We finally made it to Coit Tower, which was a very hilly, exhausting walk. I felt bad for Kevin, because he was a little bit sick. But the view from the top was really great!

Alcatraz

Conveniently, we hopped onto a streetcar that took us back to Market Street, and we walked back to our hotel from there. Gotta love those street cars!

After purchasing tickets from nearby stands, everyone gets crammed into the trolly. People are practically on top of each other. The man standing in front of me was practically sitting in my lap.

Picture proof right there.

Our conductor

Passing another trolly

The trollys pass right next to each other, and it's actually a little bit terrifying because they are SO CLOSE.

Needs cowbell.

It seemed that every trolly guy had his own distinctive ring. Our guy was rocking out on his bell.




We didn't ride the trolly back because the line down by the water was about 10x longer than the line we were in. So we busted out our handy dandy Metro cards and hopped a street car back to the hotel after we had finished exploring the "beach" and Ghirardelli Chocolate!

Our main mode of transportation

Scomas!

After lunch, we had to walk off all the calories, so we wandered over to the chocolate place and down by the water.

My favorite picture of the bridge

Some crazy lady swimming in the frigid water!

Coit Tower in the distance

When we got to Pier 39, I decided that I didn't want to go there. It was full of people, and it just looked like more touristy shops and chain restaurants. I was completely uninterseted in that, and frankly, I was kind of disappointed. We went to look at the sea lions instead..



There were tons of platforms for the seals to lay around on, but there was only a small cluster of them in the middle. I heard that the sea lions have been leaving and not coming back, and I don't know where they have been going. It might be because of climate change or for some other reasons, but it was sad seeing the empty sea lion-less platforms.

Oakland Bridge

I wish I could remember the story behind the bloody handprint, but sadly I cannot.


Alcatraz was really interesting and had really great views. I would definitely recommend this place; it has great history. Next time, hopefully I will get to do the night tour!