Sunday 20th July
Our second day in San Francisco, and our last full day in the US!
So we were making the most of it! The alarm went off at 4am. We requested a wake up call the night before and when I told the hotel receptionist what time I wanted it for this was the transcript....
Him:- What time do you need the wake up call?
Me:- 4am please
Him:- No, what time really?
Me:- 4am!
Now we were doing this for a very good reason. We would need to be in line for Alcatraz tickets at around 5:30am and it took the best part of 45 minutes to walk down to Pier 33 where the ferry's depart from.
After getting washed and dressed we left the hotel at 4:45am. It was chilly outside and still dark. On the way to pier 33 we encountered many people who were returning home after being out the previous night!
We followed some German tourists most of the way so we were trying to keep up with them to ensure we could get as close to the front of the line as possible.
We got there at bang on 5:30....but the ticket office didn't open until 7am. There were already 50-60 people there queuing at a rough estimate. Having been told they have 100-150 'walk up' tickets each day we knew we were in pretty good shape.
About 15 minutes after we arrived a security guard came round handing red coupons to everyone in the line, this entitled you to a ticket once the ticket office opened, but you had to stay in line and wait. The woman behind us was trying to hold a space in the queue for her family but was told that they could not jump in line, they would have to join the back of the queue. When asked if she wanted a ticket just for herself, she declined. Shortly after 6am all the red coupons had been handed out which meant nobody else would get a ticket today!
One guy shouted..."I got the last ticket". It seemed to fall on dead ears however as the people in front of him already had tickets and the people behind him just wanted to lynch him because they had missed out!
Anyway when the ticket booth opened we bought tickets for the 10am trip.
We then headed for a short walk down to pier 39 where we had a lovely breakfast in a restaurant overlooking the bay, not that you could see much as it was extremely foggy.
This set us up nicely for the day. We then sat by pier 33 for a while after visiting a couple of gift shops.
To visit the Alcatraz prison (famous for being a high security penitentiary from 1933-1963 and holding some of the most notorious criminals) requires a short 15 minute ferry ride over to Alcatraz Island. Our ferry left at 9:30am.
Incredibly I didnt feel sea sick at all...and the sea wasnt exactly calm! Usually just being on a boat does it for me.
We hopped off the boat and walked up to the entrance where we were met by a National Park Ranger (Alcatraz is a US National Park). He gave us a bit of background history on Alcatraz (it started its life out as a fort). We then joined another guide for a short walking tour up the steep hills to the prison cell blocks. He gave us more of an insight into what prison life was like and told us lots of interesting stories as to what went on in the prison and all the conflict between prisoners and inmates.
When we reached the prison cells we took a self guided audio tour which gave us a fascinating impression of what the prison was like to work and live in from the 30s-60s, all the gruesome things that happened, all the escape attempts etc. The narrator was excellent (he sounded like Johnny Cash actually), really put you in the moment. Hard to imagine that all this went on in the building that you are standing in! One of the best audio tours I have done, well up there with the Kennedy one in Dallas.
We were there for about 4 hours it was that interesting, this also included a few short talks that we sat and listened to about the famous attempted escapes from the Island. The most famous of which in 1962 when 3 men made it to the island waterfront, set sail in a dinghy they had made, never to be seen again. The men, now in their early-mid 80s are still on a wanted list with a reward for fining them of a mere $3.2 million.
Just before heading back to the mainland we watched a short film about the island which was interesting, however die to being up since 4am Jacob and I could barely keep awake.
Had a bite to eat on the boat back to San Francisco and in the afternoon we toured a few more gift shops again on pier 39 where I bought some souvenirs and a jacket, once I had annoyed the lady in the shop by not being able to do the zip up and trying on each size twice!
By then it was time to head back to the hotel to catch our breaths for a while. We caught the bus back to union square, the nearest stop to our hotel. This is where we encountered a woman, sitting behind us on the bus with her husband, who would not stop moaning about everything! Why was the bus not moving, how poor the organisation was, how foul her bottled water tasted. Then when the bus got going she totally changed her tune, suddenly everything was "Awesome" The banksy artwork we saw, the cable car...everything. We were killing ourselves with laughter. By the time we got back to the hotel we only had about 30 mins rest before we headed out for our final evening which consisted of a night time bus tour around San Francisco. The bus left at 7:30pm and we had to run to catch the bus...we just made it in time. Had to stand up initially because the tour was so popular but managed to get a seat after the Golden Gate Bridge stop.
Got some great pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge just as the sun was going down. The best part of the tour took us over the newly rebuild Bay Bridge over to Treasure Island where I was able to get some great pictures on San Francisco Bay in the twilight.
The tour ended at Union Square at around 9:30pm but we were both ready for dinner, so we hit good old Lori's Diner again. Once again great service and great food! This was a great way to round off a great day....just one more day to go now....not even that, as we have to make the long trip back to the UK tomorrow. There will be enough time to head out for a while in the morning however, just to savour every last moment.
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