Alcatraz

No breakfast here so it was orange juice and cereal bars again. Then we headed out to Pier 33 for the Alcatraz tour. Fisherman's Wharf was supposedly 20 mins walk from our motel on Lombard Street, which may technically be correct, but Pier 33 is about 45 mins. Fortunately we left in plenty of time.

A classic SF morning - fog. Today we were dressed more appropriately, and despite the brisk walk it wasn't long before I donned my 1st layer of long sleeves. We arrived at the pier and collected our tickets - pre-booked from home a few months ago - and waited for poll position so we could get a good seat on the boat and hopefully good photos of the island as we approached.

Although 1st in line for the 10:30am boat, we watched in horror as a large group of school kids was herded onto the boat before us. We needn't have worried - it was only about half-full and we sat exactly where we had planned anyway. Not that there was much opportunity for any great shots in the morning fog.

After watching the introduction video we ambled up to the cells for the audio tour. The wind was bitingly cold, and I soon added a 2nd layer that I had begrudgingly carried out of the motel this morning. Turned out I wouldn't remove it until we returned to the motel tonight!

The tour was very interesting and Karina absolutely loved Alcatraz. If it ever burns down, they should be able to re-build it faithfully in its entirety from her photos. We bought more souvenirs (is that the right spelling mum?) here than everywhere else combined (I exaggerate a little) and finally returned to the mainland overdue for lunch. Chinese, and nice and fresh too!

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering in and out of the countless souvenir shops along the bay. We didn't really buy much else but still managed to while away the entire afternoon. The fog didn't lift at all - a bit disappointing given that we had such nice weather yesterday - and it only got colder.

We returned to Pier 39 to see the sea lions. They smell. Karina wandered through the Pier 39 shops while I returned to buy a $3.99 Alcatraz beanie I saw earlier in one of the shops along the bay. It was that cold!

It was time for dinner so we headed up to Ghiradelli Square to check it out and hopefully find something to eat. It was dead - under construction in parts - but we did find the Ghiradelli Chocolate Shop. We bought some chocolates that we subsequently saw cheaper in the supermarket.

A few blocks away we found a pizza place, and had some undercooked, soggy pizza. Then back to the Cannery for some famous Mitchell's ice cream. In the freezing cold.

Finally, we walked up some really steep hills back to Lombard Street to check the internet and crash again.

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