This was where the prisoners could talk to visitors. A guy was on the other side when I took the picture and thought he would be funny and put his face in. Haha!
San Francisco view from our ferry to Alcatraz
View of Alcatraz from Pier 39
Eric had his last conference for work in San Francisco and I joined him at the end of it and we made a weekend out of it. Neither of us had been before, so it was fun to explore the city a little. I flew in Thursday morning and after getting some lunch we went to Alcatraz. You take a short ferry ride to the island and basically can walk around and spend as much time as you want there. There is a guided tour of the prison that you listen to and it was pretty entertaining! It was interesting to listen to the experiences of the inmates who were there. After Alcatraz we wandered around Pier 39, which is really close to the pier where you take the ferry to Alcatraz. There are lots of shops, a carousel, and restaurants. We had beautiful weather the whole time that we were there. Apparently October has the best weather of the year there!
Day 2 we went on a tour to Muir Woods. It is a beautiful state park with large redwoods. Not the huge redwoods you see people drive through, but still really, really tall ones! Our first stop was at the Golden Gate Bridge lookout. We had amazing views because the weather was perfect! It did get a little hazy while we were there because there was a huge fire across the Oakland bridge, but the views were so pretty! We traveled across the Golden Gate bridge to get to Muir Woods.
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Muir Woods was so pretty and peaceful. It was a beautiful morning there. There is a little pathway you walk around to see the park. It wasn't too long, maybe a half hour, but there are places under construction where they are making new paths and safer areas. We really enjoyed going there, the drive there was really pretty too!
We walked around Fisherman's Wharf in the afternoon and stopped for some ice cream at the famous Ghiradelli Square. It was set up really cute for Halloween with lots of pumpkins!
That evening we went to Baker's Beach, which had been recommended to me by my friend, to watch the sunset. It did not disappoint! In full disclosure, it is a nude beach, but the views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the sunset were beautiful! And, despite the water being SUPER cold, and it was a little chilly as the sun was going down, there were still people going in the water, nude and all! Crazy people! Eric walked into the water a little bit and said that it was freezing!! I was content not knowing how cold it was. Ha! It was a really pretty beach and perfect to watch the sunset. After we went to dinner in town at a place that was rated pretty high, an Italian place called Aquolina. I got the pizza pictured above, and Eric got some pasta. We were pretty disappointed in the food...my pizza was soggy and Eric's pizza was overpowered by too much parmesan. But on our walk back to the hotel we found a candy store, so I guess that made up for it!
Our last day in San Fran we rode a cable car down to the shopping district, did a little shopping and had lunch and then ubered over to Crooked St. This city is so crazy with all of the hills and Crooked St. was so cool to see in person. I was surprised how many people were actually driving on it. There were lots and lots of tourists too! We went back to Pier 39 to walk around again and look at souvenirs, and then headed up to a lookout to see some great views of the city and all the hilly streets and it happened to be when the sun was setting! We had so much fun exploring the city and hanging out together. It's not very often that we get to go somewhere by ourselves for a few days, so we are so grateful that Eric's parents were willing to watch our kids again! We left early Sunday morning and were back home by the afternoon. It was a little whirlwind weekend trip, but it was just what we needed!
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