/dev/zero

We woke up a little late on Thursday morning and missed the continental breakfast served by the hotel, so we followed Martin’s suggestion and walked up the street to one of the bakeries in Chinatown and bought two buns each. From there we walked further up the street to Cafe Greco for coffee to go with our buns.
I had booked our tickets for Alcatraz online last night, so I knew we didn’t have to worry about it being sold out. We had plenty of time to get down to Fisherman’s Wharf. While enjoying my cappuccino at Greco, a Muni bus drove by indicating it ended at the Wharf. Perfect! We crossed the street, caught the next bus and the driver let us know where to get off for Pier 33.
When we got there I was a little disoriented. Pier 33 is NOT where I’ve always left for Alcatraz before. Apparently Blue & Gold (or Red and White) lost the concession for the Alcatraz ferry and the launch point has thus moved. It’s now operated by Hornblower, though the boats just say “Alcatraz Tours” on them and have the NPS Alcatraz logo.
On the way out to the island, there were a couple of British ladies in the seats in front of us (London east end, by their accents). One of them decided to go out on the deck on the bow to get photos. Her timing couldn’t have been worse (or better, depending how you look at it). She stepped through the doors just as the boat cleared the break water. The Bay was running about 2 - 5 swells and she caught the first wave over the bow full in the face. She came back in looking like a drowned rat. She was wearing shorts and a sleeveless shirt and had no coat with her. Going out to Alcatraz without a coat is a no-no under the best of circumstances. Now she was all WET and had no coat! Her friend or sister or whoever she was got a good laugh out of it. Luckily she seemed to have a sense of humor about it to.
The tour of Alcatraz was a little different from the last few times I was there. They’ve changed it up a little, putting things in different order, adding a few things they didn’t have before, taking a few things off. Good to mix it up now and then.
They’ve restored some parts that weren’t open before and have a new bookstore down stairs. And lots more souvenirs to take home. At least the sales go to restoring more of the island.
Upon returning to mainland, we hit Pier 39, I bought Kestrel a fleece to wear so I could get my coat back, then we got some dinner.
From there we walked down the rest of Fisherman’s Wharf to the Maritime Museum and park and up to Ghirardelli Square for some ice cream and chocolate. And they NERFED Ghirardelli Square! They no longer have all the cool sundaes they used to have. Gone are “The Rock” and “The Golden Gate”. They’ve just got “hot fudge sundae” and “warm brownie sundae”. The only item with character left on the menu is an “Earthquake” milkshake.
After walking around Ghirardelli Square, we caught a cab back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Day 3 posted later.

Off to the airport around 0500 for 0645 flight. Found a decent spot in long term parking and trundled our bags through the rain to the shuttle bus depot. Found the first bus there would take us right to our terminal and we were off.
Since we had a few minutes to kill before boarding, we found a “grill” open two gates down and got some breakfast. While sitting there eating breakfast I looked at our boarding passes again and realized it wasn’t a few minutes to boarding, but a few minutes to take off. Quick closed the lids on our breakfasts and hussled back to the gate, onto the plain and got our stuff stowed.
Nice flight. Every passenger gets an LCD screen in the back of the seat in front of them and the cabin crew are very friendly.
We arrived in Denver with plenty of time to make our connection, 2 gates over. When we hit the ground at SFO and were allowed to activate mobile phones again I called Martin to let him know we were down and taxing, but that since we had to check luggage after all, just meet us at baggage claim. We got down the escalator from the concourse at the exact same moment he came up the escalator from the parking garage. Perfect timing!

Drove up to the City to get checked into our hotel, only to find that they don’t start checkins until 1500, and it was only 1100. However they graciously offered to hold onto our luggage for us. We left our luggage with them and left again with Martin. A leisurely drive down the coast to Santa Cruz to say hello to Godmoma and pick up Martin’s spare car (with a stop for lunch at The Flying Fish Grill). When we got there we found that the spare car wasn’t quite ready (it was in the paint shop and they need to fix the drivers door handle). We hung out with Godmoma. We headed back up Highway 1 to San Francisco. stopping to photograph some kite surfers. Back on the road and by now it’s 4, 5 o’clock PDT and I’ve been up for 27 hours. I start drifting off in the car. Mostly wake up as we pull into the parking garage just up the street from the hotel; We get there, get checked in, up to the room and OH. MY. GOD.
It’s the Sugarluxe room. Painted in all kinds of garish shades of pink, turquise and chocolate pudding brown. Luckily we’re only here to sleep.
I change my shirt and shoes and we head out for some diner. For the first time in 4 YEARS I eat real Chinese food and IT IS GOOD! I mean come on, Chinese food in China Town. Then we head up the street (and by up, I mean UP. And up. And up.) to North Beach to get a cappuccino and tiramisu.
Wander back to the hotel, plug in devices needing to charge up, post this blog update and crash.

Tomorrow: Alcatraz, Fisherman’s Wharf, Fort Point.

Leaving for the airport, bound for California, in the next half hour.