One of the most popular things to do in San Francisco is to visit Alcatraz Island and that was today’s activity. We left the hotel around 8:45am and it took us about about 1/2 hour to get downtown. We did our research last night and found that 55 Francisco Public Parking besides being close to Pier 33, it also had reasonable rates ($27 USD for the day). The National Park Service manages Alcatraz Island as part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It has a contract with Alcatraz City Cruises ($41USD / adult, $25 USD / child) which provides access to the island. We had booked the 10:30am ferry.
The ferry ride to the island takes about fifteen minutes. I thought it was going to be chilly and windy but it was the exact opposite today. Once we arrived at the dock, a Park Ranger gave us a brief orientation. You can spend as long as you want on the island. The ferries going back to San Francisco leave about every 1/2 hour. The recommendation is to spend about two to three hours exploring the island.
The first thing we did was to go to the Alcatraz Cellhouse. As part of the ferry ride fee, you receive an audio tour. The tour is narrated by former inmates and corrections officers. To hear how life was in the prison from those that lived it, was surreal. You get to walk through some of the cell blocks including D Block where the worst of the worst were housed. We went into the Recreation Yard where the prisoners would play games such as baseball, basketball and chess. The tour ends in the dining room.
After leaving the cell house, we then walked around the island. The views back to San Francisco are amazing. You can see the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges. There are also many birds that call Alcatraz Island home. We were lucky enough to see some baby Western Gulls.
Once we got back to the mainland, it was about a seven minute walk over to Pier 39. It is a popular tourist attraction that has an aquarium, shops and restaurants. We grabbed a late lunch from Boudin Bakery Cafe and then went to check out the various stores.
The other thing that Pier 39 has is sea lions. The sea lions like to hang out on the docks. There were quite a few of them today. Besides sunning themselves, from time to time there seems to be some disagreements.
We finished up our today in San Francisco by driving down Lombard Street and having a quick stop at The Painted Ladies.
Dave and Cathy dropped the rest of us off at the hotel while they went and picked up some groceries. I relaxed in the pool while Michael, Liam and Karen played basketball. Thanks to Dave and Cathy we had a fabulous BBQ dinner. We ended our evening by watching “The Rock” and having fun picking out all of the sights we saw today.
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