Thursday. Trader Joe’s cereal with blueberries. Delicious!

Recharge camera. Prepare for Alcatraz. Yep, that’s right, Alcatraz! We started off by taking various forms of transportation to arrive at Pier 1. (No, you cannot buy miscellaneous household goods there.) Then we walked 33 FRICKIN’ PIERS (a few numbers excluded…okay, more than a few, but still) to arrive at Pier 33, which is the departure gateway for the ferries that go to The Rock. I don’t know why it’s called “The Rock”, though, since it’s full of greenery. I think that it was originally much less green than it is now. Read more here.

In front of Pier 33 are picketers, a disgruntled labor union. It seems that a non-union company won the rights to use the pier for ferrying to Alcatraz, and the unions aren’t happy. This is the second boycott line that I’ve seen since I’ve been here.

We ferry over to Alcatraz, which provides excellent views of the city. Pictures. Nice day out. The place was okay

After leaving Alcatraz, we headed over to a wonderful Pakistani restaurant — Shalimar. Their website was tough to access at the time of this writing. Good food. Leaves you un-hungry for the rest of the day if eaten during lunch.

We left the restaurant and went to REI to pick up a walking stick for me. I don’t know if I can do these hills for another day without assistance — hence the stick. It actually turned out to be a pair of sticks.

We left there, came back to home base. I took a nap on the third floor. Woke up…suggestion for dinner. Thai Kitchen. Horrible Thai — 3 out of 10.

Back to home base. Shower. Stretch. Bed. Tomorrow — the treasure hunt!