This morning, we retraced our steps back along Fisherman’s Wharf towards Pier 33, to pick up the ferry to Alcatraz, with a pit stop at Peet’s Coffee and Tea for some breakfast. A word of warning to anyone who, like me, is a big tea drinker - every hotel we stayed in, throughout our trip, did not have the facilities to make a cup of tea. Gone are the little kettles, which you have to fill from the bathroom tap, and in their place are modern coffee pod machines.
So, Peet’s Coffee and Tea was an absolute lifesaver. Located adjoining Boudin’s Bakers Hall - watch the bread baskets revolving around the room above you - they serve tea, coffee, breakfast pastries, breakfast loaves/cakes, fresh fruit and fruit juices. I can highly recommend the Organic Breakfast tea, served as a large cup of hot water and a fabric tea bag, so you can brew to your liking. It's a wonderful way to wash down one of the delicious, freshly baked cinnamon buns.
Between us, we also devoured the iced coffee, Americano, orange juice, fresh fruit pot and a few morning buns (which tasted a bit like churros).
Alcatraz
Nicely sated, we continued towards Pier 33, to catch the 9.30am ferry to Alcatraz. We highly recommend booking tickets well in advance of your proposed trip. At 9.00am on a Monday in April, there was already a sign up indicating that all cruises were sold out for the day, and when we revisited San Francisco in 2018, the notice stated there were no tours available for the next 3 days.
We paid $119.50 (approximately £81) for our tickets, via www.alcatrazcruises.com. Pricing varies according to age and the ferry/tour you wish to book on to. Current 2018 prices are:
Early Bird (08.45 ferry) and Day Tour (09.10 ferry and later): Adults (18-61) $38.00, Juniors (12-17) $38.00, Children (5-11) $23.25, Seniors (62+) $35.75, Toddlers (0-4) Free.
The Night Tour (17.55 and 18.30 ferry) are a few dollars more expensive. Adults $45,00, Juniors $44.00, Children $26.75, Seniors $41.75.
You can also purchase a family ticket for $114.75. This is for a party of 2 adults and 2 children (age 5-11), but you cannot purchase a family ticket online - you must buy these tickets either over the phone or at the ticket booths on the pier. Family tickets are not available for the night tours.
Along the queue, we were stopped for a photo - which consisted of us stood in front of a large photo of Alcatraz. Apart from the fact that having a photo of us stood in front of a photo doesn’t really appeal, the $20 price tag certainly put us off. Anyway, the ferry arrived promptly, we managed to grab one of the last available seats upstairs and we were off. The sunny morning produced some amazing views of Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, plus, the San Francisco skyline behind us, as we made our way across the water.
As we disembarked, we were instructed to listen to a short talk by one of the National Park employees about the do’s and don’ts of the island - basically, don’t steal anything, watch where you walk, buy a $1 map from the nearby stand.
Keen to get ahead of the crowd for the Audio Tour of the main building, we made sure we stood to the right of the crowd, then, as it seemed the talk was coming to an end, we began our walk up the slope towards the cellhouse. Decent walking shoes are highly recommended for touring Alcatraz as it involves plenty of up-hill walking and some of the terrain is very uneven, with a number of cracks and crevices around.
Upon entering the cellhouse, we made our way past the showers, picked up some headphones and began the tour. The audio tour is amazing. You are talked through all aspects of the prison - the cells, inmates, wardens, library, visitors, escapes and dining room. There are plenty of photo opportunities, the pace is set well. The kids followed it really easily and found it all very interesting. Most of the audio tour takes place inside the cellhouse, with a small section taking you outside to enjoy the view back over San Francisco.
After the tour, you are inevitably taken out through the gift shop, then you're free to enjoy the gardens and search for the birds - the snowy egrets were easy to spot due to the amount of noise they were making!
The recreation yard was also on our list to visit, so, we climbed the very steep steps to it’s entrance. Due to the restoration work taking place, we were unable to sit on the steps, but still had fun pretending to play baseball on the diamond.
As there is no food available to purchase on the island, we decided to catch the 12.25 ferry back to the mainland for lunch. We arrived back at the dock at 12.10, where a large queue was already forming. We did manage to get on the 12.25 sailing, but those towards the back of the queue were asked to wait for the next ferry, which meant a further 30 minute wait. So, we recommend arriving at the dock at least 15 minutes before the next sailing.
Pier 39 Sea Lions
On our walk back from Pier 33, we stopped to watch the famous Pier 39 sea lions for a while. As you approach Pier 39, head to the left. The sea lions are lay on wooden rafts in K-dock, close to the Sea Lion Center. If you’re unsure, follow the noise...and the smell!
After lunch and a quick change at the hotel, we ordered an Uber taxi to take us to The Walt Disney Family Museum.
Walt Disney Family Museum
This was something we’d planned to do on Sunday, but our delayed arrival, plus the fact that the museum is closed on a Tuesday, meant today was our only chance to tour the museum. We did consider missing it, but I’m so glad we didn’t.
The museum is open every day, except, Tuesdays, New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Hours of opening are 10am-6pm, with the last entry at 4.45pm. We arrived at around 3pm to a very warm welcome and a nice quiet museum, which enabled us to fully enjoy all of the exhibits.
We spent an enjoyable hour and a half learning about Walt’s early life, his move to Hollywood, the loss of rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the birth of Mickey Mouse, Silly Symphony’s, his innovative approach to many aspects of film making, the first feature length film (Snow White in 1937), plans for Disneyland, plus, some of the tricks used in making the animations and animatronics for the Disney attractions.
It’s worth noting that we are all big Disney fans, the children included, so they were interested in Walt Disney’s life as much as we were. However, I’m not sure how much there is to hold the interest of very small children - maybe that’s why children under 6 are admitted free of charge.
Tickets are currently priced at: $25 for adults, $20 for Seniors and Students (with valid ID) and £15 for Youths (6-17). (2018 prices)
You can sit on the bench from Griffith Park - one of the many where Walt sat when visiting the park with his children, and where he is said to have dreamt up the idea for Disneyland. It was a great photo opportunity. As you approach the bench, be sure to stop and take in the fabulous view of the bay and Golden Gate Bridge...
Some of our favourite exhibits were of the family memorabilia. The display of Walt’s Oscars, in the museum foyer, is spectacular...
There is a museum cafe, which is open to the public, as well as to museum visitors. Here, you can buy drinks, sandwiches, salads and cakes. The cafe area was quite small, but you can also eat outside, which would be a pleasure on a nice sunny day, as the museum is situated overlooking a lovely expanse of grass.
Golden Gate Bridge
As we were now on the Golden Gate Bridge side of the Bay - again, we’d planned to visit here on Sunday - we decided to go for it and walked the 2 miles to the bridge. Although it’s not an obvious walking route from the museum, we headed in the right general direction, and it wasn’t long before we picked up signs for the bridge, enjoying a pleasant walk to the start of it, stopping for photo’s along the way:
Obviously, walking on the bridge is noisy, due to the heavy traffic, but the walking and cycle paths at the sides make it completely safe to do so. It goes without saying that it’s a magnificent structure and the sunny weather meant we were blessed with some amazing views.
We walked to the middle of the bridge before deciding to turn around and walk all of the way back to the hotel, dodging the many joggers and enjoying the fabulous views as we past through Crissy Field, admired the impressive yachts at the marina, continued along the beachfront, past Fort Mason and finally arrived at the hotel having made some great memories and with very tired feet.
After all of that walking, we only managed to make it as far as Capurros, another Italian restaurant. It wouldn’t have been our first choice, as we ate at an Italian restaurant last night, but to avoid the inevitable meltdown that would have resulted in us walking any further (probably from us, as much as the kids), we played it safe and opted for one of the closest restaurants to the hotel. The food was good, the atmosphere was fun and the service was great, so all happily fed and watered, we walked back across the road (via the sweet shop which we’d been promising Zachary he could visit, since he spotted it yesterday!) to our hotel before we all fell exhausted in to bed.
