VACATION!! Day 3

I know you have all been dying to hear the continuing story of our fabulous vacation, so on to Day 3! The first day in San Francisco!! Whoo-Hoo!

We didn't have to get up too early this day since San Jose isn't terribly far from SF. We checked in to our hotel, armed ourselves with maps, info and plans and took off to see the sights!!

We rode the Cal-train for the first time... we felt like tourists trying to get tickets from the machine! :/ We got into Downtown and then caught a bus to go down toward the pier! (We bought tickets online for Alcatraz, so we wanted to kinda check out where it was so we wouldn't miss it!) Here's when we REALLY felt like tourists since we were asking the bus driver where we get off to get there! They all were really helpful and nice though, and it wasn't all that bad.

We got off at Ghiradelli... MMmmm! We thought about having ice cream, but never got around to it... it was pretty chilly! (52 degrees... which isn't bad normally, but next to the water made it colder and that was at noon!) Anyway, we headed down along the waterfront and, of course, had to stop at Boudin for some AWESOME sourdough bread bowl chili! YUM! I just wasn't used to seeing so many darn birds! And they are brave too! Some dork left his bowl unattended and the birds went for it!! He managed to salvage it, but just barely.

We walked the rest of the way down the pier, past Pier 39 and all the shops (that was for another day!) And then, TA-DA! There was Pier 33! We got here early so we hung out in the souvenir shop for a bit checking out all the stuff. (I'm not gonna lie, I usually get sucked in to buying something!) We started a habit of collecting magnets of places we travel to. It's cheaper than clothing, and lasts longer too! After getting our souvenirs safely ensconced we headed out to board the ship!! I won't really say much more except to label the photos!!!

Soni on our ferry ride over

Leaving SF behind!!

Caught a bird in flight... it was following our boat and yes, it was WINDY!

View from behind

First close up view from the ferry

View of The Golden Gate Bridge from our Ferry over to the Rock!

These are the showers... where a convict was first taken... Wonder what missionaries would have thought if it was like this at the MTC!

Just an empty cell.

You know me... I gotta be different! I would hate to have to really use a toilet in a cell like this!

Soni chilling in a cell... she was reluctant to lay on the bed! HAHA!

A cell someone tried to escape from.

Cell Block D.. I just wanted this picture b/c that's where the hardened criminals stay (& where Sean Connery's character supposedly was when they filmed The Rock). The guards told us they actually filmed it in Cell Block A which was dark, gated and kinda off-limits. Oh well.

Me in solitary... it smelled musty and was DARK! *shiver*

View of the outside tower

The view as we were sailing away... Goodbye Alcatraz!

After Alcatraz (no we weren't scared after seeing it... we don't believe in ghosts!) came the daunting task of getting back to the Cal-train station and making our way back to our hotel! Let's just say, easier said than done! We got miserably lost, saw a rat, walked past a crazy lady having a fight with some girl that wasn't there (she kept saying the B word and making threats), walked past some tough looking guys having a fight, and finally got directions from a drunk, that turned out to be okay, to Cal-train. It was a different station, but it got us where we wanted to go!! HOME!