Day 81

I woke up this morning in time for a bit of breakie and some wifi time. Then I caught some rays out by the pool.

We checked out and drove into town again - more traffic and more jams. We made our way to 5th & Market, parked up and in one hour went to a few shops to pick up some bits and had lunch in a place called The Posh Bagel.

We walked back to the car and drove uptown to Presidio and along the Scenic Drive. We parked up and walked across the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the San Francisco Bay, connecting San Francisco to the northern tip of Marin County. It was the largest suspension bridge when it was completed in 1937 until the Verrazano Bridge was built in New York.

The bridge was the idea of an engineer named James Strauss who had designed over 500 drawbridges. He began trying to sell his idea and create support for the project in 1921. After seven years, the decision was made to build the bridge but most of Strauss's ideas were rejected. Another engineer named Irving Morrow stepped in and a district comprised of representatives from six counties in California was created to design, construct and finance the project. It cost
nearly 37 million dollars and took over four years to complete.

In the end, Morrow had the most influence on the building of the bridge including the structural design and the famous international orange colour that was used to paint the bridge. He chose orange vermilion as the colour because he believed that it blended well with the natural surroundings. Since it's completion the Golden Gate has been regarded as one of the most beautifully engineered bridges in the world as well being declared a modern Wonder Of The
World.









It was very windy and sunny all along the way. We were a bit worse for wear afterwards but we managed to walk the 1.7 miles across into Marin County and 1.7 miles back into San Francisco.













After our stroll, we drove back down Van Ness (101) and decided to have a bite in the local Mexican joint - Chevy's. Not too bad. And we watched the Giants play the Marlins. Bonds hit his 760th home run. I reckon now that he is relaxed and over the hype of the record he will hit a stupid amount of home runs in the last month of the season. He has also said that he will be playing next year. I think he wants to break 800 and then he will be content to hang up his
needles & bats.

We went back to the hotel to get our stuff and drove about 300 miles south to Bakersfield. We found an Econo Lodge and they accepted a coupon - happy days! It was late when we arrived, so we dumped our stuff and fell asleep straight away.

Day 80

I got up this morning and went for a forty minute run around the trail that passes our hotel and follows the perimeter of the bay. It was a decent run but I was a bit tired from all of the walking of the last two days.

After the run, I caught a few rays out by the pool.

We cleaned up and drove into town. Traffic was a nightmare and it took ages to find parking but we did it.

We walked up Columbus Avenue a few blocks to Bike & Roll to rent a couple of bikes for the day. We got the sizing and paperwork sorted and set off on our way back down the street. We stopped after only a few blocks for a bite to eat in Justa Bite Cafe which was interesting. The couple running the place were Asian and had to keep asking us what we had ordered. I'm not sure if they didn't understand English or just couldn't keep a thought in their heads for more than three seconds. In the end they got it right and my sambo was really nice - ham & pineapple.

Feeling fueled up, we cycled down Columbus and made our way over to the Bay Bridge.

The Bay Bridge spans across the bay and links the cities of San Francisco and Oakland. It opened in November of 1936 - six months before the Golden Gate Bridge. It is one of the busiest bridges in America, carrying over 280,000 vehicles per day.









Then we continued on our way, cycling along Embarcadero all the way to AT&T Park.

AT & T opened on April 11, 2000 and has a very unique story. The Giants were struggling in the early 90s and were being threatened with a move to Florida. At the last minute, owner Peter Magowan stepped in with an ambitious financing plan and AT & T became the first privately financed ballpark since Dodger Stadium in 1962. The park features nine foot statues of all the greats who have played for the Giants throughout the years as well as eighty foot Coke bottle with playground slides and miniature baseball park behind left field. Since opening AT & T has consistently broken records for season ticket sales as well as records for chartered seat sales. It also happened to be home of that guy who did a bunch of performance enhancing drugs and then hit all of those home runs. I was pretty bummed out that the Giants weren't in town as I would have loved to get a game in. The park is meant to have a classic, old-time feel with all of the amenities of modern parks. Apparently, it was inspired by both Wrigley and Fenway.



















From there we went through SoMa along Mission Street all the way to Ashbury. No trip to SF is complete without going to Haight-Ashbury. What a place! Everyone that we saw was completely off their brackets and some of the people looked like they hadn't seen a straight, sober day in years.

The Haight is a district that encompasses a neighborhood which was famous for it's role in the 60's hippie movement. Due to cheap rooms and vacant properties, many of the 19th century houses in Haight-Ashbury become home for the large amount of hippies and bohemian subculture that flourished in the area. Many psychedelic rock stars such as Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin also called the district home.



We parked up in Ashbury and went for a bit of a stroll down Haight Street. Very interesting.





Haight Street was made famous during the Summer Of Love in 1967 for its' Human Be-In. It ushered in the psychedelic era but fell apart very quickly due to rampant drug abuse and violence. The remnants are still there today and when we cycled past Golden Gate Park there was some guy singing 'You Are The Sunshine Of My Life' by Stevie Wonder. Except he was singing to and about Jesus. Then some girl stepped up to the mic and started reading scripture. It was all a bit odd...

We had a look in Haight T-Shirt Shop and despite some quality shirts we didn't buy anything. Either they didn't have our sizes or they were too small, too big or too expensive. It also didn't help matters because we couldn't try the ones that we liked on.

Just outside the shop is the famous corner with the two street signs and the stopped clock.



As I was trying to get a picture of the street corner, some scruffy, strung-out hippie told me to take two steps to my left so that I could include the clock in the picture. He then told the story about the clock that is frozen in time at 4:20. Apparently, Jerry Garcia's mum took a picture of the very same corner and when she did the clock stopped. Fact, fiction or hippie folklore? Who knows? But the dude telling the story was very entertaining (and no doubt probably
very high as well).

We got back on the bikes and cycled a few more blocks to Amoeba Records.









I had read that this was THE place to go for music in San Francisco. Sweet mercy! The place is huuuge and they have everything. We didn't have the time, heads or wallets to do the kind of damage we would have liked but we had a good look around. I would come back to SF for a lot of reasons and one of them would be to spend a few hours in this place. There are over 1,000,000 compact discs in the shop!

With spinning heads, we walked down the road to Escape From NY Pizza for a slice.



The pizza was really good but there wasn't a toilet in the place. And, as always, I was bursting. Trying to find a jacks on Haight Street is next to impossible. Everywhere is for customers only and they really mean it. Doors are locked, contain buzzers or are just watched by staff who yell at you as soon as you go near the door without having purchased something. I suppose it is necessary when you are in one of the drug capitols of the world. We eventually found a coffee shop and sorted everything out.

Back on the bikes, we realised that were running out of time and daylight. I think that Paulo was also really starting to feel topographically challenged on the bike. We made our best effort to get to the Golden Gate Bridge but couldn't do it. We cycled north to Presidio Park and then along the 49 Mile Scenic Drive.





But the sun was setting and the bikes had to be back to the shop. We went back along Lombard street then turned left on to Van Ness in order to avoid the 'hill' that Paulo was having absolutely none of.



We returned the bikes and then walked into North Beach again for a beer. We found a place called Rogue which had great beer but dreadful staff. I ordered some chili and had a couple of Shakespeare Stouts while Paulo opted for the Pear Cider.

We were both a bit tired so we walked back to the car and headed back to the hotel very early. We chilled out with some television before hitting the scratcher after another long day.

Day 79

Today was an early start - we woke up with the sun.



But of course we were running late - the usual. We got ready, wolfed down some breakie and made the 7:10 shuttle to the airport. Ten bucks later (Doh!) we were back on the BART! and on our way into town. We got off at Embarcadero and walked to Pier 33 for our Alcatraz trip. Despite a few wrong turns along the way (I was tired and not reading the map properly), we made it in time to collect our tickets and board the boat.

Alcatraz is only about a mile away and the trip was very quick. The day had started a bit overcast and when we arrived to the island I must say it was very eerie and a bit disconcerting when we first set foot on land.













Alcatraz was first discovered in 1775 by the Spanish and named "La Isla de los Alcatraces" which means Island of the Pelicans.

After the gold rush began, the need for a lighthouse surfaced due to all of the ships in the San Francisco Bay. The first one was built in 1853.

Before and during the American Civil War, the island was fortified and hosted almost 100 cannons and several hundred soldiers in an effort to defend against any approaches to the Bay.

When the war ended, there were plans to level the island and rebuild it since all of the weapons and equipment had become obsolete. But in 1907, it was designated a military prison and construction began in 1909.

The US Army quickly realised that the isolation of the island was a perfect place to detain captives. The number of prisoners swelled and by the late 1920's the facility was full. Despite the serious nature of crimes that the prisoners committed, Alcatraz operated as a minimum security prison. In fact, recreational activities were common. A baseball field was built and boxing fights were held there on Friday nights. But rising operation costs forced the closure of the prison in 1934. The Department of Justice took over the island.

The Great Depression and Prohibition had brought a new level of violence and organised crime to America. The government decided that Alcatraz was the best solution for the new breed of criminals and steps were begun to make Alcatraz the most secure prison in the world.

All privileges were limited and no one had special rights or freedoms. Prisoners were only given the basic necessities of life - food, water, clothing and medical / dental care. Nothing else.

Some of the more famous inmates during it's twenty nine years of operation were Robert Stroud (Birdman of Alcatraz), Al Capone and George 'Machine Gun' Kelly.

Due to rising costs, the prison was closed for good on March 21, 1963.

In the late 60s, American Indians attempted to occupy the island. But after eighteen months, they were forced off by the government.

Today the island is governed by the National Park Service and is host to over 1,000,000 visitors per year.

The tour was self guided and really really good. Audio instructions moved you around the jail and told you all of the stories and history behind the jail.The tour began inn the room where prisoners received their clothes and shoes and then through to Block B.







The next part took us past a row of cells and into Block D, which was an isolation block and used for 'treatment'. Inmates received food and water but they were confined to their cells 24 hours a day. Depending on the offense, a stretch could last days, weeks, months or even years.









After the creepy walk through isolation, I was able to go outside for some fresh air and a few of the recreation area.









Next was the library, the visitation area and the Administration Building.









Once back inside, I walked down the famous main corridor of cells called Broadway.







We couldn't finish the tour as we had to get another boat off the island but we made it as far as the kitchen which was the last stop. Running back down the hill, we just made the boat and sailed over to Angel Island.

Immediately upon arriving we gathered for a tram ride around the island. the tour was a bit naff but the views were amazing.

Angel Island is an island in the San Francisco Bay that offers excellent views of the city. The island has a land area of 1.2 square miles and lies almost entirely in Marin County. The island was once connected to the mainland but was cut off when sea levels rose at the end of the ice age. For thousands of years, the island was a fishing and hunting site. Then it became a cattle ranch in the 1800s but that destroyed much of the tree and plant life on the island. In 1863 (during the American Civil War) the US Army established a camp on the island. Later it became a transit station for troops during both World Wars. From 1910 to 1940 an immigration station processed more than 175,000 Asian immigrants entering the US. A fire destroyed the government administration building and all subsequent immigration processing was moved to San Francisco. In the 1970s, it became a State Landmark and today it is a California State Park.

The tram tour took about an hour and then it was lunch time. We had to settle for overpriced sambos in the cafe on the island whose name I can't remember but we were calling it the Bumble Bee Cafe as there were a huge amount of bees that were not shy about trying to land on us and our food.

Following lunch, we had an hour to kill so we just hung out in the shade. Played it cool like.

Then it was back on to Escape and across the bay to Pier 33.







Back on land we turned right and followed Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf. It was all a bit cheesy to be honest - a real tourist trap all the way along.









We turned onto Hyde Street and went to the Cable Car stop. It was a forty five minute wait but we decided to queue as it was our one and only opportunity to ride the car.







The queue moved along and we were entertained by some homeless guy who escaped from a straight jacket and some chains. When he finished, he collected some money and left his 'shackles' behind.



We weren't sure where he went but most likely it was across the street to the liquor store for some more booze. We didn't see him again...

Cable cars and the system to move them using wire - rope was developed by an Englishman named Andrew Hallidie. He witnessed an accident one day involving a horse drawn streetcar that slid backwards on a steep cobblestone slope and killed five horses. In 1873, the first cable car system was tested and a month later the first line began public service. Although the great earthquake of 1906 damaged most of the existing cable cars, the system was rebuilt in the early 1980s. Historic cars were refurbished and can be ridden today by eager tourists for only five dollars!

We managed to get seats and had a really good ride down Powell Street all the way to the intersection with Market Street.

Having managed to avoid it for so long, we had to have a look in Rasputin especially since the cable car dropped us off right in front of it! Well, it was a great shop. About ninety minutes later we both emerged with yet more bags of CDs. But I found some great stuff including a King Britt CD and an Alex Cortiz CD. Both of them are like gold dust back home and they only set me back about sixteen dollars!

We had a look around a few more shops and then had to get a bite to eat. We looked at a few restaurants but since we had already spent our food money on CDs, we had to go for the cheap option. In the end we settled on Mel's Diner.





Mel's is famous because it was the setting of the film American Graffiti. Except now there are several of them and the one we ate in is not the original. It had a good old school vibe but I was disappointed with the steak sandwich that I ordered.

After a long day, we were both wrecked so we decided to head back to the hotel early.

Once back we watched a bit of tele and I set to work copying all of my new CDs on to my laptop. We turned in early and quickly fell asleep.