Neglecting to think about the morning rush hour traffic to get into and through the city, we booked our ferry passage to Alcatraz at 9:30, and we were supposed to pick up our tickets by 8:30am. So we got up and were on our way to Fisherman's Wharf bright and early - by shortly after 7:00. We did hit some stop-and-go traffic, so we didn't have too awfully long to wait when we finally made it to Pier 39 and parked. While we waited, we browsed the gift shop a little, then it was time to get in line and wait some more. Having Aunt Rose along does have some advantages... instead of sending us through the long and winding line, they had us wait right up near the front and we got to board the ferry first. Once we reaced the island, there was a 1/3 mile hike up the hill to the cell block with an elevation change of just over 13o feet. Since Aunt Rose couldn't make it, she took the tram up while Kate and I hoofed it. At the top, we took a 32-minute guided audio tour which told us all about the prison and had us wandering all over around the cell block. Although it's not the imposing, dark, desolate place Hollywood has made it out to be, I certainly wouldn't want to be locked up there.
Alcatraz prison
After returning to the pier, we decided to go to the Bay Aquarium, which was at Pier 39. Not only did they have two long glass tunnels that we rode a moving walkway through to check out the fish, they also had three "touch pools", where we actually got to touch some of the marine life in person. We got to "pet" bat rays and skates, both of which were pretty slimy feeling, sharks (I can't remember what kind they were) like the one below, and starfish.
Shark!!
Once we were done feeling the fishies, we had some time to kill before dropping Kate off at the airport and driving to Bakersfield, so we took a tour of the city, including Haight-Ashbury and Lombard Street - the crookedest street in the United States. The speed limit was 5 mph and the road made about 6 twists in each direction during the span of one block.
View from the top of Lombard Street
Finally, it was time to say goodbye to Kate and head back towards Phoenix. We dropped her off rather early, which turned out to be a good thing, since Bakersfield was a long, long drive. We rolled into our hotel around 12:30 after a few times getting lost and rolled into bed, exhausted.
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