Tuesday
Today’s program is a piece of Chinatown before heading to Alcatraz. Chinatown is as expected; I think it’s a consistent experience all over the world but it’s always nice to walk in neighborhoods with strong identities. We have mixed feelings about Alcatraz. It smells like a tourist trap but still it’s an emblematic place that is worth seeing once. The first experience is extremely touristy with the pictures being taken in front of a giant poster of Alcatraz, with the long lines of tourists waiting to board… We suck it up and are crossing the bay by boat once more. The visit is actually pleasant. Our guide is good and interactive and tells us story about the different lives of the island. His part ends when we reach the prison itself. Inside, we’ll have audio guide. It’s a fascinating place and we’re told in details the story of the famous escape. We see what they had to go through to make it to the bay. It’s still unknown whether they made it alive or not. The water around the island is very treacherous. Back on the mainland, we head to Japan town for the treat of the day – Kabuki Spa, the best way to relax after a touristy day. It’s our last night of road trip and a spa is perfect to relax and rest our tired bodies :D
Wednesday
Back in the street for one last day, we saved Mission for last. To get there we have to take a bus and even though the phone tells us we’re at the right place, we can’t seem to find the bus stop. A few minutes later, we finally spot a graffiti on a traffic light pole… except it’s not a graffiti but the bus stop mark. I have a few choice words for that city of hippies before the bus arrives. The old mission St Francois d’Assises has interesting information on the early settlements of the area. The old church is still there even though it suffered during the 1906 earthquake. They have a small museum with Amerindians artifacts and an old graveyard with tombstone dating back to the early period of European settlement. We still have a few hours but we start heading back in the general direction of our hotel. After the church, we pay a visit to the famous graffiti street (Clarion Alley) of Mission then to the quiet Yerba Buena garden, then we have an impromptu visit of the Comics Museum with comics dating back to the very beginning of the genre. The first half of the expo is interesting with an emphasis on female artists, the rest is meh. We stop by Union Square then the Grace Cathedral with its unique stained glass windows. San Francisco is extremely open-minded, that even shows in a cathedral!
The road trip is at an end, it’s time to get back to New York City. We get rid of our excess water (we got exited buying water in the desert…) and enjoy our last two beers illegally watching the sun set at the airport. We can now only hope to sleep in this red eye flight because we work the next day…