Journeys With GG

San Francisco via Go Car

So, yesterday my good friend Chrissy had her bachelorette day in the city and the day's main activity was to rent these Go Cars and tour away.  Granted, my initial reaction was that I'd rather be painting pottery and drinking wine, especially since driving in the city can be freakin' crazy, but I think my last few years of travel have made me much more adventurous and adaptable than I'd realized.

I rode in a car with Kristen, who I've known since about third grade.  The great thing about Kristin is that she's always making sure we have everyone.  I thought it was a habit that she developed since becoming a mom, but she said she's always done this.  Regardless, there is something very reassuring about the way she does this and I was happy to have her as my driver.

Our car was a bit of a dud.  It had trouble starting out up the hill from the get go, but once the GPS kicked in and our lady started talking, it was pretty cool.  We were on the road for a bit before all five of our little yellow cars stopped at Chrissy Field to have a quick pit stop.

Overall, the tour and the sites were great, and Kristin and I had fun, even when our car refused to continue up the hill and I had to get out and push.  I don't know if I can say the rest for the others.  While we were in pretty light traffic areas from my experience in SF, I can see this being a very disconcerting feeling, especially since you are so low down on the road and visibility is strained.  At one point, everyone just got kind of cold and really wanted to get  back to the rental place as fast as we could, but the fastest way was continuing on the tour, which ended up being about three hours long, and we went everywhere!  The Marina, GG Bridge, Legion of Honor, up by where Robin Williams lives, Golden Gate Park, the Haight, Cow Hollow, back through the Presidio, everywhere.  And the nice thing was we had interesting historical and current facts pointed out to us along the way from this GPS system in the car.

When we returned, we were a pretty tired crew.  People were cranky.  We hadn't really had anything to eat since breakfast, and some of us were a little shell shocked.

So, to finish out the day, we went to Fisherman's Grotto for and early dinner.  Once everyone had some awesome sour dough bread and half of a drink in them, we were able to start laughing about the day's adventure.

Would I do it again?  Yes, I think it would be a really fun all-day date thing to do, especially if you took a little more time to stop off at some of the places to explore, have a hot chocolate, etc. and had no real concerns about time.

Alcatraz

In spite of it being rainy and cold yesterday, I joined a group of 16 people for a journey out to Alcatraz.  I hadn't been out to the rock for nearly 20 years (and I'm not that old) so it was an interesting refresher trip.

Our guide was my colleague Eureka's husband Nick, who's a docent out at the park.  What we got was an amazing behind the scenes special tour that included a visit through a tunnel to the industrial laundry facility, a trip to cell-block A, which is still in it's original state from when Alcatraz was a military prison before it became a federal prison, and the hospital where the Bird Man of Alcatraz and Al Capone spent many of thier days while they were guests.  In addition to all these hot spots, we received a demonstration of how the cell doors could be manipulated to open and close, and I also go to go into a solitary confinement cell and have the door closed.

We listened to an hour-long talk about Al Capone as well.  Gangsters and mafia have always been an interesting topic for me (because of my Italian roots perhaps) so I loved it.  Here are some Capone fun facts.

• The scene from the Untouchables where Capone beats one of his men with a baseball bat at the dinner table is part fact and fiction.  Fact in that something like that happened at a dinner, but the instrument was a pipe and he beat three men, not one.
• Capone came up with the idea to put expiration dates on milk when the children of Chicago were getting sick from sour milk. 
• Capone also came up with the idea for soup kitchens, when people were going hungry during the depression and a cheap meal places could make and give away was soup.
• Capone taught himself to write and play music while he was at Alcatraz

So, if you haven't been before, make sure you get out to Alcatraz.  It's easily dismissed as a tourist destination and heck, I don't want to walk around with those headphones either, so if you go try to get a special tour; if you're a bay area resident you'll find the deep history even more interesting.

Also, Harry Potter fans out there.  I've often wondered if J.K. Rowling got her idea for Azkaban from Alcatraz.  I have to say that yesterday's gray, miserable day made the two places seem nearly identical in spirit.