Destination: United States of America & Hong Kong
Duration: 8 Days 7 Nights (Nov 30~Dec 08, 2013)
Day 2: San Francisco + EPIC FAIL!!! *sob*
The day started early to depart from Plaza Suites at 7am
to get to San Francisco for my 9.10am Alcatraz ferry. This meant I missed the
breakfast as it only started at 7am. Bummer! Finally found Golden Gateway
Garage to park the car at USD7 flat rate. I was looking at my Google Map to walk
from garage to Pier 33 before a friendly elder offered me his help and taught
me the direction! What a Great way to start my journey! =)
 |
| Sammy is ready for the new adventure! |
 |
| Lots of UPS stores in the States |
 |
| Coit Tower from afar |
 |
| In front of Science Museum |
 |
| Walking along the Embarcadero |
There were lots of morning joggers there and I managed to
arrive at Pier 33 at 8.40am for boarding. The ferry took around 20mins and we
had a good view of Golden Gate Bridge. There were tons of tourists there and we
were told there would be some free guided tours (garden tours, escape from
Alcatraz tour etc) so we are invited to join them. Since I was all alone and
the garden tour started right about the time, I just followed the very friendly
elderly gardener who took us around the whole island talking about the history
and the botanic garden of Alcatraz. He was tremendously proud of his work and
enjoyed his work very much. It was such a joy to follow him around and cross
into closed area where he opened for us.
 |
| The Alcatraz Ferry |
 |
| Model of Alcatraz |
 |
| Cannon Replica from 1860s |
 |
| My Ticket to Prison! |
 |
| Smuggling Sammy into the Prison too! |
 |
| A View of Golden Gate Bridge from the Ferry |
 |
| Alcatraz from the Ferry |
 |
| Getting Close now... |
 |
| Almost |
 |
| We are HERE!!! This is the Dock Tower... |
 |
| The Fort |
 |
| Officer's Club where the officers & families had parties... |
 |
| Residential Building |
 |
| Walking Uphill! |
 |
| A Look from Above |
 |
| The Water Tank with Indian Writing |
 |
| The Power House |
 |
| Flowers |
 |
| The Warden's House |
 |
| The Lighthouse & Main Cellhouse |
 |
| Ruins of the Parade Ground |
 |
| More Buildings... |
 |
| A View of Golden Gate Bridge from Alcatraz |
The tour took about 1 hour and we finally parted way to
continue to the award winning audio tour for the cellhouse. The audio tour was
really entertaining and basically explained the living condition and some fun
trivia of the place.
 |
| Stairs to the Main Cellhouse |
 |
| This is the Cellhouse |
 |
| Going in now! |
 |
| My hand shakes by looking at this quote. :P |
 |
| A Typical Cell |
 |
| Remind me of Shawshank Redemption |
 |
| Solitary Cell |
 |
| Even Scarier Solitary Cell! ALL DARK! |
 |
| Gun Gallery! So Close! |
 |
| Some bullet holes after escape attempt |
 |
| This is how they meet visitor |
 |
| So Close & Yet so Far from Freedom |
 |
| Someone actually DUG A HOLE to escape!!! Now i know where Stephen King gets his inspiration of Shawshank Redemption from! |
 |
| Sammy saying goodbye! |
 |
| Going through a Tunnel |
 |
| So Long! |
I finally boarded the 1.40pm ferry to get back to the
city. I was beyond starving and bought a clam chowder at a random street stall
at Fisherman’s Wharf for USD6.75. Normally it was served with the famous
sourdough bowl (link) but I didn’t think I had to stomach to swallow them all
thus I only went for the cup version. The portion was still bigger than I’d
expected though.
 |
| Hi Pier 39! |
 |
| Giant Christmas Tree! |
 |
| Doggie's Diner!! |
 |
| Clam Chowder |
 |
| A Destroyer! |
 |
| One of our Mystery clue during last year team building in San Francisco! Now i see it everywhere there! |
After the late lunch, I was walking around Fisherman’s
Wharf to look for this souvenir shop to get the prison clothes. After that it
was time for my next destination so I had to walk to the garage to get my car.
It was when I got LOST and spent like 30 minutes extra just to find the place.
*facepalm* That was when I realized I had the car GPS in my bag which I
could’ve use it earlier to find the garage!!! DUH!!!! Stupid me!
My next destination was Palace of Fine Arts – it was
really a beautiful place! Stunning architecture which reminded me of Greece
(which I love so much! More stories about my Greek Adventure is HERE & HERE).
There were couples shooting their wedding photo there as well. By the time I
left the place, it was around 3.40pm. There it presented me a dilemma, I was
supposed to get to Lighthouse, Muir Wood & Sausalito after this but I just
didn’t have enough time to complete all. I knew that the sky would be turning
dark by 5pm. Do I continue on?
 |
| Palace of Fine Arts |
 |
| Beautiful huh? |
 |
| The Dome |
 |
| Another part of the Circle |
 |
| Look at the Shadow in the Water |
I’d decided to skip the lighthouse for Muir Wood and
drove past the Golden Gate Bridge in my rented Fiesta. Cool!!! This was when
everything turned disastrous… *sob* First of all, the route to Muir Wood was
kind of narrow and had lots of turns. Second of all, the car behind me was
really fast but couldn’t overtook me due to the narrow road. The worst part? I
kept missing out the correct turning to the National Park even though I had a
GPS! UGH!!!!!!!!!!!! The only consolation was the view along the ride with a
setting sun was amazing – but my hands were full with driving until I had no
chance to take any photos.
I missed the turn for the 2nd time and that
was when I’d decided to give up. The sky was turning dark and there was no
point for me to reach Muir Wood at this timing to fully explore the place. Thus
this ended my FAIL attempt at Muir Wood. I did manage to take a photo of Muir
Beach from afar though.
 |
| Muir Beach from afar |
 |
| Sammy is sad! |
I continued my journey with more twists and turns and
finally reached Sausalito. The sky of course was dark and it didn’t help that
it was low tide – the view looked kind of dirty and was not what I expected as
it was mentioned that Sausalito resembled a Mediterranean village. Thus I just
stopped there for a while and went back to San Francisco Airport to return the
car since I would meet boss tomorrow and he would rented a car as well.
 |
| Sausalito |
 |
| A Panoramic View |
 |
| A Mediterranean Village? |
 |
| Driving pass the Bridge! |
Finally ended the day with a shuttle from San Francisco
Airport to Plaza Suites and grabbed some pretzel as dinner before calling it a
night. It would be a long day tomorrow in office. *sweat*
 |
| Sammy is tired |
 |
| The Dinner... |
No comments:
Post a Comment