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USA 2009 – Day Five

September 8th, 2009 - 10:46pm - No Comments »

Day Five – 8th September 2009
San Francisco
22:46 – Nikko Hotel


Another early wake up call, again at 6:30am.

We take the F-Line streetcar – this one green, they are painted many different colours and styles after the city in which they were originally in service to. There are many styles too, from ones that look like ones in Melbourne (the old style) to retro futuristic 1990′s ones like the one we rode in.

At Pier 33, we grabbed a coffee and waited around for the ferry to Alcatraz Island for about half an hour. The ferry took only a few minutes and was packed.

On the island, we strolled past myriad buildings to where the actual jail is located. A free audio tour is provided and is actually a lot better that I expected. It provides history, stories and insight into the place, people and events.

One interesting thing I noticed is that hendes the solitary cells – all the cells had only bars, which means all prisoners had no privacy. Other jails I have visited, such as Fremantle and Melbourne, had a lot more privacy. I was albe to spend a few moments behind bars as well as inside the solitary. These were particularly grim.

As you can easily see the city from outside the prison, I can imagine how it must have felt being so close to freedom yet so far. Cells which were escaped from still had marks and holes from where the prisoners crawled through. Incredibly tiny.

After nearly 3 hours of touring the island—inside and out—we headed back.

In the city we strolled along Fisherman’s Wharf, we stopped at a restaurant whose name I have already forgotten for lunch. I had a delightful clam chowder in a sourdough bread roll. It was so good I got them to refill the roll! I had an Anchor Steam beer to accompany it. Justine had fish and chips.

Further along the wharf we bought some souvenirs and taffy. Passing a two-storey carousel we had more great views of Alcatraz Island. Just around the corner were hundreds of large seals, basking in the afternoon sun. Barking, honking and climbing on one another, the seals of black and brown shades smell of wet dog.

As we are not dog people—or at least wet dog people—we quickly moved on.

Our next stop was at Musee Mecanique, a fantastical place full of old arcade games from the 1800′s and onwards. The only place I’d ever seen anything like this was when I visited England as a child. Wookey Caves, I think it was. These vintage games fascinated me then and fascinate me now.

We played games such as an early 1900′s baseball game, where balls roll down a chute and you pull a trigger to swing. Later, we saw a photo booth from the 40′s or 50′s. They allowed 4 different poses and printed on black and white film. We enjoyed it enough that we did it a second time.

At the end of the wharf we were issued citations for not smiling enough. Obviously they were having a laugh and in the end it was actually for a local soup kitchen.

We saw a cable car but the line was long enough that we turned around and boarded a street car for a ride back to near our hotel. The street car was so crowded we barely fit. The driver did not seem to be competent and she kept doing what I called bunny hops. Finally she kept shouting at passengers. Funny stuff. I suppose she was in the wrong line of work.

In our hotel we washed some clothes in the bath and headed for the metro station.

The trains here are a cross between a train and a light rail. They travel underground and over. At AT&T Park, we disembarked and took our seats to see the San Francisco Giants play the San Diegos Padres. We left our $5 bill—which we had received a few days earlier in Las Vegas—at the Build-A-Bear store inside the park .

Baseball games run for about 3 hours, but if you think you’d get bored in that time, they’ve got you covered. There’s always something happening, from replays, to stats, to on-screen chants and more. Its almost hard to keep track of the game.

To eat, I had a chili dog: a hot dog covered in chili, raw onions, cheese and jalapeños. There were so many toppings I couldn’t even see the hot dog, let alone handle it with my hands. I washed it down with a Budweiser beer which, oddly, comes in a metal “bottle”. It was great for making noise by banging on the concrete floor. Justine had garlic fries and later we shared a “small” popcorn. Ok, I ate most of it.

During the game a ball flew into the crowed hitting a small girl. Later a bat broke and flew into the same area. In the end, San Francisco lost 4 runs to 3.

We walked back to our hotel in the dark. but it never felt unsafe. It was closer then we thought, as the train had taken a roundabout route to get to the stadium.

Tweets from today:

Photo statistics:

Where we went:

GPS Track

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