The scene on the beach was fascinating. Just about every surface that could accept paint had graffi

San Francisco Chris and I arose at some ungodly hour, packed the car and drove up to BWI.  There we drove to the lot of PreFlight where we park the car.  We love this company because they help us unload and load our bags and are promptly driven to the airport and/or picked up.  It is a minimum hassle service. car rentals europe We got adjacent seats on SWA, which was amazing because we checked in late and were number B42 and B43.  We stopped briefly in Atlanta and were able to move up further to the front before leaving for SFO.  We even got there a little early, picked up our bags and took the train to the rental car facility.  Here was the first delay, where there was an extensive line at Budget.  But we got our car and, following the nice directions of Gertrude, found our B B.  We found a parking car rentals europe spot right in front of the house!  The car remained there for three days.
While we were awaiting the arrival car rentals europe of Stephanie, our hostess drove up and we got to meet her.  Sue is a very nice woman who has lived in this house for 31 years and is a psycho-therapist.  Steph and her roommate Julie accompanied us to dinner at the Limon Rotisserie, a terrific Peruvian car rentals europe restaurant.  Following dinner we went to Steph s home and got to see her images from her recent Morocco travel.  When we got back to our room in the B B it was just about bedtime and the nearly full moon was setting.  It was quite a scene out our bedroom!
Saturday morning, we awoke and went down for breakfast.  Sue had stocked the refrigerator well with anything that a person would want.  While eating she came down and we had a very nice conversation.  We had noticed the most charming little garden behind her house and she took us out and showed car rentals europe us.  She claimed not to have a green thumb, but you coulda fooled us.  After breakfast we walked over the top of Bernal Hill to Steph s home.  It was a nice walk with terrific views of the city and lots of dogs.  This must be one of the favorite dog walking car rentals europe places in the city.  Steph soon drove us over to Golden Gate Park on a exquisite northern California car rentals europe morning.  We decided to spend most of our day in the deYoung museum, because there was a Georgia O Keefe exhibit.  We were not disappointed.  It had far more attractive work of that famous artist than had been present when we visited the museum with her name in Santa Fe in 2012.
I found that no one was allowed to take photographs of her work, but there was no prohibition of making images of the posters that were all around the museum that depicted her work.  I could not resist these.  We ate lunch in the outdoor section of the museum café and chatted while Brewer s Blackbirds begged food among the tables.   After lunch we went back inside the museum and saw much of the permanent exhibits.  Unfortunately, we did not see the photographic section which I did not notice was present until we were out of the building.  We had another nice dinner with Steph at the Liberty Café a short walk from our B B.
Sunday we again walked over Bernal Hill to Steph s where we read the paper for a bit before heading out to Noe Valley to walk around and check out all the colorful, funky shops.  Chris had a great time looking over all the stuff, while I had my own good time photographing all manner of things.  I am not much of an urban guy, but I was fired up.  Perhaps the highlight of my efforts was finding a beggar sitting on the sidewalk.  He had an interesting, if tortured look on his face, so I asked him if I could take his photo in exchange car rentals europe for a dollar.  He readily consented.  After I dropped the money in his cup he told me that he was par6ticularly appreciative since he had had no breakfast car rentals europe that morning.
After lunch we returned to Steph s for an hour or so and then headed out in the late afternoon to walk her tiny dog, Luna at Fort Funston Beach in the southwest corner of the city.  This is another dog-walkers paradise, as leash laws are not in effect and dozens of dogs were running all over when we arrived.  We learned that on a good weekend day there can be hundreds of dogs cavorting here!  It is also one of the best hang-gliding places in history because there is a cliff at the back of the beach that is a hundred or so feet high with continuous winds.  I don t think I have the gonads to leap off that cliff in an act of faith but maybe I would have when I was fifty years younger.
The scene on the beach was fascinating.  Just about every surface that could accept paint had graffiti, some of which was quite artistic.  Down the beach a ways from the access car rentals europe path were some big pipes that we learned are sewage outflow pipes, which supposedly bring treated sewage water from the city and dump it in the Pacific.  These pipes were covered with paint.  While Chris and Steph had a few hours of mother-daughter time, I wandered around taking photos of the graffiti, beach detritus, and surf bubbles.  I was totally immersed in the scene, car rentals europe if not the surf!  As we were headed back to the path up to the top of the cliff and the parking lot, I made my favorite photo of the trip: two people walking their dogs right at the surf line. Monday morning we had a leisurely breakfast before packing up and driving out of San Francisco.  Once again we were thankful for Gertrude who efficiently lead us from the B B onto 101 South.  We expected to arrive at the west entrance to Pinnacles National Park in just over two hours, according to MapQuest.  But the traffic was such that it required almost three hours.  101 is not a lightly traveled highway!
car rentals europe Pinnacles National Park This park which was a National Monument until last year is famous for two things; rock climbing and California Condors.  The rock climbers flock here to test their skills on some steep rock formations that dot the landscape.  We were told that the height of visitation is in April when the weather car rentals europe is mild.  Lots of campers also congregate here.  We expected very few visitors on a Monday in March.  Were we surprised! car rentals europe There were 80 middle-schoolers from Danville on a field trip, as well as dozens of campers.  And plenty of cars.  We were not alone.  We stopped briefly at the visitors center and then drove to the end of the park road.  It was only a few miles long.  At the end were some stunning rock formations where young climbers were (noisily) testing themselves on ropes.  We did not last long at this location!
We drove back to a Y in the road and took the other fork to the end.  Nothing much to grab our attention here.  As we were approaching the camping area, Chris spotted as couple of wild turkeys at the top of a small hill in the sage brush.  We stopped the car and made a few photos as they made their way down a path to the road level.  One was particularly impressive in bright spring red, obviously a tom ready for mating.  Just a short ways further was a whole flock of turkeys within a few yards of the road.  We stopped again and made some photos.  As we were watching the turkeys cavort car rentals europe around as they fed, I noticed a Black-tailed Jackrabbit close by munching on grass.  That required more photos.  A few impatient drivers made these stops rather unpleasant, car rentals europe but we did manage to make a few good images.  The rabbit was unfortunately behind a barbed wire fence, so I had to get out of the car to shoot him over the fence.  He did not tolerate this for long and hopped off.  Not rapidly, because he had obviously seen thousands of tourists before us.
After these encounters, we went back to the vistiors center for information on where we could see the condors.  We were told that there was an overlook on the highway south of the east entrance where the birds could sometimes be seen flying over the mountains in the refuge.  But not close.  The ranger also advised that the west entrance was higher elevation car rentals europe and the birds roosted in the rocks that were more accessible there.  Being somewhat put off by all the people where we were, we decided to drive on over to the west side.  There is no through passage car rentals europe through the refuge, so one has to drive around the bottom or over the top.  The south route is a little car rentals europe shorter.  Another factor is that there are no motels within 20 miles of the east entrance while the west entrance is close to Soledad where there are a few motels where a normal person would stay.  So, off we went.
As we got to the T at the end of the entrance, we were surprised to see that the homeowner there was exercising his First Amendment rights by posting large signs on his fence, right in front of his house that were, to us, rather offensive.  Calling for the impeachment of President Obama among other distasteful things.   To this family, anything the president says is a lie.   Oh well, I don t think this would be fertile ground for a Democratic fund raiser.
One of the birds that I had hoped to see and photograph on this trip was the Yellow-billed Magpie, and unusual bird in that it has never been seen outside the state of California.  There are only a few o ther birds like this in the continental U.S.  The Himalayan Snowcock is one, but this bird that exists in a small area of the Ruby Mountains in Nevada is an introduced bird.  One could, I guess, assume this from the name!  In any case, the magpies car rentals europe were first seen in the yard of the sign man.    We did not see an opportunity to photograph them there so continued on.  Periodically we saw them out in the fields and tried making photos, but they were too far out for a decent image.  Finally we came across three that were hanging out on fence posts right next to the road.  They had found something to eat, although I think it was something in trash.  In any case, I was able to make some good shots of the birds.
We never did find the overlook where one could supposedly see condors and soon were in Soledad where we got a room at the Valley Harvest motel.  In mid-afternoon we headed up into Pinnacles from the west entrance, only nine miles out of town.  We were surprised to see almost nothing in the way of wildlife.