Thursday, June 8

munkee woke up in the morning way too early, but stayed in bed anyway. ... then billy's friend drove me to SF. origianlly, i was supposed to take the Caltrain, but i was slightly scared cuz well, never been to the city before and wasn't so eager to take public transit right away, so he drove me. weeeee!

first stop: Alcatraz!!
picked up the tickets i ordered online, was almost late for my boat, took lotsa pictures, spent 3 hrs on Alcatraz!!! cuz it's COOL! i've never been inside a jail ever (is that an accomplishment?!), so alcatraz was a great place to start. ... i attended a Park Ranger talk on "Hollywood Alcatraz" and learned a lot. apparently everything in the movie "The Rock" was fake. and tho most of what was in "Escape from Alcatraz" was real, the main bad part was that the original planner of the escape wasn't in the movie - cuz he didn't actually escape... cuz the hole he carved for himself was too small!!! poor guy... and the park ranger (it's a national park... and he doesn't look like a bear/beaver/whatever) told us that the actual "bird doctor of alcatraz" (it's also a movie) was actually a "psychopath and a socialpath" as well as probably one of the "most dangerous inmates ever inprisoned in Alcatraz" cuz he solves problems, and if he thought u were a problem, he would get rid of the problem without regret, etc. how nice. ... the movie portrayed him as this really nice guy, etc, but he was really not. ... Oh, and one of the former inmates, Darwin Coon, who's an author now was there, signing his books. who would've thought he was a bank robber!!! he looks like a normal old man, and old men are so cool! but to think, he was actually a prisoner, locked up behind the bars at alcatraz, WOW!!! ... the actual prison is really cool too. the library, the dining hall, isolation rooms, recreational area, EVERYTHING - so cool!!! and the audio tour was wicked, they had former inmates and guards talk on it. it was really cool, and really made u understand how it must've been like when it was actually a jail. COOL!!! ... i have pics, i'll post 'em later.

Second stop: Coit tower. which is up this huge mountain. ok no, it's a hill, but OMG i'm in such bad shape. not even a tenth of the way up, i was already panting. but they actually had benches along the way - kinda cool. and ppl actually LIVE on the hill! their houses are pretty!! it's really cool. everything's really cool isn't it? i'm so original. ... anyways, it's just a simple tower, that u can go up, and it's a really good view of the city. ... then i climbed back down the hill and went to chinatown, and got lost, and bought some more peekapoohs (it costs half the price here as it does in TO... gebus), and bought a calling card. Oh wait, before Coit tower, i went to Pier39, ate at "Boudin Bakery" which was recommended to me, but really, it wasn't great. ... i had a turkey cranberry sandwich on sourdough - it costs way too much money for what it was. ... and before that, i watched the sealions for awhile. they're so funny!!! some of them were extremely aggressive and possessive - the floating mat was theirs, and anyone swimming near it, they were bark at. it was funny. and smelly. oh, and aclatraz was smlely, but that's okay, i didn't get pooed on (lots and lots and lots of birds), so i'm happy. :D

after ... 7.5hrs of walking non-stop, i finally couldn't walk anymore. and i got lost. so i bought a map, and walked back to the street i was on originally and walked away from (got lost), took the bus to get to the caltrain station. almost missed the train cuz the machine wouldn't accept my $5bill. and then billy picked me up, we came back home, and ... what happened? i don't remember... oh, i talke dto andrew, ate dinner, and then billy made me play this game called "Settlers" which is a surprisingly good game. i totally didn't wanna play it cuz it involves dice, and cards - reminds me of magic and DND, so i didn't wanna play. but it's nothing like that, so yay!! ... i was winning in the beginning, but i totally dunno how to play the game and i have no strategy, so billy one. oh well. ... by then it was midnight. i didn't even have caffeine that day, so i dunno how i possibly stayed up that late!!! ... but then i crashed. and now it's friday morning, and i'm waiting for billy to wake up and drive me to the caltrain station. yeepeee!!!

pics to be posted when i'm uber bored.