Only spending 2 full days in San Francisco we really needed to jam as much in as we could. Moo is an expert at speed tourisming, as am I but the parents... well they're a little slower...I shouldn't be too hard on them though, they are old! HAHA
When I started planning this trip and knew we were going to be in San Fran, the only thing (aside from the bridge obviously) that I wanted to see was Alcatraz. Now it had been suggested to me to take the night tour because apparently it's amazing but having been so busy with work and whatnot I didn't get around to booking stuff until late November/early December and when I went to book tickets for Alcatraz, not only were there no night tours, there were no tours period. I was panicking and incredibly disappointed because I really wanted to see it... luckily with a little persistance I did find 1 tour company offering a package for Alcatraz and a boat cruise around the bay. I booked it ASAP! YIPPEE we're going to prison!
We had to pick up our tickets between 930 and 10am so we drove (to avoid the issues we ran into the day before) and were at the pier bright and early. We didn't leave for Alcatraz until 1pm so we had plenty of time to explore making it all the way down to the amazing farmer's market (I've been to my fair share of markets but this one is the BEST I've ever been to)! Very busy but everything you could ever want and more! Kyle and I also found an outdoor skating rink where people could rent skates and skate around for an hour... the place was jammed and aside from the rink guy, only 1 kid could actually skate, the others were all gripping the boards for dear life. You know you're in California when... How they keep that ice? We have no idea...
Once we get to Alcatraz we find out the boat tickets to and from are sold out until January 5th. That's why I couldn't get any... so I lucked out BIG TIME! Turns out Alcatraz is more like a museum than a tour. You just buy the boat ticket and once you're there you can see what you want. However they do offer an audio tour through the cellhouse that I highly recommend doing if you're there. It's included in the ticket. Unfortunately because I had to book with the boat cruise (and knowing what I know now...we should have done the boat cruise BEFORE Alcatraz) we only have barely 2 hours to see everything before needing to rush back to get to the other pier to catch the cruise. The audio tour is supposed to last abour 45 min so we figured we'd have enough time and then a little more to explore but you can pause the audio tour at any time and explore further which means it lasts even longer. By the time Mom, Kyle, Moo and I made it out we were already likely going to miss the boat we needed to catch but Dad was still way way way behind and there was no way we'd ever make it. Finally Dad comes out and we inform him that we missed the boat we needed to catch but had 2 options, stay on Alcatraz and keep exploring or rush down to catch the 305pm boat and hope we get to the other pier in time to catch the cruise... however if we rush and still miss it, we rushed for nothing. We decided to try the rush and Dad said he'd push it. So began the amazing race...
We make it back to mainland at 320 or so and now have to haul it about 1km to the other pier for 330. Off we go... walking so fast and dodging people from every angle, the 4 of us are racing to pier 43 1/2 trying desperately to make it. We arrive just after 330 and make it with plenty of time because they didn't start boarding until 345. Arseholes! We didn't need to rush like maniacs and take out little old ladies in the process. The boat cruise itself was nice and relaxing except we were sitting on the wrong side of the boat - it's an audio tour with one of those headsets and well as it's describing all of the landmarks as we go by, we were on the OTHER side and couldn't see any of them until the boat turned around and when it finally did loop back, she started talking about the landmarks we had just passed on the side we were on. We did get to watch the sunset though and that was great!
Dinner and hanging around Pier 39 topped off the night before heading back to the hotel for our last night in San Francisco. All in all, despite the really long lines, getting yelled at by bridge patrol, finding ourselves in a sketchy neighborhood and running the amazing race to catch a boat, San Fran is ok! It's not as warm as I thought it would be but nothing a comfy hoodie can't fix. We didn't see much but what we did see we really enjoyed. And the people are great!
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