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Day 2: Jan 25, 2018, 7.00 AM
San Francisco, California
Before heading to bed on Day 1, I was worried about two things – how am I going to have a nice time on the cruise if it rains? and what if the Government shuts down again and the Alcatraz cruise is cancelled? The day I landed there (Jan 19), the Government of USA underwent complete shutdown (thankfully we visited Yosemite without any hassle as there were literally very few people at the national park due to shutdown). Even though the shutdown ended a day before I visited San Francisco, I was still worried what might happen next. Without bothering my brain with these thoughts, I decided to sleep. I did get a decent 8 hours of sleep.
I checked the weather condition and it pointed out the possibility of rains at 10 in the morning. I was glad to see that as I would've completed the Alcatraz tour by then. With exciting filling my body, I headed out (skipping the free breakfast at the hostel – it sucked!) to Union Square reaching there at 8 in the morning. There was a Greyline bus waiting at the same place where I boarded the bus on day 1. The tour buses start at 9.30 in the morning and it was too early for me to get one. I had two options – to catch a public bus or to walk to Pier 33. Thankfully, the bus driver with whom I was having a conversation about the transportation offered a free ride to Pier 33 on the same bus.
Reaching Pier 33 at 8.15 in the morning, I had 15 minutes to grab my breakfast and head to the Pier to board the cruise. I walked into the Alcatraz cafe, had a healthy American breakfast in 10 minutes, and headed to the Pier reaching there exactly at 8.30 in the morning. I waited for 10 minutes in the line and got into the cruise at 8.40. By then it was all sunny and the weather seemed amazing. The next two hours were total fun.
The cruise departed exactly at 8.45 and it took us close to fifteen minutes to get to the Alcatraz island. On the way, I got excellent views of San Francisco Bay area, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay Bridge and the Alcatraz Island.
Throughout this tour, I enjoyed taking pictures. Here are a few selfies I shot during the tour.
The audio tour guided me through the entire Alcatraz prison tour. I'm not going to get into detail about any of those, except sharing few pictures which you might find interesting.
The return cruise from Alcatraz to the Bay was almost empty. I spent some time in the cafeteria sipping some hot chocolate, enjoying the rainbow over the Pacific Ocean and the spectacular views of the bay bridge. It was exciting to see blue skies after witnessing a long cloudy evening on day 1. Weatherman was predicting the rain to pour between 2 and 3 in the afternoon, similar to day 1, but I did not care about that. I was sure that I would complete what I had on my list before 3, and I was glad that I could complete my Alcatraz cruise without a hassle.
Here are a couple of panoramic views of the ocean and the land from Alcatraz Island. These are few of the best views from my trip.
** Continued in Part 6 **
