plan on adventuring a few times this year. Let's say I go three times over the course of the next year. A vehicle day pass at RMNP is $25, which means that would be $75 spent in admission fees alone. Jeremy and I are also going to Yellowstone for my birthday in June. Yellowstone's admission fee is $25.

So, basically, instead of spending $170 this year on national park passes, the America the Beautiful pass is just $80. Get one! It's worth it if you plan on visiting the parks.

Okay, I'm done trying to sell you on that point :P I just love my pass!

Sequoia National Park is a beautiful drive, even before you get to the famous Sequoia trees. I highly recommend soaking in the view. Plus, a lot of people don't know that Sequoia National Park is also home to the tallest mountain in North America - Mount Whitney! That is on the completely opposite side of the park from the trees, so we did not go and visit the mountain. Maybe next time! PS - the mountain in the above photo is NOT of Mount Whitney. I believe it is Mount Eisen - I could be wrong! If anyone knows what the snow-capped mountain is in this image, please feel free to comment!

The rock formation in the foreground is known as "Castle Rocks"... naturally.

The tree above with the sun shining next to it and the one on the left directly above this sentence are both images of General Grant.

In the Grant Grove loop, there is this fallen tree called the Fallen Monarch. The tree was hollowed out by a fire more than 300 years ago before toppling over. The fallen tree served as shelter to cattlemen who later built a cabin very close by, a saloon, and a horse stable! Now it is a tourist attraction that one can walk through. The right image above shows Jeremy standing in front of one end of the Fallen Monarch.

When the family, Jeremy, and I were there, it was beginning to get dark, so it was very black inside the tree. I don't believe I would have noticed this heart shape hole on the top curvature of the fallen tree if it wasn't for the setting sun shining through it.

The following image after shows the other end of the Fallen Monarch.

The two trees above are more of the Giant Sequoias, and the one below is another image of General Grant. You can tell by the one significant branch that reaches out towards the sun in the image below. 

The one thing my mom really wanted to tackle on this day trip to San Francisco was to see Ghirardelli. Since it was not tourist season, we were actually able to park in the parking garage underneath Ghirardelli Square, which is only a few blocks away from the wharf!

Doesn't my mama look so pretty?

We went into Ghirardelli, of course. It was still pretty early in the day, so we didn't get anything, but we all agreed we would stop by again before getting in the car to go home... after all we were parked right there anyway!

We wandered onto Hyde St. Pier, which houses a few historical ships and acts as a museum of sorts on your way out to the ticket booth. You can pay to actually tour the boats, but we decided that seeing them from the pier was good enough.

​PS - I don't think that seagull paid the admission fee ;)

The boat below is called C.A. Thayer, and I pulled the following from Google:

Here is the link to the National Park Service web page on the ship if you would like to read more: ​https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/historyculture/c-a-thayer.htm

We continued our way down to Pier 39 (which was the end goal for our trip to the wharf). We stopped at these crab stations to check out the menus, but I have to say - everything is so overpriced! When Jeremy and I visited Oregon and Washington, we could get fresh seafood for much better prices. San Francisco really price gouges you if you want anything but clam chowder and bread. Tsk tsk!

At last, we made it to Pier 39. The pier where all of the touristy fun hoopla is. Stores, museums, the aquarium, rides... it's all there! They even have a carousel towards the end of the pier. However, if you're planning on visiting, don't stop there! Go beyond it to get a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and sea lions!

There were only a few active ones. Apparently it was nap time for the sea lions, as many of them slept on the docks below. However, there were two that were very much active, doing somersaults around each other, giving each other kisses, some playful nips, and were just really entertaining to watch.

There are SO many things to do in San Francisco, that I have a feeling Jeremy and I could visit the city every time we visit my parents and sister in California and find something new to do every single time.

Jeremy already declared that next time we are in California that he wants to go to a Giants game. My mom added that we should go to Treasure Island too, so that's already two things to do in San Francisco for our next visit!

Looking forward to it!