Hot Weather Follows Me Wherever I Go

Monday we had no firm hour-by-hour plans as to what we were going to do. My main objective for the day was to visit Alcatraz and in the evening we had tickets to the Giants vs. Nationals baseball game.

We left the hotel around 9:00 a.m. or so and grabbed breakfast at a Starbucks - there's one about every 100 feet here it seems - since the hotel where we are staying here does not have free breakfast. We then bought a day pass for the transit system which included all manner of street car, cable car and bus.

We rode the street car up to the cable cars and then rode the cable cars for a while. We then walked to Chinatown and perused the streets and open markets but never seemed to happen across a meat market with the chickens hanging about which is what I was hoping to see the most in that area of town.

We then went back to the pier where the Alcatraz tours were and found out there were no more tours available for the day. So, we bought the next available tour for Tuesday, which was at 2:40 p.m. We suspect that a lot of people who were from the docked cruise ship took Alcatraz tours, therefore the sell out.

We walked down to Pier 39 next and watched the Sea Lions which was exceptionally entertaining and perused a few shops. Then we went to Fisherman's Wharf and had some lunch. Right after my dad took his last bite, he started feeling bad, as is sometimes the case with his condition and so after we left the restaurant, he went back to the hotel while I bought some souvenirs for a few folks back home. I also walked up to Ghiradelli Square which was probably the most disappointing thing of the whole trip. It was only a shop that sold chocolates and the prices were more expensive than they are at home.

The weather was exceptionally warm for San Francisco. The high was 80 and the sun was beaming down on te city like it might never appear again. Needless to say, we did some sweating. The people here were very happy with the warm day and there were tons of folks out and about. We were hoping for overcast and cold, but it seems we brough the warm weather with us.

I made it back to the hotel and rested for about an hour before we left for the baseball game. We left for the game around 5:00 and used the transit to get there. It took us about an hour to get to the park. We meandered around for a bit before going inside and finding our seats. We had great seats between home plate and third base and they were also under the overhang which helped keep the chill off. Most people out in the open were bundled up like it was the dead of winter because it was cold out there.

The Giants won 8-0 and there was one home run which I missed because I was walking back from buying some popcorn. We also enjoyed some delicious hot dogs because no sporting event is complete without hot dog.

We took the transit back to the hotel, arriving around 11:30 and we called it a night. It was a low-key but very fun day in the Bay.