Jill here!
So we spent the day in San Fransisco. We arrived mid morning (after getting slightly lost and managing to end up crossing the bay bridge by accident, which involved a slight detour!) and managed to book some tickets to take a boat to see Alcatraz later in the afternoon.
No you can't have any of our cheescake
We headed to Union Square on the trolley bus to take a look around the shops. We also had lunch there, in the Cheesecake Factory on the sky terrace of Macy’s Department Store. The food was amazing…including the oreo mudslide cheesecake we shared! We also nearly shared lunch with the biggest, scariest seagull I have ever seen (and you know how keen I am on birds!) staring at us the whole time!
We took the trolley bus back up to Fisherman’s Wharf to make our way round to Pier 31 to get the boat. We somehow ended up in conversation with a woman who was from Holywood! She had overheard us talking and presumably figured out where we were from! So she decided to join us on our boat trip. She hadn’t however booked a ticket, so she didn’t get going after all, but we were chatting to her for a good while!
Azkaban?
The trip to Alcatraz was interesting. It’s a 12 minute boat trip from the harbour. We were able to walk round the island, and see into most of the buildings. The best bit was the audio tour of the cellblock. They give you a headset with an MP3 type device, that takes you on the tour. It is narrated by former officers and inmates from the prison. We got to see round the cells, hear about prison life…and the various escape attempts! So it was well worth a trip.
us and the city
Back on dry land, we took a walk along pier 39. Loads of shops…including a left handed shop! I got very excited! The sun was almost down by this stage, so we got to see the sunset over the golden gate bridge. Then we rounded the corner to a LOT of noise. Sealions everywhere! All being big and ugly and noisy! It was really quite funny! Unfortunately it was quite dark by this stage!
We ate in the Hard Rock Cafe and then made our way back to the hotel…and that just about brings us to the end of our time here in San Fransisco! Tomorrow, we head down the Pacific Highway, making our way towards Los Angeles for our flight on Wednesday evening.
