“G’day Mate!”
If I had $1 for the amount of times someone has said that to me here in the US (with a really bad Aussie accent put on by them), I’d have about $15 + tax.
The flight from Vegas to San Fran was rough to take off, but smooth when we touched down. After trying to work out the transit system (BART), it took us 30 minutes to get to Powell Street station, and from there we carried our luggage to our hotel on Bush Street. Little did I know that Bush street is 1/2 way up the famous hilly area of San Francisco. But then again, San Francisco IS known to be very hilly. If anything that the TV show Full House has taught me, is to take the bloody tram everywhere.
We checked in at 2pm, too early for our actual check in to the room. So we had more burgers at a cool little bar called “Oz”. When we arrived back at 4pm, I pretty much passed out, waking up at 3am to go to the bathroom then go back to bed.
5am on Day 14 – the alarm went off. We were up and ready, have breakfast at Roxanne’s Cafe around the corner from the hotel. Meat and cheese omelette went down a treat. We were all set for our Alcatraz tour. It was 8:20am and we had to be at Pier 33 at 9am for our cruise. As we walked, it turned out that what I thought would be 20 minutes to walk, ended up being 40 minutes. Reece was sick with a sore throat and headache, but he was pushing on. It was 8:50am and we were only at Pier 7. So we sprinted the rest of the way, and checked in at 8:58am. We hopped on to the ferry at 9am, and rested until the boat took off to the isolated island of Alcatraz. We learnt all about the history of the island and prisoners, such as Al Capone, “Machine Gun” Kelly, and the famous escapes of Alcatraz. The 1 & 1/2 audio tour was amazing, and the island freely available to walk around in most areas. The air was fresh and clean, and the flora and fauna so beautiful. With derelict buildings looking amazing to study, it’s odd to believe that it was the ‘inescapable’ prison for hardcore criminals, only being a 2 mile swim to San Fran itself. If they attempted to swim, you’re guaranteed to freeze or drown.
We walked further along the pier, and found the Soup Man (Soup Nazi) and Jimmy Rockets restaurants to have lunch,. The soup was so damn delicious, and we had the chocolate malts from the 1950’s themed Jimmy Rockets. After lunch, we casually walked back to the hotel, heading through Chinatown, walking up the steep hills. We got back to the hotel about 4pm, rested, and now I lead up to this post.
Reece is still feeling under the weather, so I’ve pumped him full of headache and cold & flu drugs, while trying to organise dinner – pizza it is.
Tomorrow, I hope to get to Golden Gate Bridge and check out Lombard Street.