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We left from Savannah at 4PM on Thursday, January 29th. We flew into San Francisco very early Friday. We first thought about taking the SuperShuttle. We realized how much money we could save and decided to opt for the cheap way to get to the center of town where our hotel was. We crashed in our hotel room. Though it didn’t matter much, the room was very large. Score one for shopping for hotels on Hotwire.com. Relatively early (10AM east coast time) we got up in search of food. The concierge at the hotel suggested the diner caddie-corner across from the hotel.

After eating a quick breakfast and drinking some of the best fresh squeezed orange juice ever, we took off to conquer the city of San Francisco. We hiked a few blocks to the nearest cable-car: a must-do in San-Francisco.

The cable-car dropped us off pier-side. When we got to the pier, we picked up our CityPass’es: the ticket packs which made us the elite tourists of the city. This book also gave us free reign of public transit, though it gave the bus driver a heads-up as to the fact that we definitely didn’t know where we were going. The main reason for picking up the tickets that morning though was the ticket inside to Alcatraz, “The Rock”, legendary home of the “Bird Man”, Al Capone, and other famous felons. We got there a little early and grabbed some coffee and hot chocolate before we left on the boat.


There were about 100 folks there from all over going to see Alcatraz. We were greeted by National Park Rangers to guide us in the right and wrong ways of seeing the island.
They also told us about a nature tour of the island. Although it was a side note of their spiel, we took it. After all, we can’t let an island that “has evolved over billions and billions of years” go to waste (wink-wink, nod-nod). Much to the surprise of anyone who has walked the side trails of Alcatraz, “the Yuca trail” is home to abundant plant and bird life and incredible views.


Most of the birds were out of season, no doubt vacationing in a warmer climate. The plants were still there though as was the 30-second interval of the fog horn in the little white house that can be seen in the picture above. After the walking tour of the outer edge of the island, we headed up to the tourist part of the island for our tour of the working part of the island.


During our stay “on the rock” we took an audio tour of the mess hall, a couple of the cells, checked out the exercise grounds, and yes, we even were locked in solitary confinement. Don’t particularly want to go back there. If they made prisons like that still, not as many people would want to do time.
From there, we took the ferry back to San Francisco. We had hoped to do the trolley tour through the city that afternoon, but after eating lunch and then heading to the office for our tour, we were informed that the last tour left at three and we were too late. So, we hiked up the mountain to Coit Tower. We were told that Coit Tower is a tribute to firemen in that its shape is intended to resemble a fire-hose nozzle.


After the hike up the mountain, which happens to be the highest point in the city, we decided to take the bus from the bus stop on top of the hill. We headed for Chinatown.

After dinner and Chinatown, we headed back to the hotel to rest our aching legs.
Saturday
We were the first on the trolley tour. The driver was from Hawaii of all places and a fairly nice individual. Our first stop was the Palace of Fine Arts. It’s a beautiful place, which probably deserves a full-page spread but only will get the size picture of everything else in this letter.

The Palace was built for a big Pan-Pacific Fair. Although originally made out of wood, the design was so popular that the city of San Francisco decided to embalm the structure in concrete to preserve the detail and grandeur.
We then got back on the trolley and headed toward the token landmark of San Francisco: the Golden Gate Bridge.

We first stopped at a War of Northern Aggression (civil war for you yanks) era fort at the base of the bridge. We quickly scaled the interior of the fort to reach the top for a picture op.

We both agreed that it was very strange to find a fort here dwarfed by the massive bridge and it was one place that the both of us would have liked to spend more time given the chance. From there, we took the trolley up to the actual bridge. We spent a little time there but didn’t get the exceptional photos that we wanted.
After the trolley ride, we made our way back to the pier for lunch and then headed to another one of our ticketed destinations – the Exploritorium. The Exploritorium is a hands-on children’s science place. It kept us busy but we didn’t get as much out of it as a child would.

We headed back to the pier for dinner and to explore Ghirardelli square: home of the most San Francisco-ish chocolate.

After that, you guessed it, we finally went back to the hotel. We were both pretty tired because it seemed like we had walked the whole city.
Sunday

We woke up a little early and it was bright and clear, no smog, amazing for San Francisco. We put on our Sunday best and headed up to the Golden Gate Bridge to see if we could get a great picture or two before church.


As luck would have it, the beautiful day was reflected in the pictures that we got of the bridge.
We headed to church at, hands-down, the most conservative church in San Francisco. The church is attended by folks all across the area so lunch was provided. We were the only ones that didn’t bring something. While we were there, we met a 20 year old Marine reservist who went through boot camp at beautiful Parris Island, SC. For some reason, he didn’t have fond memories of that gorgeous island.
After lunch we headed to the Palace of the Legion of Honor on the northernmost tip of the city.

We looked around the museum and enjoyed some real art. We visited with the thinker but he wouldn’t tell us what he had been thinking about.

We caught a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. Doesn’t look that much different than the Atlantic. Jenny left the next morning to go back to the East coast. I left the next morning to spend a week at a conference in the center of Silicon Valley: San Jose.