We Made It Out of Alcatraz and Out to Napa Valley

Tuesday morning we started our day about 9:00 a.m. with a breakfast at Denny's which my dad thought was fantastic and I thought was meh. It just didn't hit the spot for me and I didn't eat much of it.

After breakfast we jumped in the car and took off driving around San Francisco. We first stopped at Lombard Street, which is the crookedest street in the country. My dad drove and I rode and then he drove down again while I took some photos. I wasn't to keen on driving down it myself so I skipped that bit.

We then drove to see the houses known as the Painted Ladies. These are the houses that are used in the opening credits of the show Full House. I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but it wasn't exactly what I had been anticipating and I was a wee bit disappointed, as was my dad.

The next stop on our driving adventure was Baker Beach down below the Golden Gate Bridge. The winds were really high in the bay on Tuesday and it was freezing. I didn't want to get sand all over my feet and clothes since it was still early in our day so we didn't walk on the beach. If it had been closer to the end of the day I wouldn't have minded a stroll, but I just did not want to spend the whole day with sand all over and in my clothes.

We also drove through Chinatown and Nob Hill. I can't recall if I mentioned it or not, but we had actually walked around Chinatown on Monday morning and since we never found the meat market we decided to drive around, but again we were unlucky in finding the meat market.

Finally, our driving adventures came to a close and we parked back at the hotel and kicked our feet up in the lobby for an hour or so. Then we walked down to Pier 39 to take in the sea lions again. They were quite fascinating and I wanted to watch them again before we went to Alcatraz.

Our tour for Alcatraz was at 2:40 and we were to be at the boat at 2:20. So, around 2:00 we headed over that way, but first I took a ride on the carousel at Pier 39 because I do enjoy a good carousel ride. When we walked over to Pier 35 to get on the boat, the sign said the next available Alcatraz tour was next Monday! We certainly lucked up in getting the tickets for Tuesday afternoon.

We spent almost three hours on the boat to and from and actually on the island of Alcatraz (hopefully that makes sense). There was an informative movie to start and then a self guided audio tour through the cell blocks. It was very interesting and we both really enjoyed it and found it informative and entertaining.

We arrived back at Pier 35 and caught the F street car back to the hotel where we got in the car and headed out of town. Only we ran into a problem where the GPS on my phone wouldn't work and we spent about 30 minutes in limbo trying to figure out which direction we needed to head. Finally the Garmin started working and we made it to Napa Valley a little before 8:00 p.m.

The hotel recommended a nice steak restaurant and we dined there and enjoyed the best meal of the trip thus far. The steak was out of this world good. The name of the place was Cole's Chop House and if you are ever in Napa you should check it out. It was the best steak I have probably ever had in my life.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and called it a night so we could get some rest for Wednesday's adventures.