Alcatraz: Photo #53

Today’s San Francisco Itenerary:

-Streetcar to the Ferry Building Market for late breakfast

-Cruise to and tour of Alcatraz begining at noon (included in Go Card, normally $41/person)

-Late lunch at Boudin’s Sourdough Bread Company

-Hour-long cruise around the bay and under the bridge (included in Go Card, normally $22/person)

-Walking tour of Chinatown

-Dinner in Chinatown

Sum total of admissions covered by the Go Card today: $63/person

Sum total of admissions covered by the Go Card so far: $146/person

Price paid for Go Cards: $130/person

Amount we are now ahead by: $16/person……sweet

 

Favorite things about the Ferry Building:

• Its sort of an upscale, indoor farmer’s market and reminded me a lot of Findlay Market in Cincinnati
• They had an entire store of gourmet mushrooms
• Its right on the waterfront so you can purchase some yumminess and eat it out on the boardwalk
• This store, who’s slogan is refreshingly straight-forward and veegan unfriendly (Tasty Salted Pig Parts):

 

Favorite things about Alcatraz:

• Birds everywhere – they’ve taken over the island – but not in a frightening, Hitchcock way, in a cute little bird-society way.
• It doesn’t dissapoint like some historical places – if you were to dream up what Alcatraz should look like, this would be it.  It had so much creepy atmosphere it seemed like an amusement park - like it was dreamed up by Disney as their ganster-era prison portion of MGM Studios.  Can’t believe its real. 
• The island has a lot of history I didn’t know about.  For instance: the original structures started out as a military base in the 19th century, then became a military prison, and then, finally, a federal penatentiary. 
• The island had some amazing, unexpected beauty.  Its covered in lush trees and vibrant, flowering vegetation planted by the families of soldiers and prison guards and by prisoners temselves.  Also, prison guards and their families lived on the island too.  So there was a little community with housing and recreation facilities including a bowling alley.  Many kids grew up on Alcatraz and took a ferry to school on the mainland each morning. 

  

 

We ate lunch at Boudin’s Sourdough Company where Randy had clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl and I had sourdough pizza – and Randy modeled what is sure to be the new fall fashion in men’s hats:*****The

 

After our late lunch we took an hour-long, narrated Golden Gate Bay cruise included in our Go Card.

*****

 

Favorite things about Chinatown:

• The front gate.  I think every community should have a cool front gate to let you know you are entering somewhere special.
• The realness.  The front streets are touristy, but when you go further in you realize its not for show – its people living their everyday lives.  Laundry drying from third story windows, dads and their daughters riding the streetcar to the grocery store, a man sitting on his front porch playing an ancient Chinese instrument I’m too lazy to look up the name of right now.
•  The YMCA andlocal  banks have all their signs and posters written in Chinese.
• We visited a park in the center of the neighborhood where we were the only non-Chinese people.  There were old men doing tai chi in one corner, parents and kids at the playground, and a large group of adults playing a game at some picnic tables.
• Basically everything about it.  Chinatown was my favorite neighborhood.  It fascinates me.

 

 

We rounded out the evening by eating dinner at a restaurant recommended by our guide book.  There were a few other tourists inside but much of the restaurant was occupied by a large Chinese birthday party, so the atmosphere was quite festive.  Randy and I ordered a family style meal which included curried egg rolls, barbecued pork ribs, won ton soup, fried rice, cashew chicken, and sweet and sour pork.  We could have gotten much more authentic dishes, but they contained a lot of scary ingredients and we weren’t feeling quite that adventurous.