San Francisco Pier

In the last few days of my stay we made a second pilgrimage to San Francisco via the holy factory outlet stores where I blew my remaining holiday budget on cut price clothing.

Actually, the two days of heavy duty shopping was incredibly efficient, because it was while we were buying our new matching sweaters that Patricia and I hit on the idea of a communal wardrobe. By sharing clothes we double our selection, halve our costs and increase our retail satisfaction by several hundred percent. Dad had a hard time grasping the significance of this revelation, but he might have just been bitter because Patricia was wearing his jacket at the time.

In addition to putting burn marks on our credit cards, Patricia and I spent the day wandering around Piers 39 and 41. We made friends with a couple of street performers.


And a few marine mammals. In the shopping frenzy I came perilously close to buying a backpack that looks like a sea otter wearing a parachute harness. Somehow I managed to resist temptation by taking vicarious pleasure in Patricia's purchase of sea otter socks and wood carving.

The sea lions were great fun, lazing around and blowing snot at the tourists. They're like damp furry delinquents. I'm told that shortly before our visit, several of them went on a bender, boarded and capsized a sailing boat. I could have sworn I saw a few of them high fiving each other when we walked past.

I also had a sudden rush of homesickness when I peered into this jewellers window. Fancy finding thong (flip-flop) jewellery in San Francisco of all places. Come on Sydney! They're stealing our material.