California and the Golden West - Day 10

[Guest]

Heather and Rick’s
California and the Golden West Tour 2003

Friday 2nd May 2003

San Francisco, California

This is a free day but we are still awake at 7.00am. The sky is cloudy and the outlook looks bleak, but we intend to make the most of our free day.

We make our way down to Fisherman’s Wharf by 8.30am. We have a $6.00 day passes which mean we can use any bus, cable car or tram for the day. We catch the bus to Ghiradelli Square, only to find that we have left or Alcatraz tickets back at the hotel, so we catch the bus back, collect the tickets and the start out again. We continue our walk along Fisherman’s Wharf and the weather is looking better. Our boat departs from pier 41 and departs for Alcatraz at 10.45am.

At the dock we are given a briefing by one of the Park Rangers. Alcatraz is officially a National Park. We then have an agonizing walk up to the top of the island and the cell blocks.

We receive our audio tour once inside the cell block and we are directed around the prison, whilst following the instructions on the tape. Approximately 40 minutes later we exit the prison block to find it has rained. The tour was very interesting and we learnt a lot.

We catch the boat back to the main dock at 12.45pm and as the sky is overcast we decide to put on our Kagools. We make our way back to Ghiradelli’s and have a delicious ice cream sundae – a Cable Car for Rick and a Domingo for me. Definitely not Weight Watchers. It starts to pur down with rain but we decide to catch the cable car but have to queue in th rain. The cable car takes us up to Union Square and the shopping district. We have a look in Macy’s and the Sony shop. We catch another cable car, this time to China Town. After a bit more shopping in the rain, we decide to have an early dinner in one of the restaurants.

We take our shopping back to the hotel and then head out again, this time for Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. It is getting dark by now and also getting cold, but at least the rin has stopped.

We make our way, tired and weary, back to the hotel, after just one more electrical shop and a final coffee stop in Starbucks.

[Guest]

What a great day, you have seen so much

[Anne]

Sounds like another great day. Can't believe how much you're getting to see.

[Kazzie]

I would love to see Alcatraz,hopefully next year

[AlisonB]

Another busy day - you're certainly seeing/doing a lot!

[Guest]

Did you go into one of the cells when you did your tour of Alcatraz, quite scary really isn't it? When we went it was really windy and it made it all seem really eiry?

Another great day

[Guest]

Originally posted by Hellie
Did you go into one of the cells when you did your tour of Alcatraz, quite scary really isn't it? When we went it was really windy and it made it all seem really eiry?

Another great day

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Yes we did get to go into the cell's. I went into the solitary confinement cells, and Rick tried his best to close the gates, but failed. It was very overcast and rained quite a lot, so I agree, it did seem very eerie.

[Tartan Tigger]

Your reports are bringing back wonderful memories for me. I really enjoyed my visit to Alcatraz (wouldn't like to stay there though ), the audio tour was really interesting. The day we went was really windy, but then so was every day in San Francisco.

[Guest]

We were told by our Tour Manager that Mark Twain once said something like - that his coldest holiday was in Summer in San Fransisco. I can quite agree.