Fremont, CA

Morning came way too quickly. We were exhausted from walking everywhere last night. I think the four-mile walk did us in yesterday! Whew! We got up, checked out of our hotel, and drove to Pier 39 again to take advantage of our free two-hour parking at the parking garage. We then walked a few blocks to Pier 33 to get our tickets we had reserved for the Alcatraz tour. We got our tickets, scarfed down a couple of corndogs and Churros, then got in line to board the cruise ship.

It was still very cold this morning; glad we had our jackets again! The view of San Francisco from the ship was incredible. The ship ride was about 15 minutes long. As we approached the island, we got very excited. We'd only seen Alcatraz from afar or in the movies. Now, we were getting a chance to be ON the island that used to serve as a federal maximum security prison for notorious criminals like Al Capone, "Machine Gun Kelly," and James "The Birdman" Stroud.

Right after we got off the cruise ship, we were instructed to listen to announcements by a parks and recreation representative near the dock. We then walked to the barracks and watched a brief video on the history of the island. It was very interesting. After the video, we made our way to the top of the hill and got our tape for a self-guided audio tour of the cellblocks inside the prison. Listening to the voices in the audiotape of former cellmates was chilling. We couldn't imagine a locked-up life on the island. We did learn that many wardens and administrators and their families actually lived on the island. We even got one of the former administrator's daughters who lived on the island to sign one of her latest books on James "The Birdman" Stroud. Can't wait to read that! We thoroughly enjoyed Alcatraz. It is a must see if you're ever in S.F.

After our tour of Alcatraz, we got in the car and headed Southeast toward Fremont, California, where my uncle, aunt, and several cousins and extended family live. Before we headed to Fremont, though, we drove down the famous Lombard Street (the "Crookedest Street"). Pretty neat! Fremont is right outside of San Jose and about an hour's drive from S.F. Traffic out of S.F. was TERRIBLE! I say that if you can drive in S.F., you can probably drive anywhere! People use their car horns way too much. I guess we felt like doing what the locals do, so we blared our horn a few times just to say that we honked our horn in S.F.!

We checked in to our hotel and quickly freshened up a bit before heading out to my uncle and aunt's house, which was about a mile away from our hotel. There, we met up with my sweet cousin, Jessica, who just got off work. She drove us to the Asian Pearl Restaurant. My extended family came and joined us for dinner. So, let's talk about dinner. IT WAS AMAZING! The picture just doesn't do it any justice. We ate and ate until our bellies almost ached. There was a wide spread of shrimp with candy-toasted walnuts, Dungeness crabs, several pork and beef dishes, some Chinese vegetables, tofu with chopped shrimp with a special sauce, crispy duck (Asian style) with a bread and sauce to go with it, and a delicious Chinese green bean porridge for dessert (no, not the Southern green beans we have in TN; that would not be good in a porridge!).

Dinner was so good but we had to leave room for more dessert next door. We strolled over to the little dessert shop. Zac and I both got the bubble tea with tapioca. I would describe the bubble tea as tasting like tea with some cream and sugar, only cold. Talk about being stuffed!

We said our goodbyes to my great aunt and second cousins and then headed back to my uncle and aunt's house. We chatted for a bit before saying goodbye to them and my sweet cousin, Jessica. We got back to the hotel and called it a night.

We head out to my dad and stepmom's in L.A. tomorrow!