This Post is Brought to You by the Letters D, A, and N

We did many things while in San Francisco, but one thing that was mentioned to us by our soon-to-be brother-in-law Daniel was checking out the Sea Lions at Fisherman's Wharf. The boisterous barking pinnipeds started arriving in droves, taking over the docks in January 1990 shortly after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (see, the pamphlets really are useful, our trip was also educational!). I'm sure Fisherman's Wharf is never a ghost town, but due to the fact that we were visiting over a holiday weekend, the boardwalk was teeming with people.
We finally found/made our way over to K-Dock, where the Sea Lions make their home. Incidentally, I just learned that you can watch them, at any time, on the "Sea Lion WebCam" provided by the Pier 39 website.

So we ambled over, following the sounds of splashes and incessant barking...and this is what we found:

Incidentally, I realized while I stood there watching with my family-sized bag of mini donuts that if I didn't stop eating like this

I was going to end up like this. Look how he's weighing down the whole corner and everything else is up in the air!

Dan told us that almost more amusing to him than the Sea Lions were the people watching them. He had a great time watching the people laugh and clap and the Sea Lions rolled and pushed one another into the water and barked in each other's faces. I told Dan I'd take some pictures of the people for him...but we must have just missed the big show because the people were boring.

I mean, these people aren't even looking at the Sea Lions!

But then I noticed this wacko...and the woman with him...they were the best ones out there I think.

Sometimes the Sea Lions can have a really big effect on you. Me? I deal with it through mini donuts. This lady has taken to carrying tiny sized bottles of booze when she knows she'll be visiting them. It was a rough day.

A few days later we drove down the coast to Monterey and low and behold - more Sea Lions!

This one was really friendly (well, maybe not...I did hear stories about a few swimmers being attacked by Sea Lions the previous few weeks...but he was hanging out on the support beams of the pier so I could take copious amounts of pictures).

Craig was leaning over to see our little--well, very large--buddy, and he put his hand in some very fresh bird crap. Mmmmmmm.

Sea Lions...definitely worth a visit...if only to see the crazy people.