Saturday, October 23, 2011
One of Michael's only requests was to visit Alcatraz. History, prison, and self-guided audio tours rank about as low as you can get in my book o' fun but I politely agreed. We booked an early morning tour and I put a smile on my face.
As I mentioned before, the weather was ridiculously warm while we were there but I'd been told by numerous people that the boat ride would be frigid. If you remember from a previous post, I'd purchased a cute ear warmer thingy (that is its official name) in wine country and it never left my suitcase. I wore my leather coat for approximately 14 seconds and then the disrobing began. Again.
Now to the important stuff: Alcatraz was incredible. The audio tour was fantastic and it ended up being one of the highlights of our trip! At one point the tour guide asks you to walk outside and look around. He soon follows it up with, "Feel free to go back inside if you're too cold." I looked over at Michael and saw beads of sweat on his forehead. Made me laugh.
I'm on a boat!
It was really, really steep. It doesn't look steep but ho boy!
It's impossible to look cool wearing circa 1985 headphones. But he still looks cute. :)
Grody.
Also grody: Stewed Fruit. SICK!
God Bless America. And not being in prison.
I saw the following sign and thought, "Wow, their shirts are so 'in' right now!" I'm special.
After the tour, we walked all around the Marina District. Saw some beautiful homes, gorgeous views of the bridge, and many San Franciscans basking in the sun on the lawn. We ate lunch at DelaRosa, where we split a strange pizza and drooled over our neighbor's order. It was in a great location next to very cool shops. To me, the neatest thing about San Francisco is how many different areas there are and how each of them has so much to offer. I'm used to towns that have a few cool areas but several shoddy areas. I'm sure San Fran has them but we didn't see much!
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That night we had dinner at Pesce Seafood Bar, which was delicious! Similar to a Tapas restaurant (minus the "Spanish" part)--we ordered several small plates and split everything. This was one of the funniest/most awkward parts of our trip. The tables were very narrow and we sat extremely close to the couples on either side of us. It didn't take long to notice one couple was on their first or second date. Two very bashful adults constantly saying, "Oh I don't know, you decide," jokes followed by unnecessarily long giggles, and then slowly, slowly, slowly, a hand hold across the table! One point to the new couple! We sat close enough to them that I will be hurt if we're not invited to their wedding.
On the other side of us was a couple who (we guessed) had been together two-ish years. They were not married/engaged and were very "meh" with one another. He pulled out his phone every 5 minutes, she spent most of her time looking at our food, and neither felt the need to talk much. At one point I wanted to say, "You guys, it's time. Let this be your last meal together."
Anyway, Michael and I carried on two different conversations throughout dinner. One with words, the other with our eyes. It was a lot of fun. :)
And so ends day 4. Day 5 was a short one and I plan to write about it before we celebrate our 5th anniversary.
