Most Expensive Bottle of Water In History

After the marathon day yesterday we were really struggling to stay awake last night so we had an early dinner at a faux English pub nearby and back to the hotel and both asleep by about 8pm. We were woken at 3:30am by a police siren so tick there is another thing we hadn’t experienced before. Took a while to go back to sleep but we must achieved it as we woke around 8am.

After a breakfast at the hotel we jumped on a trolley bus and headed to the painted ladies. For those who don’t know it is a row of typical San Francisco houses, which amongst other things, was the outside set for the TV show Full House. For those who did know, congratulations you have earned a gold star award.  Wasn’t the best time of day to view them as they were in early morning shadow but there are plenty of other houses like them in the area.

Decided to walk to Golden Gate Park but only realised half way that our tourist map was condensed on the western half and it was a bit further than we had thought.  It was interesting to see the different architectural styles of houses compared to Australian houses and many had pumpkins etc adorning their front steps.

 We stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and toilet break (thanks Margaret for that tip!) and the hopped on a bus to get us up the next hill and eventually arrived at the park. The first thing we come across was a sign warning that coyotes have been seen in the area and what to do if you come across one. We walked through some of the park and stopped by an interesting Japanese style garden which included the oversized fat lazy goldfish.

Had enough of looking at gardens and caught another couple of buses back to our hotel (certainly making good use of our Muni passes) where we bought yummy sandwiches from the deli next door – on sourdough of course.   Ate in our room and changed in to warmer clothes ready to go to the pier for the ferry to Alcatraz . All good as were are getting used to the public transport system here so we arrived with plenty of time to spare. Purchased a bottle of water for a huge amount and I was wondering when the gold nuggets or diamonds were going to fall out of the bottle. Bloody expensive for water and an ice cream, Larry is going back to beer as it’s cheaper.

Arrived at Alcatraz and after a quick speech from the ranger we meandered up to the prison section, picked up a set of headphones and mp3 player and we were off on an audio tour. This is a fascinating place and a huge amount of facts were presented including the battle for Alcatraz. Google that one my gold star recipients. Part of the audio tour is that you step outside and as we were inside the fog had rolled in and at times the San Francisco sky line disappeared.  It certainly made it quite atmospheric seeing the outside of the austere prison buildings shrouded in mist and as the temperature had significantly dropped it also you quite sympathetic to the inmates who suffered through their time in the exercise yard in freezing temperatures for the sake of being outside and getting some ‘fresh’ air.

After another 30mins the fog had lifted a bit making the return ferry trip very picturesque as the fog was covering part of the Golden Gate bridge and surrounding areas and the sun breaking through throwing ‘God rays’ across the top. Easy trip on the trolley bus back to the Justin Herman Plaza where had a burger for dinner as it was easy and cheap. A cable car ride up California Street and back to our Jones street drop off point and down the very, very steep road to the Mayflower. Jenny just loves the first block of that walk.  Not. We even took a circuitous route to go to the trolley bus stop earlier in the day so Jenny didn’t have to climb that block. Apparently Jenny has decided it is a Jenny one way walk, “downhill only”.

Home by about 8pm and our Fitbits tell us we’ve done about 28,000 steps today so we are allowed to feel tired and ready for another good night’s sleep.