Babymoon, Day 2: Lost on the Island, Lost in the Streets

This post has been a loooooong time coming....

Please click here if you'd like to read about the first day of our babymoon adventure.

I had reserved tickets for the Alcatraz tour for Sunday (February 15), and we got up fairly early and went next door to Lori's Diner for breakfast. It was already raining. I liked watching the cooks make our food. The Canadian man sitting next to us struck up a conversation, and we enjoyed his company as we ate our breakfast.




Our intention was to catch a bus to Pier 33, where we would board the ferry for Alcatraz, but we couldn't find the bus stop and ended up running around trying to get a taxi. For awhile there, I really thought we were going to miss the ferry, but we found a cab and pretty much flew to Pier 33.

(You might be wondering why we just didn't take our rental car. Well, by that time we'd learned our lesson - it was just better to take public transportation. We left the car parked for the remainder of our stay.)

We stood near the end of a very long line and eventually got onto the ferry. There was nowhere for us to sit so we huddled outside, where it was freezing ass cold and rainy. Luckily, the ride to Alcatraz was pretty short. I realized on the ferry that my DSLR's battery was dead, which was a complete bummer. I decided to make do with the trusty point and shoot instead - I didn't have much choice about that anyway.

Once on the island, we watched an orientation video, which was interesting - however, I still fell asleep during it. We went into the gift shop and ended up throwing down a ton of money, mostly for stuff to keep us warmer than we currently were. (Did I mention it was really cold and rainy?) And then we set off on our private exploration of the island. I really enjoyed myself, but I hated that I couldn't get closer to the old buildings and structures. I also hated that my stupid camera battery was dead, but I still got some good photos with my point and shoot:










I am a little ashamed to admit this, but Roy and I took the "mobility challenged" tram to the top of the island. Why? Because my uterus is the size of a soccer ball and it's making things harder to do, like breathing. I decided I didn't want to huff and puff up the hill. So we took the little tram and started the audio tour of the actual prison building.






It was really interesting, but we didn't make it all the way through. I was really hungry (don't deny a pregnant woman her food), and my feet and back hurt from standing so much. So we went back down and caught the ferry back. The plan was to take the cable car back to Union Square, but yeah, things got complicated.

For starters, we got on the wrong cable car and ended up at the big ferry building. We had no choice but to get off the cable car because it was the last stop. At this point, Roy realized we no longer had our umbrella - we figured we forgot it at the cable car stop. So we bought a new one and continued on our way. We headed back down toward the financial district on foot and were looking for a place to eat, but it seemed like every single place was closed. That part of the city felt deserted: no one was walking around or even driving around.

When we came up to Nob Hill, I took one look at the steepest hill in the world and told Roy, "I am not climbing that fucking hill." So we caught a cable car instead. The guy who got on ahead of me hit me in the face with his backpack (accidentally) when he swung it off his shoulders to sit down. I was too stunned to say anything. Instead, I climbed up and went to go sit down when the cable car driver (or whatever they call them) told me to watch my backpack so I didn't hit people in the face. Uh, what?! I just got hit in the face! Moron.

A few minutes later, we were getting off the cable car and headed towards our hotel. All in all, it took us an hour and a half to get back to our hotel, which was completely ridiculous. We were soaking wet: our shoes and socks were soaked through, the bottom half of our pant legs were soaked, and all our stuff was soaked as well. We hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning, and it was about 3 PM. We hightailed it into our hotel room, quickly changed clothes, and went next door to Cafe Mason for lunch.



This little tidbit on the menu cracked us both up.



We ate our lunch and then went back to our room. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching My Best Friend's Girl (it was okay) and sleeping. I was flippin' exhausted.

When we woke up, it was dark out (just like our first day), and we decided to take a walk to the nearby Cafe Claude, a cute little French cafe with awesome photography on the walls.

(The two photos below were not on the walls of the cafe, of course. I took them on the way.)





The food was good. Not the best I've ever had, but good.

Orangina:



French onion soup:



Seared tuna ahi:



Potatoes (which really should have been better than they were):



After dinner, we found ourselves back at our hotel.



Love, love, love the below picture of Roy - it's very Albert Camus (hottest philosopher ever). And I even kind of like the one he took of me.





And then we called it a night.