Redwoods and San Francisco

Monday, September 10
We started the day with a trip to Muir Woods, which is a redwood forest near San Francisco. They had a great scavenger hunt for the kids that we all enjoyed together. We were fortunate to find an RV park within walking distance to a high speed catamaran ferry that took us right to downtown San Francisco (Pier 1). It’s a perfect system for RVers. We walked up to pier 39 and saw the sea lions. That is definitely a sight to see. There were about 200-300 sea lions sunning themselves and fighting over sunning spots. We also toured an old submarine. Did you know that the world war 2 submarines ran off batteries when submerged. They had to surface every night and run their diesel engines to recharge their batteries. Today’s nuclear submarines can stay submerged for months I think. We wrapped up the day having dinner with Talitha Green, Sheri’s childhood friend. We had a good first day in San Francisco and plan on spending tomorrow touring more of the city and Alcatraz.
Sunday, September 9
Today was started with a trip to the grocery store to restock. While we were doing that Sheri’s cousin went in to the hospital to be induced for labor. By the time we got to the hospital, she was only about 30 minutes away from having the baby. So Sheri hung out in the hospital awaiting the arrival of the baby, while the boys and I played card games in the RV. After seeing the newborn babe, we drove 4 hours to Petaluma, which is only one hour north of San Francisco. On our drive to Petaluma we saw more grapes than we could probably eat in a lifetime. Napa Valley is surprisingly dry. I guess grapes don’t need much water, or maybe they rely on irrigation.
Saturday, September 8
We had a nice visit through Redwood National/State Park today. The Redwoods are simply amazing. If you have ever watched Return of the Jedi, the Ewok scenes are filmed in Jedidiah Smith State Park, which is part of the Redwood park system. These parks look just like the movie. You feel like you are in the land of dinosaurs with ferns and massive trees. Although to really experience the redwoods your best bet is to see it in the Redwood National Park. Muir Woods National Park, which boasts the closest "old growth" redwood grove to San Francisco has some redwoods, but nothing near the diameter of the trees 4 hours north. After visiting the park we went to Eureka and saw two of Sheri’s cousins, one of whom was due to have a baby anyday. Couple of noteworthy things in California, there are a lot hitchhikers along 101. Sheri’s cousin says it is because there is quite a gathering of hippies in that area. Let’s just say we saw more peace symbols on stores and cars than an average drive in the east. We also observed our first wild harbor seal while we were on the beach seeing the pacific for the first time. The harbor seal was right near fishermen who were using nets to catch little surf fish. We actually took two home (given to us by one of the fisherman), but accidentally left them at Sheri’s cousin’s house.