26 Monday

Today was a big, final look around San Francisco day. We had planned to travel to Alcatraz but all boats were fully booked so instead we took a Bay cruise. It was quite fascinating seeing San Francisco from the water – a completely different perspective. The cruise took us under the Golden Gate bridge and back around Alcatraz. At least we did get a bit of a close look at Alcatraz and also a commentary on the history of the Island. Back on land we browsed the tourist shops on Pier 39 (the center of activity for Fishermans Wharf) and had a Clam Chowder at one of the many restaurants along the wharf. We all did our final souvenir shopping here. We just couldn’t resist browsing all the colourful shops and in the end we just had to call it a day as we had more sightseeing planned. We took a tram along the waterfront then hopped on a cable car (Californian Line) to China Town. This part of the city is certainly different from what we had seen so far. You could just as well have been in a Chinese city – it was so colourful with many elderly Chinese people making their way up and down the street. We walked up a street and came across the Cable Car museum which houses the cables and wheels which keep the cable cars moving. I didn’t realize that this building existed, but Vern and Raewyn knew about it. There was also a good souvenir shop inside here. We hopped on another cable car which took us to a point where we could climb up to Telegraph Hill. Right on top of Telegraph Hill is the Coit Tower inside which is a very old lift which took us to the top where we had a view of the whole of San Francisco. We decided to walk back to Fishermans Wharf as it was all down hill. It only took us about a quarter of an hour. The car had been parked in a parking building next to Pier 39 and we had to pay $30 for the day. Back to Mountain View in peak hour traffic.