Day 18 - Rhonda and Richard win the San Francisco Marathon

Sorry, I meant to write: "Rhonda and Richard win over the San Francisco Marathon".  We were booked on a San Francisco Bay cruise and discovered that the San Francisco Marathon was scheduled for the same day, and running across our path to the harbour.  Luckily, the race was pretty much finished by the time we made our way to the harbour, so we didn't experience any delays in getting to the pier for the cruise, hence we won over it.

Along our way we came across Pier 1 1/2, a water box, and a finish line (the wording is a bit ambiguous.

In due course we reached our pier, checked in, and joined the line for the boat.  The cruise was excellent and gave us a very good look around Alcatraz, with commentary about the history of the prison.  Sadly we hadn't been able to visit the prison itself.  We tried booking online a couple of weeks ago but visits to the island are limited and were booked out until 20 August.  Still, we had a good look at the island, and learned a lot about it.

Our boat

Alcatraz 1

Alcatraz 2

Alcatraz 3

Alcatraz 4

Alcatraz 5

We also sailed out to, and under the Golden Gate Bridge, although I believe it should be called the Orange Gate Bridge, since that's the colour it is painted (to make it more visible in the frequent fogs). 

The Orange Gate Bridge - from a distance - hard to get a sense of scale from so far away

Almost there

On our way back - note the small building under the arch of the bridge, on the left

Not actually a small building - the bridge is huge

We had excellent views of the shore on the way back from the bridge, three random shots are below.

Safely back on dry land we set off for Pier 39, and lunch.  After a short wait, with me holding the 'buzzer thing' to let us know when a table was free, we settled down for a hearty meal (crab cakes for Rhonda, fish and chips for me - we felt like seafood after the cruise).  

A cleverly-named shop at Pier 39

After lunch we set off for a stroll further along the harbour edge, it was very interesting.  We saw a man walking his lizard, and other cool things.  After a short walk back towards the train station (it's actually a long walk back to the train station, but we got lazy, and the way back was very much up hill) we eventually waited for and caught a cable car.

Trust us, this street is very steep, tour buses and vans seating more than 8 are prohibited from driving up it

Our tram - after we got off

Another great day, and I'm looking forward to the conference, which starts tomorrow.  Bye for now, and hope this post finds you all happy and healthy.