San Francisco (Day 4)

Our final full day of touring in SF went out with a bang, as it was the day that we hit some of the biggest tourist sites and in the process pretty much completed our list of things to see in SF. We started by grabbing a quick bite at a local bagel place on our way to the piers, and then, arriving early to our ferry to Alcatraz, we spent some time walking through the extremely touristy Pier 39 area, including checking out the sea lions there. Pretty soon though, we were on our way to Alcatraz, a trip which, including the provided audio tour, took about 2.5 hours to complete. Alcatraz, as always (I believe this was my third time there) was fantastic, so this definitely got our day going in a big way.

After Alcatraz, we got a bite to eat at Pier 39 and then walked westward along the piers until we came to the Musée Mécanique, a free museum dedicated to old arcade games and attractions, which was an unexpected highlight of the trip for me. Eventually we made it over to Ghirardelli Square, which despite its name doesn't really feature all that much chocolate and was a bit of a disappointment. Shortly afterwards, we headed up to Fort Mason, which really wasn't much of anything to see, but after this we headed over to the Golden Gate bridge, which of course was incredible (despite the fact I've seen it before). We walked about 1/3 of the way across the bridge and then came back, but given how tired our feet were from all the walking thus far and that I seem to get more afraid of heights as I grow older, this wasn't a problem for me.

Our next stop was the Palace of Fine arts, which is essentially just this large classical "ruin" built around a small lake. After this, we took the ride home on the transit system through rush-hour traffic and then got ready to go out for our last dinner in town at this REALLY old restaurant (it opened in 1849!) called the Tadich Grill, which was decent. Overall, Day 4 might have been our most successful and least stressful day of our trip, and now we're just preparing for our five hour flight home (which, with the time change, puts us in town a bit late) and adjustment back to our normal lives.