On our way to the library we witnessed a car accident, as we were just about to cross the road. Well actually Steve witnessed the accident; I was quite oblivious as to what happened and only saw the broken headlight that came rolling towards me. The man that got hit was driving a big black pick-up truck, which was obviously his pride and joy as he stared at us in disbelief that his beautiful ride had been smashed into and he said to us:

"Why?! Why man? Why did he do that?! Why did he hit my rig?!! That's the second time I've been hit!" before he reversed and parked to go and yell at the guy who'd hit him. I thought it was a big lorry that hit him, but it was a car that had stupidly pulled out so that idiot driver not only lost his headlight but also the attachment of his front bumper. We walked off just as a police motorbike turned up to calm the situation as the guy with the pick-up was literally jumping up and down with fury!

We went to the library to check the weather and it said it was going to be sunny and gradually getting warmer over the next few days. So this helped us plan our sightseeing days.

I read about the CityPass in our guidebook which gets you 7-days travel on Muni transport (buses, trams/streetcars, metro) and also on all cable cars, plus 9-days to visit the following attractions:

• California Academy of Sciences
• Aquarium of the Bay
• Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
• The Exploratorium or the de Young Museum
• Bay Adventure Cruise

It's a bargain at $59 each, as the transport and attractions have a combined value of $113. We decided to go to the Aquarium today, which is where we bought the CityPass. You can buy it at any of the attractions or at the booths where you can buy Muni passes (there is one in Union Square opposite the Westfield Shopping Mall where the cable cars turn around).

The Aquarium of the Bay is right by Pier 39 and it's quite a small aquarium, but its main feature is the two 300-foot tunnels, which you walk through & are home to many different types of fish and sharks that live in the Bay waters.

The first section of the aquarium had large vertical tubes, which held different kinds of fish and groups of creatures. The first tube had hundreds of little fish all swimming in the same direction, which was quite hypnotic to watch as the light reflected off their shiny skin. There was a tube filled with tropical fish, the most recognisable being the clown fish and the blue tang (from Finding Nemo). There was a gorgeous pinky-purple one in there too but they were really difficult to take photos of as they moved so fast and the light wasn't very good.

The next section is the huge tunnels to walk through, which you reach by going down a lift so that you are under the Bay. The first tunnel features the near-shore habitat that includes giant schools of anchovies. It was pretty cool being surrounded by lots of different fish; one of the highlights being a 250lb giant sea bass!

The second tunnel has the marine life that lives in the deeper waters, such as the rays and sharks. Watching the sharks swim overhead was really good and it's interesting to see exactly what lives in the Bay waters of SF. However, we learned that the fish are living in an enclosed space and that they are fed every day (so they don't eat each other) so you're not truly seeing them in their natural habitat. But they do pump in 700,000 gallons of filtered water from the SF bay twice a day.

When you go back up in the lift there is an area where you can touch the bat rays, leopard sharks and starfish. The rays felt a bit like dolphin skin, quite smooth and spongy. The shark's skin was smooth if you run your finger towards the head, but very rough when you rub it the opposite direction. We were told this is because their skin had 'taste buds' but they felt like tiny little teeth and in olden times people used to use the skin as sandpaper.

It only took a couple of hours to see the whole aquarium and I think we spent most of our time trying to take decent photos of the pretty little fishies!