Stamps Like Champs: Go For Distance

I hate to say that we've had a bad day while on vacation, but it was a bad day while on vacation. Let's get all the bad stuff out of the way first and then I'll talk about the cool things. I'm hoping that I can re-read this blog tomorrow and laugh but right now, it's not funny.

The bad:
One of the first things we did today was a whale watching tour through San Francisco Whale Tours. I don't recommend them because when people are sleeping on a tour, it's usually not a good thing. The Naturalist on board didn't talk about much until we saw something, and spoiler alert - we didn't see anything until the very end. Also, they made a stop along the way with all of us on board to fuel up. Steve and I both would have preferred that was not something done on our time.

While heading out to the open water, each member of the crew gave a talk about what their role was and a safety talk was somewhere in there, but everyone also had to go on and on about what to do if you become seasick. Basically they didn't want anyone using the single bathroom on board for that and that if you do become sick to do so overboard, and as Alex the Naturalist said, "go for distance." One explanation of that would have sufficed, maybe even 2 as a reminder. But we heard the seasick instructions many, many times. Personally, I think they put the thought in everyone's head and many people on board made themselves seasick. Admittedly, the Pacific Ocean was very choppy today with really big waves, so I'm sure that contributed as well. Usually when I'm on a boat I avoid people watching because I'm the type that when I see someone throwing up, it means I do too. About halfway through the tour, Steve and I stood up to stretch our legs and we did that at just the right time because Steve witnessed one of the passengers not making any effort to vomit overboard and instead she just vomited out. Well the wind caught it and some got on the seats we just stood up from and on my back. I consider myself lucky that it was my back and I couldn't see it, because I would have been depositing in the Pacific shortly after that myself. Steve wiped up what he could, but there wasn't much to use to really clean it up. So thanks to this lady, I had to do the mental workout of my life by focusing only on looking for whales (which were not cooperating today) instead of focusing on the disgusting throw up on my back soaking into my hoodie...which by the way it was freezing outside, so I couldn't just take my hoodie off. Honestly, this pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day.

The entire tour was not good, as I mentioned already - the Naturalist never spoke and the whales didn't cooperate at all. We were supposed to see humpback and gray whales and finally at the very end of our tour, we saw a humpback whale. I'll talk more about this when I get to "the good" for today. But what was annoying about when we actually did see the whale was that Alex finally started talking to us about whales when we're all not in the mood to pay attention at all because we'd rather see the flipping whale!

I appreciated that they gave us extra time to see the one whale, but we did end up getting back late (and I like to blame that on the fuel stop at the beginning), which set us back on our schedule the rest of the day. Because of the people on the boat (not just the sick people, but the kids who kicked me in the back, and the other kids who had their feet all over our backpacks), Steve and I were sick of people and we couldn't wait to retreat to Muir Woods National Monument, and walk through the woods to relax and calm down. We got there and drove forever for a parking spot because there were so many people there. I said later in my snippy state that unless they know who John Muir is, they shouldn't be allowed to be in this park! I know that's wrong of me though, we should be happy to see a park attracting a lot of visitors. But Steve and I were so done with people. There were people cutting us off on the trail, people stopping right in front of us, kids running into us because parents couldn't keep them close by. Ugh...we were done. Again, I'll get to "the good" about Muir Woods in a bit.

Our last stop of the day was Point Reyes National Seashore. Since we were late getting off the boat, we were later leaving Muir Woods and we had to hurry to the Visitor Center to get our stamp and T.R.'s postcard. Despite being behind someone the whole way who thought it was a good idea to drive 30-below the speed limit, we got there with about 5 minutes to spare! We did the really easy, short Earthquake Trail where you learn about and walk along the San Andreas fault. After that, we were going to drive to the Tule Elk Preserve at the northern end of the park to see some elk, but our gas light came on. If you've never been to Point Reyes, just know this - it's in the middle of nowhere. GPS found us a gas station that had us backtrack about 5 miles...no big deal. We get to the gas station and they were out of gas. The next gas station was one that was on the way to our restaurant for dinner - 19 miles away. So we had to scrap the elk. We get to that gas station and there are no gas pumps at all. Thankfully a little further down the road, we were able to fill up our thirsty tank.

Steve took this picture while standing next to the original fence (not pictured). Notice that part of the fence is in the picture - about 20 feet away. The fault line moved the fence! Also, in the distance is a blue pole - those poles follow the fault line.

So that's "the bad." I keep trying to tell myself that even the worst day on vacation is better than the best day at work. However, I don't get puked on at work.

The good:
Before the whale watching tour, Steve was able to fit in a few spare minutes to take me to Lombard Street in San Francisco. He thought the GPS was taking us to the bottom of it, but it turns out it took us to the top and we had to drive down it! It actually wasn't that scary driving it and it was so early in the morning that we were the only car on the street. Steve's pretty excited to be able to say he drove down Lombard Street!

Driving down Lombard

So we did see a humpback whale on the tour which was really cool. More bad news though - since they don't have a fin like orcas do, it's really hard to photograph a humpback whale. Once they go under, you have no idea where they'll turn back up and when (they can stay under for 3 - 5 minutes). So unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the whale. It was huge - when we first saw it, we were about 20 yards away from it. We did create more distance once we knew it was there, but it was a treat to see it that close! I'd say the whale was as wide as a Honda Civic, but I have no idea how long it was. Even better than seeing the whale - we saw it breach! Again, no pictures because we had no idea it was happening until it happened, but it was awesome!

Sea lions on the whale watching tour

On our way back to the dock, the captain was trying to make up for lost time and was flying back. I mentioned before that the waves were pretty big today and if we hit a wave at the right spot, there'd be some spray. Steve dozed off on the way back and at one point, we hit one of those waves just right that I got hit with some spray, but a ton of water covered Steve, which startled him awake. I would have put this in "the bad" section, except we both got a much needed laugh out of this!

After the whale tour, we went to Muir Woods National Monument. Muir Woods is beautiful and probably another one of the hidden gems in the park system. The redwoods are so big, and this was one of the prettiest trails we've hiked! To avoid the crowd, I would guess that getting there early is the way to go. They actually have signs along the trail through the redwood forest to be quiet so that it gives visitors the chance to soak it all in. Because of the crowd, I just wasn't able to do that, so Steve and I have decided to make an early morning visit again tomorrow to give it another shot. We're also making time to go back to the Tule Elk Preserve before hitting the other parks we had planned for the day: John Muir NHS, Port Chicago, and possibly a tour at Jelly Belly. Wish us luck for a better day tomorrow!