First Full Day in San Francisco - A morning of prison and seals

After a little bit of checking in at home thanks to the included free wi-fi, we headed down to the hotel's lobby for their free continental breakfast. Several reviews I found online mentioned how crowded the breakfast area can get and I must say I agree. The actual food space is shaped like a U with most of the grain or drink dispensing machines along the far wall. There was cereal dispensers, a make your own pancake machine, and a toaster for bagels. On the inside counters were chafing dishes full of hot items like bacon, sausage, and eggs. Smattered around them were tiny wine cooler style fridges for milk cartons and yogurt or clear display cases with muffins and cinnamon rolls. It was nice to see that they did include soy and non dairy alternatives and you could certainly find plenty to eat if you were vegetarian.

The buffet was set up so that almost everything repeated itself on each side but that didn't stop people from coming in one doorway, standing around, and looking completely confused as they'd head to one side for the pancake and push past everyone to get their bacon from the other side. The only discrepancies I noticed as far as food safety and allergy safe offerings is that one hot dish said it had omelets when it had scrambled eggs. Also while both sides had a hot dish containing sausage, one side was pork sausage and one was labeled turkey sausage. As always, there were plenty of employees wandering about that one could ask for clarification. As for the complaints that there isn't enough of a seating area, our years of experience at cruise ship buffets trained us for the ole watch and wait for someone to bail and then swoop in like a pterodactyl move. For the most part, we didn't wait long until a table for two opened up. I can see though how trying to get a table for your family of 6 might be an issue especially if you have impatient children in your group. All of the hot food was truly hot and the cinnamon rolls was something we both enjoyed each morning.

No that's not an unusually small plate - the sausage patties were huge! And rest assured those that know me, those may be coffee cups but we used them for water and juice. My hatred of coffee is still intact. :)

So what was on the agenda for today? Well after breakfast it was time to go to prison. Prison? But I didn't take that extra cinnamon roll officer! Makes for a funny Facebook status update though when you post about arriving at your first hotel and heading to prison the next day. Today we had booked a tour for 10AM to visit Alcatraz. Tickets were easily booked online costing around $38 for my adult ticket and $35 for Dad's senior rate ticket. We called for an Uber to take us to Pier 33 but if you're up for it, it's a good moderate walk from the hotel. They do a good job making sure only the people whose ticket time is coming up are the ones entering the line up queue. There's tables, a 3-D model of the island, and a gift shop/café to hang out in while you're waiting. No having to stand for long waits or be in the sun. Halfway through the line they have a backdrop set up so you can pose for a picture. They encourage everyone to get any food or drinks they want before and even on the ferry ride because once on the island, only water bottles are allowed. Our ticket printouts were checked off with a marker by the initial employee manning the line entrance and then scanned and double checked by another employee before we got to board the ferry. 

There was inside and outside seating on the ferry. I opted for the upper level outdoor seating which required climbing a steep staircase. I had a bit of ulterior motive for this choice - the Ruby Princess was visiting San Francisco today for a port stop and I used the viewpoint to take pictures of the cruise ship.

Once arriving at the island, the ferry announcer tells everyone that they are required to stop right where the ferry lets off and take the time to listen to the Ranger's speech. It was basically a welcome speech, a repetition of the rules and when the last ferry would leave. For those with limited mobility, there is the option of riding a tram to the top of the multiple hills it takes to get up to the main prison entrance. They make a big deal on the website about how small the tram is and how unless the disabled person is blind or a child who can't ride by themselves, then they can't have the rest of their party join them. Dad planned all along to ride the tram and got the driver to agree to let me ride too if I wanted. I thought they were only going up to the top of the hill we could see from the pier so I said I'd be okay walking it. I stopped at the top to wait as the tram came up shortly thereafter but then it kept on going making a few more turns up more hills. Dad said later that everyone on the tram had thought they were stopping where I stood waiting but it turns out that it climbed about 3 large hills before stopping. I usually like hiking and climbing hills but I was so out of breath by the time I reached the second hill. By then the tram was out of sight and I had to guess which direction they'd turned. Finally I came up near the top of the last hill and spotted Dad waiting for me. He went and found the one place on the property that sold water bottles so I could rehydrate and catch my breath. It had recently rained the previous day so the few benches outside the main entrance were spotted with water. I sat down on a slab of concrete and tried to make conversation with a woman who'd done the same but she wasn't in the mood. I made a joke about having fulfilled my workout for the day and while she didn't care, another woman who had just walked up remarked "I'm with ya sister!" and gave me a high five. 

We did see one woman using a service dog on a leash as she walked up the same hills that had me out of breath. Other than shopping bags and diaper bags I don't recall many people bringing large bags with them but there's a helpful size chart if you need to bring any bags on your tour.

Once we were ready to walk again, we headed inside to collect our audio guides for the self guided walking tour. The guides are offered in multiple languages, you just walk up and tell the first person what language you want and they direct you to the person manning those particular headsets. I'm guessing that each person manning that language was also fluent in that particular language so that they could explain how to use the headsets. Our English speaking employee was quite chatty wanting to know all about our lives and hometown. We were directed to the helpful sign that says "Tour Starts Here" so you know where to find the first place the audio tour leads. I also liked that these headsets featured a picture of the tour stop to go along with the description.

If you're visiting the prison with someone, I suggest synchronizing your headsets like you'd synchronize your watches. Dad had started his tour commentary a few moments before I did and he'd often be trying to correct where I was looking or walking because he was slightly ahead in where the narration was telling him to go. After a while of wandering in pace with the narration seeing the public showers, the visitation area, and the exercise yard, we came across some open cells where you could pose for pictures inside. 

We got turned around at one point heading inside the dining hall where we thought the narration was leading only to have it run through a bunch of stories from former staff and inmates directing the listener all over the place. We decided to stay put and rest on a bench while we listened to the stories and then walked around just to see what we came across. We ended up outside and followed the paths until we reached the bottom of the exercise yard. Discovering that the only direct way back inside was up a steep set of narrow stairs, we turned back and headed up the path we'd come down until we found a way back inside. We found the information desk again and the employee there pointed out that the exit to leave the prison was the doorway and/or elevators that had been right in front of where we sat in the dining hall. Guess I got tomorrow's workout done today too. We followed the signs for the exit and of course it dumped us right into the gift shop. Dad found a comic book picture style version of an Alcatraz at night photo drawing on a T-shirt he liked and it was a long wait in line to buy it. I got a chuckle out of the popular souvenir they were offering for sale:

How many people have this rock next to their pet rocks and moon rocks?

Once back out at the main entrance, Dad decided he was okay to walk back as it was now all downhill. It was a bit of a wait in the sun as it took a while to unload the ferry that had just come so that we and 200 of our closest friends could board it to go back. If you have the energy and mobility, this site could really keep you engrossed for several hours but after a couple hours we were ready to move on. For the paranormal enthusiasts, the park service also offers an evening tour available to book on their website.

Back at Pier 33, I wanted next to see the famous seals at Pier 39 so we walked until we found a space of many restaurants, shops, and games that reminded me of the classic beach boardwalk. It took quite a bit of wandering to find the actual place to see the seals and we were eventually directed up a set of stairs to a large patio style landing. Most everyone was on the lower level of the patio which was at eye level with the seals. There was a small set of stairs that seemed to lead down to that level but we weren't quite sure how to get down there otherwise. It was quite loud sitting there as you can imagine with some 50-100 seals hanging out sunbathing on the small docks. We watched one seal try to climb onto a dock occupied by only one other seal but his efforts were met with a swift smack of a flipper and off he went back into the water.