Wednesday 15th March – San Fran day 2

Our Alcatraz experience was booked for 130pm, giving Becky time to pack this morning for her departure tomorrow.  That meant that tonight we could stay out and enjoy ourselves as late as we wanted.

It was much colder and overcast today, definitely a jeans day for those going on a boat! Intentionally skipping breakfast, we got an Uber to Fisherman’s wharf for noon so that we could treat ourselves to another local culinary delight – clam chowder in a sourdough bowl from the fish market.  It was extremely tasty and also warming on a cold day like today.

We walked along the bay front to pier 33 where you catch the boat to Alcatraz.

Where the inmates got kitted out before starting their time

It was a quick and gusty crossing before we found ourselves on the dock of Alcatraz Island for an introductory talk by a ranger prior to watching a short video on the location’s history. From there we made our way to the main event - the audio tour of the prison.  Having done it once before (many years ago though) I had forgotten just how good the tour is.  You are immersed in the story and, instead of being taken up and down the cells methodically, they take you on a bizarre winding route through the cell block letting the stories about some of the inmates and bizarre escape attempts unfold as you reach relevant areas.   

A typical Alcatraz cell... not so cozy

A re-enactment at the visitation area

Views of San Francisco from Alcatraz Island

You can pause the tour as often as you like and then explore other areas of the island afterwards.  Before we knew it, it was heading towards 4pm.

There is also interesting flora and fauna to see on the island

A night heron

Having an important appointment with a beer crawl, we managed to get the 415pm ferry back to shore where we called yet another Uber to take us to the Haight Ashbury area.  Simon made a cheeky request of the driver, asking him to drive us down Lombard Street on our way and in exchange we would give him a good tip.  Surprisingly, our driver said he had never had this request before and was happy to make the detour.

Mid-way down Lombard Street

We had received a recommendation to visit Haight-Ashbury because of its music shops and links with musical icons of the 1960s.  Turns out that the area is still stuck in the 60s!  All of the shops had brightly coloured and intricately decorated fronts and there was tie-dye for sale all over the place.  

Anyone for tie-dye?

A negative thing that we have noticed in San Francisco but that is even more evident in this area is the homelessness and mental health issues, along with drug use.  These streets contained numerous homeless people arguing with themselves or shouting at others in the street.  We have been driven past corners where tents are set up in what appear to be permanent ‘shanty towns’ where the homeless gather in large numbers. 

We strolled along the main shopping streets, passed the shop where Janice Joplin used to buy her feather boas (below) and we saw Jimi Hendrix’s ‘red shop’ where he lived for a year apparently.
 

Needing to line our stomachs but not wanting to over-do it again we opted for dinner in a Mexican street-food restaurant where we each had a tasty super-burrito!

A short walk from the restaurant we found ourselves right by one of the pubs on the brewery beer crawl – the Magnolia (below), for our first beer. 

The pub was dark and dingy with cracks in the walls.  We could have been in an old boozer back in England!  But the beer and the atmosphere was good.  We had noticed a record store over the street so went for a quick scan through lots of classic vinyl that none of us intended to buy but made us reminisce (right).  

Then it was on to the courtesy minibus which is run on the third Wednesday of every month by the local breweries to get more punters through their doors – a magnificent idea!  The second bar was buzzing and had a unique feature - beer taps on a torpedo!

We got chatting to some other customers in here so had to remind ourselves that there were still two more pubs to visit!  The third pub was not very memorable, more of a gastro-pub atmosphere but the fourth pub, Standard Deviant Brewing, was in a warehouse (below) with giant jenga!

Simon, otherwise known as the King of Jenga, took some young lads to school whilst Becky and I looked on.  When the conversation got a little politically heavy and the boys were debating the future of our two great nations it was clearly time to call it a night!  We dragged Simon away and caught a cab back to the RV.  Unlike our night out before Yosemite, we had judged the balance of alcohol, fun and when to call it quits just right!