After our hike across the bridge, we checked in at the hostel and got settled. We stayed at the Hostelling International hostel at what used to be Fort Mason. It's now the National Park Service headquarters for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Missy, the chocolate addict, particularly enjoyed its convenient location (i.e. four blocks from Ghirardelli Square). After purchasing a giant transit map at the hostel (thus settling Jen's addiction), we headed out to find our way to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. We picked up the cable car at Ghirardelli Square, marking off another thing on the Things a Tourist Has to Do in San Francisco list. Rode the cable car to Union Square, the big downtown shopping district, and walked to the museum. They had a couple really interesting exhibits. Lots of stuff by artists even Jen has heard of - Georgia O'Keeffe, Andy Warhol, Diego Rivera, Matisse, Dali, a Duchamp urinal (she says it's famous), a Calder mobile, and Janis Joplin's psychodelic Porsche. One of the exhibits was art from San Francisco during the 60s - clothes, shoes, furniture, Grateful Dead concert posters, etc. After the museum, we began some exploration of the city's neighborhoods. Armed with our tourist bus passes, we headed to the Mission district. This area was a very bizarre and cool Asian/Hispanic/gay/hipster mix. We ended the evening by waiting for a bus that never came (Missy had time to send Jen for donuts and Coke while we waited. There are donut shops everywhere in California cities). We finally just reversed our bus/cable car route and got back to the hostel.
The next morning we headed for Fisherman's Wharf to catch a boat for Alcatraz. Our departure was delayed a bit by Missy shopping for accoutrements for her digital camera. She bargained her way to a wide angle lens. Then, of course we had to try it out.
One aspect of Fisherman's Wharf
The other aspect.
We took the boat out to Alcatraz, where Jen donned headphones to follow the audio tour. Missy, preferring to look cooler, guided herself (although the reverse happened at the UFO museum in Roswell, but nobody looked cool there). Alcatraz was interesting, but it seemed a lot less imposing when we found out that the guards and their families lived on the island too.
