San Francisco, California - January 23

early morning Alcatraz

Partly cloudy to cloudy, 14 degrees


The Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz welcomed us to San Francisco. We sailed under the bridge and past the island just before sunrise this morning. We will be in San Francisco for the next 2 days, one of a handful of overnights on this cruise. Usually we sail at

Golden Gate Bridge

night, but San Francisco happens to be the end of one leg of this cruise and the beginning of the next. We are extremely thankful not to be leaving and having to pack tonight. It is a wonderful feeling to just proceed as usual night for dinner and tomorrow for breakfast and a tour – not to a hotel or the airport.


Our first site seeing activity for the day took us to Sausalito – a small bayside town across from San Francisco via the Golden Gate

Golden Gate Bridge

Bridge. We arrived in Sausalito at

about 10am. We had a bit of breakfast and wandered around. There are quite a few charming shops and a handful of fish restaurants, most of which weren’t open – too bar really…it would have been a great spot to sit for lunch.



The highlight of the day was a visit to Alcatraz Island. A few years back Chris and I were in San Francisco and tried to visit Alcatraz then. We didn’t know any better to book ahead

Alcatraz cell

and it was sold out for the entire time we were there. This time it is low season and the cruise booked for us. Getting there involves a 12 minute ferry ride across San Francisco Bay. The visit is self-guided using an audio guide. This is very well done…there is no punching in numbers as many other audio guides operate. Basically you push go and unless you press stop, there

3 floors of cells

information and instructions for the next hour. The abandoned penitentiary is exactly as I expected it would be, just as it is portrayed in the movies. Notorious inmates

Golden Gate Bridge

included Al Capone, “Machine Gun” Kelly, and the Birdman of Alcatraz. I didn’t expect an uplifting experience, but my visit to Alcatraz was

Bay Bridge and our ship in the distance

depressing.

One thing I found particularly interesting, was that guards lived with their families lived on Alcatraz.

Before we headed back to the ship we wandered a bit around

Fisherman's Wharf sea lions

Fisherman’s Wharf and had a snack. I've added a video of the sea lions...not sure if it'll play...experimenting.