Alcatraz

Alcatraz is something we all see on the movies and gee it was really great to stand on that infamous island on Saturday.  We took one of the many cruise boats over from Pier 33 at 10am and did the self-paced audio tour.  This was fantastic.  The sounds, music, voices etc coming through the headphones made the history of Alcatraz all seem very real indeed.  The tour took about an hour and a half and it was worth it that's for sure.

 

 

 

Back on land, lunch was at Pier 39 (this is the area where the famous seals live).  It's an interesting story how they came to be there.  Once again I had another typically American salad.  I love how they seem to put anything and everything together and the flavours don't seem weird at all.  Their love of blue cheese, as I've mentioned before, and it's addition to many dishes is quite quirky I think and I really like it.  I'm not fussed though on this strong, vinegar-like dressing that I've tasted a few times.  I'm really unsure what it is...maybe Stacey you can tell me :)

Lombard Street is where we headed to next.  Most of us know it as the street in San Francisco that is famous for its one-way one-block section consisting of eight very tight hair-pin turns.  We took a cab to the top then walked all the way down as cabs are unable to do the drive.  Darren took a few photos that are just perfect - much better than mine.  This was so cool walking down and just watching everyone doing their own thing (taking photos or simply admiring the street).  I wonder what the residents of Lombard Street think of all this melodrama.

The end of our second last day in 'the bay area' as it's called....on the news anyway....was so much fun in so many ways.  We headed over to MarketBar again for dinner and on the way (walking up the piers once again) we saw the coolest kid playing the coolest music on the trumpet.  I ended up dancing with him and we had a few photos.  Good on you little boy, you made my night!