Alcatraz Night Tour

Tim and Rameen decided to fly out to California to celebrate my birthday and take a little vacation for themselves.  They flew directly into San Francisco and planned to spend the weekend there with me, then go to Yosemite when I was working, before meeting me in SoCal for my birthday weekend.

We did a lot of things that I've done on previous trips to San Fran, so I won't rehash them here.  The one new thing for me was Alcatraz, and what made it especially cool is that we did it at night.  The night tour costs $35 and leaves from Fisherman's Wharf.

The ferry ride over was very smooth - no need for motion sickness pills if you get easily sick like me.  There are a lot of good photo ops of the city and bridges as the sun goes down.

When you enter they give you an audio tour and it is really good.  They interviewed prison guards and prisoners that were at Alcatraz so that each section of the prison you're walking through has actual stories from the actual people.  After the sun went down it got a little cold, with the shadows and echos increasing the eeriness.  Most touristy sights are one-and-done for me, but I would do this again in a heartbeat.