San Francisco Day Tripping

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From San Francisco you can make an assortment of fascinating day trips to Bay area, vineyards of the region, you name it. Consult for instance Lonely Planet guides for succesful day trips. San Francisco itself offers visitors many opportunities to day trip on illegal substances. With these tips, you’ll do neither but get drunk and angry. Immediate regret guaranteed.


<ul style="color:� font-family: Times; line-height: normal; font-size: medium;"><li style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Alcatraz





Arrive to the ticket stand near Pier 39. Mistakenly look at the time tables at the ticket stand, and fall into a false sense of security. Leave the ticket booking until the day you plan to miss Alcatraz, and ignore the signs clearly stating “next available tours at ”, as this might ruin the illusion that you will see the infamous prison with your own eyes. There will not be spaces left by the time you planned to miss the tour, and you can carry on your daily routine as per usual.










































<ul style="color:� font-family: Times; line-height: normal; font-size: medium;"><li style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Angel Island



Begin the day with a hearty breakfast. One of your party may eat pancakes, but this is optional.











Ask the waitress for the drinks’ menu. If you get a list of different Mimosas, make sure from the waitress that these are in fact glasses of champagne watered down with fruit juices. Inform the waitress that you have been given the kiddie menu. Ask for Long Island Ice Tea. Down the ice tea.

Purchase a ferry ticket from a stand ($8.50 at the time of writing). After paying for the tickets, make sure when the ferry leaves back. If you have less than an hour to spend on the island, you are on the right track. Remain calm, and rush to the nearest seafood restaurant and its bar. Crab House at Pier 39 will do.





Order gin and tonic, and go easy on the tonic. During the ferry journey you may want to wear clothing as light as possible so that you get everything out of the pleasant bay weather.









































































































































On arrival to Angel Island, check the map quickly before running to the top of the hill.



















































































Take a few pictures of the olden day Chinese penitentiary. You may see other tourists walking back from the said penitentiary. Ask them what’s it like. They will probably tell you of the Chinese writings on the barrack walls. The Immigration Station of Angel Island (Ellis Island of the west, apparently) was in practice a detention centre for the Chinese immigrants.















































































































































































































































Rush back to the place where the ferry takes off, purchase a beer or two from the bar/shop/café and head back inland with these memories you will cherish for the rest of your life. You may want to go through the experiences with your party on the ferry, over drinks.






































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• Vineyards


Do not spend time looking into your options beforehand. If you have a particular wine region or vineyard in mind prior to your arrival, such as Claypool Cellars, spend all your money as fast as you can to avoid actual experience in wine tasting.





I express gratitude for photographs and everything else to Anne Urjanheimo & Noora Koho

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

SF
An amazing city. Glad you are enjoying it.