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Published: July 21st 2008
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Lori's Diner
Our second home Jack’s Birthday
We awoke gradually - surprisingly , Jack last. Once he was reminded that today was his birthday, we spent the next hour opening prezzies and cards and preparing for the day’s adventures.
The first obstacle was breakfast: the option chosen was (of course) our final visit to Lori’s diner, where we all decided to go for the ‘tall stack’ (three) buttermilk pancakes that set us up for most of the day.
Cable car
For the first part of the day, Jack wanted to catch one of the traditional cable cars up and down Powell street to Fisherman’s Wharf (where we were to catch the Alcatraz ferry), so we wandered down to the end of the queue and waited there for around three quarters of an hour whilst cable cars passed to and fro, being manually turned on the turntable at the bottom of the street. We weren’t without entertainment though as the numerous homeless were out in force.
One note here on the homeless and beggars in San Francisco - they are numerous but none of them seem to harbour any ill intent, even if you don’t fork out. It looks like some of
Lori's Diner
How did that car get in here? them don’t even expect money, just for you to pass the time of day. Amongst them, the most notable we saw were:
Rat man - a man who had two brown rats running over him and was asking you for a dollar for the privilege of taking his picture with them. He was unsuccessful (we already have a picture of Ellie with a hamster).
Bush man - a man at Fisherman’s wharf who hid between a bin and a small self-fabricated shield of branches, roaring randomly at unsuspecting tourists as they passed by. We didn’t see any cardiacs, but there must have been some in the past.
Ransom man - a man holding a sign saying ‘My wife is has been kidnapped and I need 98 cents to make the ransom’
Honest man - a man holding a sign saying ‘Money needed for alcohol research’. Lucky Mark wasn’t wearing his T-shirt with the same slogan.
Anyway, back to the story - we mounted the cable car and squeezed ourselves into the outward facing seats. It was ok because we were prevented from falling out by some American tourists who had to stand on the footboards
Cable Car
Clang Clang! in front of us! The conductor was a character: he was forceful in herding the passengers to their positions and had a habit of halting at stops just to shout out ‘No room! Take the next car! The next car!’.
Much clanging and rattling later, we arrived at the Wharf where we grabbed some fast food (clam chowder, shrimps and fries) before traipsing up to Pier 33 (a deceptively long way off) to queue for the Alcatraz cruise. Once aboard it was just a 12 minute windy journey over to the Rock itself.
Alcatraz
I (Mark) must admit that my main interest was around the penitentiary, simply because I didn’t know anything previously about the military site, the Native American freedom occupation or the wildlife. These were fascinating in their own right, but I must say that it was the audio tour of the cell blocks that took the pip. Both adults and children were awestruck as we heard about life in the prison - the inmates, the escape attempts and the mundane, punishing routine.
For me though the clincher was to see the solitary confinement cells, where the worst of the worst would spend time
Alcatraz
Our new timeshare - who lives in a house like this? with only a small grille of light for weeks at a time with only an hour a week for showering outside the cell. In the souvenir store (of course!) we met an old warden, who signed his book for us. A bit of queuing and we were on the boat back, away from the aura of solitude and faint reek of seagull poo.
Back on dry land, Jack’s birthday tea took place at the Hard Rock Cafe - after a bit more queuing (spot the trend), but we had a good time enjoying the food and fruit cocktails amidst the rock and pop memorabilia. Jack even got a complimentary ice cream and ‘Happy Birthday’ song for his special day. It even made the bill worth it.
This time we managed to catch not only the correct trolleybus, but the correct bus going in the correct direction and we collapsed back the Beresford in time for Spy Kids 3 on TV, which rounded the day off before sleep claimed us like a smothering blanket of warm apple crumble.
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Rob & Helen
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Belated Happy Birthday Jack
Oppps Helen and I seem to have missed Jacks birthday.....so a very big belated happy birthday from us both....sounds like you had a fantastic time