Day 6 - Alcatraz

After another good night's sleep we were awoken (well I was anyway - I think Carly would sleep through a bomb) to the dulcet tones of the alarm at 6:30 again. It was off to a nearby diner - Joanie's Happy Days Diner - for an authentic San Fran breakfast. It was awesome - blueberry pancakes and eggs over easy on toast. We had both forgotten how sweet the bread is over here. Anyway, great food, great service, clean and quick...so we'll be back!

The weather was perfect today. A top of about 19, sunny, light breeze only and exceedingly pleasant. After a tidy up back at the room we then wandered about a bit, grabbed a tea and a latte, and then we were off on the ferry to Alcatraz. We spent a couple of hours on the island - it was really interesting and made me want to watch the old movie "Escape from Alcatraz" - I'm not sure if I've ever seen it. They have a great audio guided tour - learnt a lot in a short time. 

We were back in San Fran by about 1pm and decided to walk into Union Square and check out the city area. 

Of course we detoured slightly to stop for a small sweet treat and another cup of tea at a bakery in Little Italy. It was then back pounding the sidewalk (see, I'm learning he lingo) via Chinatown and finally we made it into the main shopping district - Bloomingdales, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, and much much more. Woo hoo! A little more shopping...that won't hurt, will it?

We were both getting a little hangry so headed back to Little Italy for our linner at about 4pm where we consumed an amazing pizza (very similar type of place to Napoli Centrale in Newcastle). We have pretty much stuck to 2 meals a day and a snack in the hope we won't put on too many kilos! We wandered down to the same sports store we were in last night to grab a special "clear stadium bag" and a couple of 49ers hats. There are so many rules about what is allowed and not allowed to be taken in to the stadium I decided I was leaving nothing to chance and would purchase an officially sanctioned bag...didn't want a repeat of the famous Gary O'Shea 2008 US Open Tennis incident (I'm sure the security guards that day have still not recovered from Gary's sledging lol). 

While we were in the store, we saw a big guy in a 49ers jersey signing books, having photos taken etc. We had no clue who he was so Carly googled him - William "Bubba" Paris - and the first hit was that he had pleaded guilty to tax evasion. I was so tempted to go up and introduce myself lol. Further investigation found that he had 3 championships (his hands were covered in rings) and he was a 49ers legend and motivational speaker. We didn't buy the book but we did hide behind the baseball shirts and listen to him chatting with people - talking about Hayne quite a bit. He actually sounded like he knew what he was talking about! Funny that... 

We were back in the room by about 7pm and found some random movie about NFL on TV. So right now we're watching that and hoping to learn a bit before the game on Sunday. Tomorrow we are off on a half day tour to Muir Woods and we are thinking about hiring bikes to ride over the Golden Gate Bridge in the afternoon...if Carly decides it's not too scary.