Day two saw me up at 5am again due to sheer excitement of my impending trip to Alcatraz.

We left early to walk there, stopped in Starbucks, made a wrong turning on exiting Starbucks and had to run through San Francisco to get to the Pier on time. Eventually we got to the pier, onto the boat and on our 10 minute boat trip to the Island.

On arriving in Alcatraz you have a short talk from one of the guides giving you a brief history of the prison.

// Interesting fact #1

The prisoners believed they couldn’t swim back to mainland because of the sharks but in actual fact, as the water in the Bay is a mix of fresh and sea water so there are no sharks – Fooled ya!

// Interesting fact #2

Only three people have ever escaped from Alcatraz and not been found (assumed dead but they would say that woldn’t they!?)

Once the talk was over we chose to walk round the island for some photos before going into the prison to let the main boat trippers get out of the way first.

To get into it you are hearded round the shower room and past the checking in room. The showers were a little disconcerting as my mind was going wild with all the violence that’s probably taken place in there! Fiance also likened the look of them to the ’showers’ in Auswitsch which added to my over-active imagination.

Headphones on and you are free to wander at your own speed round the prison. My first impression was that it was a heck of a lot smaller than I imagined it would be, I assumed it would hold way more people than it looked like it would. I loved hearing about the history and snapping away on my camera at all the small details though I found the solitary confinement cells a little odd to be in and I couldn’t help but feel for them when I heard they could hear San Fran residents celebrating the New Year from across the bay.

Once the talk was over I went outside again and back round the walk I did that morning to get pics of it in the sun since the fog had since cleared. It was with a sad look on my face that we got back on the ferry and back to San Fran – I am probably one of the few people who has ever felt sad at leaving.

Afterwards we went along to Pier 39 where we went for lunch overlooking Alcatraz and watched loads of brown pelicans swooping all over the place.After lunch we took a walk round the pier to see the Pier 39 Sealions; there were literally hundreds of them barking and shouting and stinking! It was really good to see so many in one place. We then wandered back to the hotel via North Beach and grabbed a well deserved 40 winks or at least the Fiance did, I spent the time saying “when can we go out agiiiiiin, wheeeeeeeen? I’m borrrrrrred” (and repeat).

This was the night I was to meet with my cousin so we woke up as much as we could and went to meet him and ‘Mom’. We were whisked through the city and up to the Cliff House for dinner. It’s a fantastic Art Deco buliding with a decaying outdoor pool nearby and an small camera obscura. I couldn’t tell you what I had as that night is still abit of a sleep-deprived blur but I do know that thet Fiance still salivates at the thought of the Clam Chowder! Being at the Cliff House meant we had stunning views up the coast and of the brown pelicans – giving us a taste of what was to come along Route 1.

It was decided that we would have a post-dinner drive so we were driven literally all over San Francisco showing us the places to see (the Bay Bridge in the dark was ace!), things to do and even an eventful trip down a one way street (the wrong way!) I don’t think a single place was missed that night and we are truly grateful to Andrew and ‘Mom’ for taking the time to share it with us.