Trip Report - Day Three ~ Part One

It's our last day in San Francisco already? But we just got here!

We packed up our stuff (including the huge bag of chocolate I bought on our first day...and am still working on finishing over a month later) and headed down to the lobby where I enjoyed another delicious blueberry muffin. We had to leave our bags with bell services since we weren't picking up our rental car till that afternoon. We had to wait for a bit, but eventually someone showed up, we checked like 5 bags, and headed back outside into the 50 degree weather.

Finally no fog! Beautiful.

We'll be back here later - The Cannery.

Our goal? To ride the damn cable car finally!

The Powell/Hyde cable car started (or ended, depending on how you look at it) right near our hotel, so we took a ride over there. I wanted to go first thing in the morning because I had seen longer lines later in the day. It was nice and quiet over there. We bought our tickets, which amounted to $5 each way for each of us. Expensive, right? Well, you can get a pass for cheaper but there was no point in us doing that at this point. There was a car about to leave, and we could have gotten on if we wanted to stand, but we decided to wait for the next one. Standing on the cable car...not the safest looking thing to do. Those things pass very close to cars and other cable cars! But...we'll get to that later.

Took this video while we waited:





So we waited awhile for the next car, and we were the first ones on. The car filled up pretty quickly because a line had formed behind us and so before we knew it we were heading up the hill and riding the cable car!





I was filming as much as I could and enjoying the view until the second stop - that's when this guy got on and stood right in front of me. He couldn't stand in front of someone not clearly filming? Thanks a lot, buddy. Anyway, I tried my best to film around him. He got off at like the second to last stop.





Riding the cable car was really cool. I don't know how the brakemen control those things. Cars zoom around them, and they have to stop at traffic lights - it's pretty crazy. I think the video tells the story better than words could. But we rode the cable car all the way to the end, which was Union Square. And you have to get off at the end of the line.

The line to get back on the cable car? SUPER LONG.

And we were a long, long way from Fisherman's Wharf.

Oh well! Might as well make the best of it. We wandered around Union Square, and ended up in the huge, beautiful mall. This was probably the nicest mall I've ever seen. It had escalators that kind of curved around like spiral staircases. And it was packed full of high end stores, of course. There was also a really nice looking movie theater. And there was a gorgeous dome. It was pretty big, and we explored the whole thing but didn't go in any of the stores.

The beautiful dome.

Once we were sick of that, we started thinking about how we would get back. There was no way I was waiting on that long time. So we decided to walk a ways back up the cable car line, and just catch it at another one of the stops. We wanted to check out Lombard Street anyway, which is right along the cable car route.

So we started walking. In San Francisco. And have I mentioned how hilly it is in San Francisco?

A beautiful city it may be, but a walkable city it is not.





But we toughed it out. And we walked up about three or four stops. This British couple joined us in waiting for the cable car. One came along after a few minutes, but there wasn't a lot of room on it. We let the British couple go ahead of us since we saw another one was coming right behind it. So we got on that one instead. I got to sit, but Brian had to stand and hang on for dear life. He wasn't too thrilled with this, but it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be.





But there was a problem! We were on the Powell/Mason line! Oops! Wrong line! Brian discovered this - I had no idea. We came to a stop where we could transfer, so we hopped off and waited for the right cable car line. This car was crowded too, but we were able to stand inside - at least there was no hanging off the side this time! We listened to a family from San Francisco chat with a family from Canada. It was funny, because the San Francisco family were acting like such tourists - they had small children with them, I'm thinking maybe the kids had never been on a cable car before?

At no point did anyone ask to see those extra, expensive tickets we had paid for. What up, California? And this wasn't the last experience we had with that.


The stop for Lombard Street came, and we got off. Lombard Street is really cool. There are houses right there, and people literally have driveways right on the street. I wouldn't want that to be my driveway! The view from there was awesome, and there are stairs leading down, so we walked down the street. Lots of people were driving down at the snail pace of 5 mph. Lombard Street is part of the much advertised 40-something mile drive through San Francisco.

Check out that view!

Yeah, it's just a little windy.

Me taping, what a shock!

Lots of cars coming down!

After taking some pictures and video, we decided to head back down the hills towards the Bay and find somewhere to have lunch. Along the way, we saw a truck that had run into a pole (the truck was hardly damaged at all - it wasn't a bad accident or anything) and there were a couple of police and firetrucks around. So, I took a picture by the firetruck. One of two accidents we saw in California, and the only one I wish I saw.


The walk back was nice. The streets in San Francisco are so much quieter than any other city I've ever been to.

Do not do this in New York City unless you want to wind up in a hospital.

Once we were back in tourist land, we headed to this place called The Cannery. If you guessed that it used to be a cannery, you're right! Anyway, now it's a bunch of shops and restaurants, but there really isn't much there. It's kind of a shame, because the building is really cool. We went in a sock store, but didn't buy anything. According to the directory, there was supposed to be a hot dog place in there somewhere, but we didn't see it. Maybe it closed. We kind of just wanted to grab some hot dogs, but since that clearly wasn't going to happen, we decided to go to The Buena Vista, which had been recommended to us. It's the first place in the U.S. to serve Irish coffee.




It's right by the cable car stop, so we headed on over. I don't remember exactly what time it was - kind of early for lunch - maybe somewhere between 11 and 12? Anyway, the place was small and it was packed! We walked through the whole thing and there wasn't a seat to be had - even at the bar. It's kind of a casual place, and there's really no one there to seat you. It's really pretty inside though. We weren't sure what to do, and we were just kind of standing there when the bus boy found us a table - a table for six! But we sat down anyway. And I was cold! So I just ordered some hot tea and a grilled cheese. Brian had the Irish Coffee and I forgot what he ate - maybe a hamburger?

Anyway, we were sitting there for a few minutes when an older man and his grandson approached us and asked if they could share our table. Of course we said sure. We had a table for six, and we were only 2 people after all. Anyway, the man was very nice and his grandson was adorable. (I think he was about 4.) He was from CA - just outside San Francisco, and we started telling stories about New York and such. He was very emotional about 9/11, and talked about how much he admired the NY police and firefighters. Since his grandson was visiting and they were planning to ride the cable car, Brian gave him our tickets that no one had taken on our return trip.

Mmm...Irish Coffee.

We had a very nice meal. The little boy, Casey, was very well behaved. The older man got an Irish coffee too and he got crab cakes that he offered to share with us, but we don't eat crab. Anyway, when our check came, the older man grabbed it and insisted on paying! We tried to talk him out of it, but he was insistant. He told us in exchange we could just buy a drink for a cop or firefighter from the Hurley family. It was so nice of him! Needless to say we thanked him profusely and headed back out to kill some time before we picked up our rental car.

So we wandered down in the direction of Ghiradelli Square, but we stayed at sea level. No more hills for us! There was this historic bathhouse place, so we walked inside. There wasn't much in there - just a pretty mosaic on the wall and a nice view of the Bay outside.

Shot this out there:




I thought we could walk down these steps and head to the path that runs along the Bay, but there was like a senior center down there with a bunch of older people exercising. Um, nope! Can't go that way! So we went back outside and found our way to the path and just walked along the bay for awhile. It was really nice. I miss San Francisco! It's such a fantastic city - I can't wait to go back.

The Rock

After that we found our way to this free ship museum. I know it sounds boring as hell, but it actually wasn't that bad - and there were benches! They had an interesting section on shipwrecks (there have been plenty off the coast) that I spent time reading about. When it was nearly time to pick up our rental car, we headed back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, and had the valet call us a cab. (Using this interesting whistle... I had never seen anything like it. But then again I don't really ask valets to call me cabs in large cities.)

Just one more thing I want to say before I forget - at some point I decided I wanted to get the paper - you know, the San Francisco Chronicle. I decided I wanted the newspaper from every city I visited. Well, that dream died right in our first city. I could not find one! I tried a couple of drugstores (they carry the paper here in NY!) and even our hotel gift shop, but they did not have it. Unless I wanted USA Today I was out of luck. Very strange. Oh well.

Next!

Oh god, we really do have to drive here!
Another lovely mall...
The clothes here are better. They just are.

Trip Report ~ Day Two - Part Two

And so day two of our trip continues in the lovely city of San Francisco.

Only we were about to embark to a place that isn't quite so lovely. In fact, I referred to it as the "Unhappiest Place on Earth" - hey, something had to be opposite of Disneyland. I think Alcatraz fit the bill.

Our night tour left at 4:20, and I knew we had to be there about an hour before, so after relaxing and uploading my videos, we left our hotel room at about 3 and took the walk to Pier 33. It wasn't too far.

Once we got there I picked up the tickets, and noted the tours were now sold out until Thursday! I'm so glad I got the advice to buy my tickets online a few weeks before! (If you're planning to go to Alcatraz, I can't stress that enough!) Tickets in hand, we got in line to wait for the ferry. They didn't keep us waiting out in the cold for too long. Soon enough we were moving towards the boat. They made us pose for a picture in front of this Alcatraz backdrop like we were having some Disney character breakfast. the photo was also ridiculously overpriced - like $25 bucks or something for a 5x7. Et tu, National Parks Service?

Once aboard the boat, we chose to stay on the first level near the door so we could get off quick when we docked. We grabbed some seats and eventually we pulled out, heading for the island.

I actually taped the entire voyage out, but it was too long to upload to YouTube - over 10 minutes. Along the way we heard the history of the island and got some pretty nice views of the bay and the bridge. When we were nearly there we passed a buoy that had seals on it! Unfortunately it was on the other side of the boat, so I didn't get very good video. But it was cool.

Once we arrived at the island, they explained how we'd be walking up a steep incline towards the island. They did have a transport that took people who couldn't make the walk to the top. Anyway, when they opened the doors we were in the first group that headed up. We had a guide and along the way he paused to tell us a bit more about the history of the place.

Down near the docks. You can still see the evidence of the Native American occupation in the 70's.

This, if I remember correctly, was once the Officer's club - both when it was a military prison and a federal prison. It was burned down during the Native American occupation.

It was a pretty steep walk up there! It kind of zig zags - you climb one big hill, turn a corner, and then go up another big hill. One of the stories we heard along the route was how once someone took the tour who had actually served time on Alcatraz - he can now be heard on the audio tour.

At last we arrived at our destination. The prison.



So we were taking the Night Tour - which I cannot recommend enough. It included the audio tour, the guidebook (which you usually have to pay like a dollar for, it's not very big) and tons of extra talks about the prison, but I'll talk more about that later. For now we were led into the building to pick up our headsets - and we got to see the showers.

Yeah, this looks like fun.

So we picked up our headsets and put them on to start the tour. I was happy that they were real headphones - not those stupid ear buds that don't stay in my ears.

If you've never taken an audio tour before (as I hadn't, before this one) they basically lead you around by telling you where to go - so there are a lot of people moving to the same areas at once! You can pause at any point, which is good if you want to hang back a bit. I took advantage of this a few times. It was also kind of weird because it was so quiet in there with everybody listening to the audio tour! Alcatraz creeped me out enough as it was. It was pretty scary in there, honestly. And just thinking about all the history there...I was a bit unsettled! But it the audio tour was really fascinating. Definitely don't tour Alcatraz without it!

So one of the first things we saw, was a cell. There are a lot of them, as you can probably imagine! Now I'd never seen a prison outside of TV or movies before (thankfully!) so I had no idea what to expect. And I was a little surprised, as this video shows:



After that the audio tour really got started, and we saw pictures of the 4 former inmates and 4 former guards that we would hear on the tour. And then everyone started shuffling around at the same time.

Our crappy camera sometimes takes some pretty neat pictures in low lighting. There are 3 rows of cells on each side. It's really overwhelming.

A better look at a cell.

The most dangerous place on Alcatraz - the kitchen and mess hall. They had the actual benches you could sit on...I declined. Creepy!

A view of the recreation yard.

Brian inside a cell. Again, I declined. Have I used the word creepy yet?

Hmm... This might be a picture of D-Block - where the difficult prisoners were kept. This was also where "the hole" cells were - you know, the isolation cells. You could go in one if you wanted. Brian did.



I, once again, declined. ULTIMATE CREEPY. You can see on the video how QUIET it was in there.

This damage on the floor was done during the battle of Alcatraz - an escape attempt gone horribly, horribly wrong. There were a lot of escape attempts on Alcatraz, but this one resulted in the deaths of a few guards and so much control at the prison was lost that marines had to drop grenades down to try and subdue them. This is damage from the grenades.

Eventually we got to see the administration offices and such - then we were led outside where we got a great view of San Francisco at night. It was pretty cold outside though, so we didn't stay outside too long. Though it wasn't much warmer in the prison.

Administration offices.

After this we learned about the famous escape attempt where the two brothers and their friend put fake heads in their beds and escaped on a boat of raincoats - they were never found. We'd learn much more about escape attempts later.

After the audio tour ended, we had our choice of a few talks that were happening that night - this was all included in the night tour. There was a talk about bank robbers, escape attempts and a cell door demonstration that we were interested in. There were two more boats leaving that night - I think the earlier boat left a little after 7 and the later boat left around 7:40. They made sure to let everyone know that they would make sure everyone got on that last boat! (Can you imagine getting left behind? Yikes.)

Anyway, first we went to the bank robbers talk. Many of the prisoners on Alcatraz were bank robbers. It was interesting - she gave us a little quiz to see how well we knew what it took to make a bank robbery attempt more successful. I got all the questions right!

After that we went outside to wait for the escape talk. It was cold, cold, cold outside now! It was pitch dark, and we were on an island in the middle of the bay. Brian had brought a hat with him that he didn't want, so I quickly stole it.


Anyway, despite being cold, this talk was AWESOME. In one of the escape attempts, the convict managed to steal a whole military uniform over YEARS, finally sneak on a boat - only to sail to nearby Angel Island where he was quickly caught and returned. In another attempt, the guy actually managed to swim all the way to the shore near San Francisco, but he was suffering from hypothermia and passed out. The teenagers who found him called the police. It was a really fascinating talk.

After that there was a little time before the cell door demonstration, so we checked out the store. Brian got on line to buy a few things and the line moved super slow because the store was closing soon so everybody could get the hell off creepo island. So we were a little late to the demonstration. But we made it in time to watch them open and close the doors a few times - you can see why they call jail the slammer. They could open all doors at once, or just one if that's what they needed to do. And when a door was open you could see it perfectly because of the red paint on the inside of the door.

After that we headed back down toward the dock. We caught some of another talk on escape attempts, but this guy wasn't as interesting as the first talk.

While we waited for the boat to board, I recorded this:



On the boat back, we sat in pretty much the same place. I was starving, and while there was a snack bar on the boat, it was nothing I wanted. The people who worked on the island were also on the boat, which makes sense. It really was the last boat off!

After we disembarked, we looked for our overpriced picture just to see how terrible it turned out - pretty terrible. Then we started walking back to the hotel. We were both hungry and just wanted to grab something quick - so we started wondering if there was a McDonald's nearby. We hadn't seen one yet. I knew there as an In & Out Burger on the Wharf somewhere, but in the dark who wants to go wandering around, you know? Anyway, believe it or not we ran across a McDonald's. Lucky us! So we got some food there (I think I got chicken nuggets), took it back to our room, and just relaxed for the rest of the night.

In conclusion, the Alcatraz tour was AWESOME. Take the night tour. It's totally worth it. It's really well done.

Next time:
Omg, we have to drive in California?!
Mmm...cookies.
No firearms in the theater?!

The Super (Ad /Puppy) Bowl

Watch the Super Bowl? I did. I'm so not into football, but I always end up watching it anyway. There's something about the Super Bowl...it's like an unofficial holiday. Last year I had tickets to something and didn't watch, and I felt strangely empty. Anyway, I actually enjoyed the game (Congrats to the Saints) and the half time show - but what's always talked about almost as much as the game itself?

The commercials, of course.

I, like many people, usually hate commercials. Most of them are just so stupid. There are very few commercials in my entire life that I actually enjoyed watching. The Super Bowl is like the most expensive ad time a company can buy all year, and for good reason, and most of them feel they better bring it. And they damn well better. Because people are waiting for those entertaining ads.

Well, this year I felt the game was better than the ads. But I did enjoy a few:


Monster.com Beaver - this was adorable!!


Betty White for Snickers... I think everybody enjoyed this one. Betty White is awesome.



Griswolds!! I laughed my ass off at that one, I must admit. This is the full length "movie" the commercial had clips from. It's pretty entertaining.



Bud Light House - My favorite of the beer commercials.



Careerbuilder.com - Casual Friday. Ew. But hilarious.



There were a couple of other good ones - you can visit Hulu to rewatch any you liked.

Of course, there were a couple I did like, like the GoDaddy.com ads (Totally lame), I've never been a fan of the eTrade babies, the only Doritos one I liked was the one with the Samurai, the TruTV one with the football player Groundhog was horrible, as was the one with Kiss (for Dr. Pepper, I think.)

But the cutest thing on TV yesterday? The puppy bowl, of course. How can you NOT love puppies, a kitten halftime show, bunny cheerleaders that sleep the whole time and hamsters in a blimp! If you missed it, you can check out highlights over at Animal Planet's website. Watch out for that unnecessary rough-rough-roughness and excessive napping.

Tune In To...Great SNL Clips

This clip is kind of old...but I love it.

And then there's this one... I still quote this one all the time - "What you swattin' at?"

Video Games I've Beaten - the Video Companion

Time is bit short today, so I thought I'd share some great videos involving the games I posted about yesterday. Enjoy!

This is the famous video where the kid beat Super Mario Bros. 3 in 11 minutes - it's totally not legit, but still neat to watch anyway.

Here's a 9 minute-ish speed run through Maniac Mansion. You rescue Sandy, kids!


And finally, here's the last few levels of the Barbie game - including that horrible level with the moving floor I was telling you about. And the bone chilling last boss.