Off to prison..

I'm slightly behind in writing this as we were out all day long yesterday and by the time we got back I was shattered.
So Fri 11th Sept -  we did have a bit of a hangover each after getting giddy on our first  night here but we managed to get up and crack on.. though D would have stayed where he was if I hadn't been firing out the orders ;-)
Stopped for brunch further along down Columbus at Caffe DeLucci which was delicious. I decided the only way forward was with a Bloody Mary but it was too spicy for me to enjoy so I didn't finish it. Couldn't finish the food either but given the portion sizes here its no surprise.
We headed down Stockton and along to Coit Tower via Filbert. Oh god that was a steep road - you couldn't even traverse it easily such was the gradient!  and on top of that you then have a shit load of steps to deal with to find you're not even at the frigging base of the tower! My thighs were burning I can tell you.. We dragged ourselves up more steps and then saw our first view of the Golden Gate bridge.. so it was more than worth it.  More steps again and we were at the tower with glorious views all around - incl Alcatraz, GG Bridge, Lombard St... We chose not to go in/up the tower as the queue was huge and we just weren't bothered enough to join it!
From the tower we meandered down to the waterfront coming out at Pier 39. It was like a  more classy Blackpool but on steriods!!  We got out of there fairly fast and moved round to Fisherman's Wharf.. Stopped for lots of water and then mooched on around and came across the cable car turning point. Massive q there which I was not happy about joining, preferring to jump one en route (plus I have zero patience in the heat esp!) Dan couldn't face more hills so I acquiesced and we queued. I think i stopped sulking after about 15mins ;-)  haha..
Cable car was good fun but we ended up inside and I got shouted at by this asshole of a man. My bag was knocking his wife apparently (I didn't know, they never said) and then he just shouted 'Ma'am you want to MOVE your purse..it is hitting my wife. DON'T let it happen again'... DICK.. I obv apologised immediately as I wouldn't want to be whacking someone around the face, but he still went on about me not doing it any longer so I snapped back at him..!  Cue uncomfortable silence on the cable car!  Anyway, the journey and the crazy steep hills that the cable car climbed and descended was too interesting to care about someone with an attitude problem and I got on with enjoying my mini roller coaster ride!

We took the car right to the end which was by Union Square. oooh that place deffo isn't for us. It's a crazy busy shopping place full of the big stores (Saks, Macy's etc) as well as bars/restaurants/hotels. Like the SF version of Times Square in its noise and busy-ness I guess.
Found a nice little bar further up, stopped for a couple and then got a different cable car line back. This time we jumped it en route and we both got to hang on the outside of it (on opp sides of) both smiling away like a pair of giddy kippers!!
Then it was Alcatraz time. Got the ferry over and we got to fully circle the island and really view it from the boat. The tour was excellent, really well carried out and whilst it was busy it wasn't too bad. Everyone was generous and made sure each got a turn to take pics or get in the ridiculously small cells. Someone said to me on FB that it was eery at night and they were right..  I cannot imagine what it was like with lights out there. I guess the fact that it is so old now and in  state of disrepair and crumbling paintwork adds to it but still.  It was also a much smaller prison than I thought too.. So glad I went, it was a really interesting tour/visit. The view back of SF all lit up was amazing but you can't help but think that this was also what these prisoners saw.. like SF was sooo close you could almost touch it - but not for them. I know they were there for good reason but that must have been tortuous..  you can see why escape was permanently on their minds.

Got the 8.40 ferry back and by this time it was bloody cold. D of course wants to be up top and I like an idiot followed him and was then a stubborn cow and wouldn't move downstairs/inside!
We got another cable car back up towards Chinatown and headed in for some food. However, the restaurant we really wanted to go to was closed - closed at 9pm. As were many of the others on 'our side' of Chinatown. I guess there would have been many more open if we had gone further downtown but it was getting to 10pm, we were tired and hungry and wanted to be closer to the hotel.

So as we were about to give up we found what looked like a Chinese version of a greasy spoon but was full of people...A moments hesitation and we headed in. So glad we did, the food was fabulous though we ordered a STUPID amount of food we discovered. It was a joke tbh when you saw the amount of food we had.. Such a shocking waste to leave it but we did do our best with it!  Even the guy running the place was giggling at us!  Dan got this bloody pigskin and fish balls dish as well.. ha when he ordered it the guy was questioning him and trying to explain what it was.. Dan was insistent though as he really wanted to have something totally different to the norm.  To be fair, he had a good go at it. The verdict was that the pig skin was definitely different, not something he could eat any more of but the fish balls and the sauce it was in were lovely!!
Stuffed stuffed stuffed after that we wandered back and realised we were quite simply shattered and didn't have it in us to fight our way into bars (Friday night so it's very busy), plus we had been out all day so were a bit minging. So we just headed back and crashed out!!  Great day...