San Francisco

On our first day in San Francisco we took the dog along, knowing that she gets tired after a while we came prepared. We brought the special crate thet we have for her, she can be carried like in a pack sac or rolled like airport luggage. It was good that we had it as it was the only way that we coud get on the tour bus with her. We parked at Fisherman's Wharf, it was only $32.00 and then took the tour on a double deck bus with the top deck being opened, without a roof, cold but perfect for photography.

Vanilla and Dan visiting San Francisco

I find these tour bus to be the best way to see most of a big city in a minimal time, you can then decide to go and explore some area more in detail. Usualy you can also hop on and hop off these tours.

Golden Gate Bridge

It went trough the interesting areas such as the Haight and Ashbury, Pacific Heights, The Tenderloin district, Golden Gate park and bridge, Chinatown, Financial district complete with the occupy SF movement and Lombard Street. Also our guide was a movie buff with all the Dirty Harry spots and even the bullit car chase street.

Downtown from Pacific Heights

We got off at Pier 39 and walk back to Fisherman's Wharf to eat a Crab Chowder in a Sourdough bread, a San Francisco staple. The bread has been made by Boudin's Bakery for more then one hundred years, that's how he got rich during the goldrush. Miam Miam. We drove the 45 miles back to our camp we even found a shortcut trough a mountain pass to Halfmoon Bay an then the 1 along the clift, in the dark my wife doesn't mind :)

Alcatraz from Pier 39

We went back the next day without the dog to visit Alcatraz.
You take a ferry at Alcatraz Landing and it brings you to the Island, we ate our lunch on the ferry. You need to have clothes for different occasion for cold, warm or rain, or in our case all three. Wen you land on the platform you have a 15 minutes compulsory briefing and then you go where you want on a self guided visit.

The Guard Tower at the Landing

There is the main cell building that they provide ou with an audio tour kit that is very interesting it includes the cell of the 1962 escape as showned in the Clint Eastwood movie "Escape from Alcatraz".

Escape from Alcatraz

The whole visit can take from 3 to 5 hours to complete we left as the rain began 3 and a half hour later. As we left the fog was rolling in and covering the Golden Gate bridge, what a sight.