October 31, 2006
Alcatraz
On Monday (10/23), Bob, Sugar, and I took the long way to San Francisco. We had wanted to catch BART at the Fremont station, but got there too late and couldn't find a single parking spot anywhere. So we decided to drive up via the east bay and get into SF via the Bay Bridge. Once we got there we parked near Fisherman's Wharf and checked it out for a while before catching the ferry to Alcatraz. While we were at Fisherman's Wharf we checked out the Boudin bakery and Bob and I split a whole Dungeness Crab ($19) and a sourdough bread bowl of clam chowder. Both were pretty good. We had to walk down to Pier 33 to catch our ferry to Alcatraz since Hornblower won the contract with the Park Service recently. The ferry ride over the island was quiet and uneventful, and once we got to Alcatraz we did the audio tour through the cell block. I think that was my third time doing the audio tour, and it is still pretty good. :-) The only drawback of going was that there were people everywhere, so it was hard to get up next to the cells or read all the information. The night tours are much better for that, but the drawback to the night tour is that it is much colder. After finishing our tour we caught the ferry back to SF and caught a bus to North Beach. We walked around North Beach for a little while and stopped at truffle place for a treat as well as Panta Rei for paninis. Then we hit Stella Pastry for some cannolis. After that we high tailed it back to my truck and hit Citizen Cake on our way out of town. Unfortunately they were closed, so Bob and Sugar had to go back another day.