California Highlights Part 5 - More San Fran

The first thing we had to do this morning was say goodbye to the those who had done the LA to the Bay tour, this was the end of their tour. Then we were off to breakfast (the best breakfast of the tour) at Pier 39 and then take the 9am ferry to Alcatraz. After breakfast we had some time to goof off and take some silly picture.

At Alcatraz we did one of those tours where you rent the headphones and it tells you stuff, I found this whole thing exciting since I was interested in prisons when I was in college. This was a highlight of my trip. We also went on part of a live tour of the underground that the Military had used before it was a Federal Prison.

After Alcatraz we went over to the Ghirardelli factory shopping center thing, which was very nice. After that I was starving so my group broke off and I went off with the kookie guy from Vegas for lunch. We ended up at some quaint little restaurant where the guy working their thought we were a couple, then thought we were with a church group, then that we were gay. It was an interesting lunch. Then we headed up to Lombard Street where we ran into other people from the tour, it's amazing how small a city becomes when you're on a tour. At this point I went back to sightseeing with my regular group and we headed off to Chinatown on the cable cars. It was a nice ride through the city. After Chinatown we saw some other stuff, Coit Tower, Washington Church (I think that's the name), and the Trans American Pyramid.

After touring the city we went back to the hotel to chill a bit then went to dinner with a bunch of people, after wandering a bit we finally found a place to eat. After dinner some went in the hotel hot tub and there was a room party where I heard some guy in the hotel had been arrested while someone on the tour was on the phone with his mother in Australia. Good times had by all!

California Highlights Part 4 - San Fran

We were up early for breakfast and the drive to San Francisco. All I really remember about the drive to San Fran was watching The Rock in honor of our visit to San Fran. Once in town we were dropped off at Pier 39 to get lunch and walk around a bit. Finding something for lunch was tough since I'm not much of a fish eater, I eventually broke down and had some fried shrimps. We also did some shopping and I bought an awesome shirt to wear to dinner that night.

After we were picked up from Pier 39 we were taken on a city tour. We went to our hotel then and were given some time to chill out before going to the optional dinner in Chinatown. I went out with a couple people around San Fran in our free time, we saw their City Hall which was a nice building. Then we went back and got ready for dinner. On the way to dinner we took a cable car into Chinatown. The dinner was ok, I distinctly remember someone at my table insulting the staff by refusing the soup, apparently that's not appropriate. It turned into an amusing cultural exchange.

After dinner we all went to a bar not too far from Chinatown. After that I went home in a cab with a couple people and the rest went to a club.