Sea lions! You can almost always find them at Pier 39 in San Francisco. Though there are plenty of people wanting to see them too.

Everything you need to know about safety in the San Francisco area: parking lots have official signs asking you not to leave anything valuable in your car, or it will get stolen.

Visited Alcatraz. The old prison site is now a national park. There are so many people wanting to go that you really need to book well in advance. Otherwise, you won't get in.

I'm not sure if I just got lucky or if this always happens, but at the exit of the main exhibition, there was a former Alcatraz inmate (wearing a hat) who had written a book about his time there. He was signing copies for customers.

In California (and several other states), establishments that want to sell alcohol must obtain a license (different types for different alcohol: beer, wine, etc.). After filing an application, residents have 30 days to file an objection. You need to specify the exact reason why the establishment would be problematic.

For example, the location is in the center of a residential neighborhood and would create noise disturbance. You can find more examples on the alcohol control department's page.

In other states, alcohol sales are controlled by state authorities, but that's a completely different story.

Photo post. As promised.

Lassen Park is only open for 2-3 months a year. Because of its elevation of 2000+ meters and location, the snow doesn't melt until around July. Right now it's only +10°C at night, though it's still warm during the day. But soon it'll get really cold. About 0.5M people pass through the park each year (compare that to Yosemite — 4M). That's why it's easier to spot wildlife here: the human trails aren't as heavily trafficked.

The park is one of the few places in the world that has volcanoes of all four types. And with volcanoes comes plenty of geysers, sulfur springs, and other boiling lakes. I'll send photos this evening.

In the national parks where there were warning signs about bears on every corner, I didn't see a single one. In Lassen, where there aren't any warnings at all, I saw two in just two days!

The bears here aren't aggressive – if you make a lot of noise, they'll just take off. Of course, you still shouldn't get too close to them or, especially, try to feed them.

Just got back from an area with no internet. Spent the night at a campground in Lassen Park.

The campground infrastructure in the US is really impressive. Everything you need is there: toilets, fire pits with grills, tables, metal bear boxes for food, and some even have showers. You just need to bring your own tent and food.

It's really important to put all your food in the box for the night—if you leave anything in your car, animals can break in by following the smell.

There's this story going around about how someone left fruit in a yellow car at one of the parks, and a bear broke in during the night. After that, for several months, bears kept breaking into all the yellow cars in that park looking for food.

It's only early September, but many shops and cafes are already decked out for Halloween, which is still almost 2 months away.

Even though it was Friday—a workday—there were quite a few people around. In a couple of spots, we even had to sit in traffic within the park and do an extra loop looking for a parking space. My friends say that compared to weekends (especially long ones), the park was pretty empty. Plus, the season is basically winding down now: the waterfalls have almost dried up.

If you show up at the wrong time (during peak season on weekends), you'll lose a bunch of time dealing with crowds of people wanting to enjoy the local scenery.

Made it to Yosemite Valley. Saw a disappearing waterfall for the first time. The water flows down, but literally dissolves along the way. Looks really cool.

I read about sequoias and thought I'd share: they're incredibly well adapted to fire. They handle forest fires easily and actually open their cones right after a fire. These trees don't get along well with other neighbors, and fire usually burns everything else away, so it's the perfect time to grow the next generation.

Back in the last century, thanks to human efforts, the number of forest fires dropped significantly. To help sequoias, controlled burns have been happening in parks since the 1960s. There are signs everywhere with burn dates and requests not to worry. But nothing burned today.

Check out this awesome caterpillar :)

Bears live in the redwood forest area. Detailed instructions on what to do if you encounter them are posted at the entrance. Throughout the entire park, there are bear-proof trash cans like these. Everything is done to ensure that animals continue to find food naturally rather than rummaging through human garbage.

Finally made it to the sequoias. They're absolutely gigantic. And there's a whole forest of them! Can't fit a single one in a photo.

The most tolerant toilet :)

Russian fairy tales at Fort Ross.

We were lucky to arrive right when the tour was starting, so we decided to join and ended up being the only ones. The other visitors were wandering around on their own. Our guide turned out to be an interesting guy: an American who spent several years living in Yakutsk and speaks Russian excellently (though with a strong accent). And he genuinely loves this job.

Scottish cows!

Some stores have an electric version (!)

Thanks to Igor for the photo.