Tuesday 10-Oct-2006 - 22:30
San Francisco Day 3
Another tiring, tiring day has been had.
Starting out at about 9:45 I hobbled down Broadway to find the Amtrak Ticket office. I wanted to get all my train tickets and arrange a bus ticket to take me from San Francisco to Emmeryville to connect with my Seattle train before the tomorrow (the day I actually need the tickets and bus). For the most part everything was fine - even though my voucher had a my name as MR. K. LIGTEN. I did have to pay an extra $10US because they had had a price increase since I bought the ticket. Go figure. Anyway, I now have in my possession five rail/bus tickets to get me from San Francisco-Emmeryville (11-Oct), Emmeryville-Seattle (11-Oct), Seattle-Minneapolis (14-Oct), Minneapolis-Boston (18-Oct) and Boston-New York (25-Oct).
After picking up the tickets I wandered gingerly along the wharfs to Fisherman's Wharf. Can you see a pattern here? Hobbling, gingerly... Yep, those feet of mine are still hurting. Lucky I'm on my own because if anyone was with me I'd be whinging all the way ;) Along the way I passed Pier 33, which is where the Alcatraz cruises depart from. I was a bit taken back to see a demonstration taking place. People with placards were marching around and one guy had a megaphone yelling at everyone - "Don't go to the Rock! Get a refund!" From what I can tell it had to do with the change over of companies running the Alcatraz cruises. It changed towards the end of last month and I'm guessing that the new company didn't keep the 'old' staff.
I continued on to Wharf 39 to take a look around. I couldn't believe it when I got to the end and found that there were about 100 Sea Lions making a ruckus, lying on wooden pontoons. By the time I'd made it down to the end it was time for lunch so I grabbed a Cheese Meltdown Pretzel. Sorry Mum, I couldn't bring myself to try the Sourdough Bread or shrimp or chowder :) It's all about the seafood... Wonder why ;)
I had just about enough time to go into a tourist shop and buy a San Francisco baseball cap. I forgot to bring a hat and for the last two days it's been so sunny that I've actually got sun burnt. $3.99 (plus tax) later I had my cap and I was off to face the picket line at the Alcatraz cruise. But alas, the demonstrators had already moved on.
We set sail for Alcatraz at 14:20 and arrived some 10 minutes later. For the first time on this trip I got really, really, really excited. The tour of the prison island didn't disappoint either. It was really well done. I didn't find it creepy or anything although parts were a bit graphic. Some of the prisoner stories they included were a nice touch as they were things you probably wouldn't read about. Like how the inmates caused havoc when they received Spaghetti for dinner one too many times.
If I was to visit Alcatraz again I would definitely get an earlier cruise. The last boat leaves the island at 16:30 so you don't really get enough time to wander around to look properly.
After Alcatraz, I limped back to Pier 39. I really did enjoy this place and I suspect I may even end up back there tomorrow if I find myself at a loose end. First stop this time though was Dyers Ice Cream for my first Cookie Dough Ice Cream of my trip. I can't believe it's taken me almost three days to find one! I took a photo of it to preserve the memory. Yum!
I checked out all the shops I'd missed earlier and then stopped at Mrs. Fields Cookies to get a Double Fudge Brownie for later tonight. It's an experiment of sorts - to see how they compare to the ones back home. All for science's sake ;)
Ooh, I should mention too that in one of the lolly shop windows, a box of Violet Crumbles had centre stage. It was nice to see something from back home. I later saw a Flake also but that had what looked like Arabic writing on it. Not sure what was doing with that.
The best way back to downtown from the Wharf is by Cable Car. I found it and jumped on board - hanging off the running board again. I LOVE those things! As we got nearer to Market Street there were seats free. I sat - the little voice in my feet told me to - but there was an Australian guy who refused to sit saying: "We have trams in Melbourne but we're not allowed to do this! We'd get arrested!". He had a point.
After a brief bit of shopping at Old Navy I went next door to my favourite store - Walgreens - to get my photos transferred to CDs. I've already taken around 1GB worth photos (approx. 230 photos). I sure hope there is a Walgreens in every city I visit. At this rate I am going to come back with about 20 CDS full of photos. As I said to Emma earlier, I was doing really well with limiting the photos I had taken until Alcatraz. Having said that, I haven't been holding back either. For example, I am sure I didn't need the five photos I took of the squirrels I saw in Golden Gate Park yesterday but we don't have them back home and they were really, really cute :) And no, Dad, I didn't pat them.
I ended up catching a Cable Car back up the hills to the hostel, getting a slice of Pizza for dinner and eating it in the 'Ballroom' whilst other guests played some kind of drinking game involving three large tables, cups of beer and a ping pong ball. I declined to play... Sounded like a young folk's game ;)
That was about an hour ago. I haven't even made it up as far as my room because I was afraid once I got up there I wouldn't want to come back down. But now I must face the stairs of torture for what may be the last, or second last time.
Tomorrow morning I check out of here before leaving for Seattle. I do have a full day before I leave at 21:25 tomorrow night but I am not sure what to do. Jill mentioned hiring a bike and riding across the bridge. I am contemplating that because I haven't actually made it as far as the bridge yet, although that does seem like a long, long way. I'm not sure that I would actually make it across before I collapsed but I may give it a go. I'll see how me and my feet are feeling and decide tomorrow morning.
I don't think I'll get a chance to update this tomorrow because I am 'homeless' for the night. You know, spending it on the train and all. I am almost 110% certain that Amtrak does not have a high-speed internet connection available... especially not to those of us in 'Cattle Class'.
Bye for now.
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