Blogs from San Francisco, California, United States, North America - page 12

Wow what a tour Alcatraz was! The National Park Service provides an amazing audio tour narrated by former guards, prisoners, and warden families. We picked up our headsets and audio players shortly after arriving in the prison and it walked us through the prison's history, structure, internal processes, famous occupants, and narration of escape attempts. It is so well done that Mi Hyon and I gasped or laughed simultaneously throughout the tour; it really brought life to the place! Cost of the ferry is $37.25, but it's an all encompassing cost and we considered it a bargain! I think winter is the best time to see Alcatraz and most of San Francisco since crowds are smaller and the weather isn't that much different...according to Mark Twain. In the summer, the website recommends reserving Alcatraz tickets as ... read more

Who is in the air at any one time? The exact numbers, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware, are on average, 9,728 planes with a total of 1,270,406 people. That would make the skies the 156th most populous country in the world, right between Estonia and East Timor. The US alone has 61,000 people in the air at one time. A few years back, url=https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffilm%2F2011%2Faug%2F18%2Fvirgin-atlantic-films-warning&data=02%7C01%7C%7C72d1b79cfe97490fdfd208d56e3f987f%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636536141775494242&sdata=OATanr6crl1n%2Bh3UXdVFqxLNFyD763hFtUo3Wvuc3zQ%3D&reserved=0Virgin America conducted a highly scientific study on its Facebook page, in which 41% of men admitted to crying at in-flight movies, and 55% of people said they felt more emotional while f... read more

First on today’s agenda; Crissy Field parkrun. It’s a lovely scenic route on a riverside trail under the Golden Gate Bridge with an equally lovely walk home via the Palace of Fine Arts, where we get adopted by a swan. Next on today’s agenda; scrapping said agenda as the old man has hurt his leg running so can’t walk too much. Obligatory first stop - the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s the sort of iconic view that you can’t help repeatedly photographing even though you know that you’ll get home and realise you have dozens of virtually identical photos. On to Golden Gate Park. It’s huge and we have to pick some highlights to limit walking so we head for the gorgeous Japanese Garden and the De Young Museum sculpture garden. Back to the hotel for the ... read more

During my working and traveling career, United Airlines was my "go to" airline. They were not necessarily the best, but flew to many of the places my work would take me. At the time, TWA had a better upgrade program (meaning FREE) and many "red eye" flights to the east coast. Like most of you who fly for business, I ended up with United, probably over a million miles since the mid 1970's. But I have spent those miles over the years. I often took my family to Hawaii, using miles for airline tickets, and hotel reward points for suites and condos. As these loyalty programs continue to devalue my miles, I have used them up, mostly for upgrades to Business or First Class on longer flights to Europe and Asia. Currently, I still accumulate miles ... read more

Cloudy - 58°F Our alarm goes off at 7 and, although I can’t see outside of our inside stateroom or “tomb” as we call it, I can assume we are docked in San Francisco. There’s no detectable vessel movement or faint hint of engine vibration, signs that our ship is at rest. Unfortunately, a state of rest is reserved for the ship, not us. We have to be out of our room for the last time in just one hour. Our suitcases were sent out last night and all we have are the clothes we left out for today, toothbrushes, medicine, documents and other items to be hand-carried off. We’re ready to go by 7:45am and, after leaving a small gratuity for our stateroom steward, we’re off to the Lido for breakfast. While it’s pretty busy ... read more