15.07.12 - Jellyfish

Despite the excitement of the night before we got up and back onto the tourist trail. Emma fancied
cycling over the bridge so we returned to the Ferry Building and hired bicycles. We cycled along the water front, past Fisherman’s Wharf (looking out for the Bush Man - a busker who tries to make money by hiding behind a bush and jumping out at people - sadly a no show), through Crissy Fields (stopping at the Palace of Fine Arts) and then up the hill to the bridge. It was cold and windy and full of tourists but still fun even though this is trip number two for me. To make it a bit different we carried on, once over the bridge, to Sausalito, the Mediterranean
Town, stopping on the way to eat our empanades that we’d bought as a picnic. The bay is always full of little white sails; it must be a great place to sail but terrifying if you don’t like skimming along the water at a 45 degree angle. We didn’t stay long in Sausalito, enough time to have an ice cream in the sun, before we got the ferry back to Fisherman’s Wharf and went to the Bay Aquarium. There was an amazing jellyfish exhibition, they are just such weird creatures, but incredible to look at up close. They also had a cylinder full of water in which a shoal of sardines (not sure about this!) were swimming round and round, they looked beautiful. I hope the fish do it in shifts, swapping with the ones in a slightly bigger tank. The tunnels were a bit disappointing, not enough exciting fish and too many people. I managed to avoid the Banana Slug exhibit, it was close though.

Back home and then out for an Italian dinner, my first of the trip. I had a delicious parppadelle with black fig and gorgonzola in a red wine reduction. Lush. Emma took a late overnight flight back to New York. I was touched that she’d made such an effort to come for two days, it’s a long way and a bad way to set yourself up for a week of work. It made me think that I should really make the effort to go to Mexico City to see my friend Hannah who works for the Foreign Office. It is about as far as New York so I shouldn’t think twice about it.
Walking to the BART station we passed the regulation bums who hang out near the Civic Center, ending the trip as it had started for Emma, with a stroll through a dingy neighbourhood.