Staying at a Shell Vacation Resort Hotel During Our Holiday in San Francisco

View of Coit Tower from San Francisco\s waterfront

Our vacation in San Francisco was the longest this time spanning more than three weekends.



Unable to book the same hotel for our entire holiday, we stayed in a number of places including a vacation resort, a bed and breakfast inn, a downtown hotel and a hotel right by  the airport for our last night.

Our bedroom at the Suites at Fisherman's Wharf, SF

Of all the places we have stayed, we liked the Suites at the Fisherman's Wharf, a property of the Shell Vacation program the best.

A spacious living room at our 1 bedroom suite

At that vacation resort, we had a one bedroom condo unit with a spacious living room and dining area  where we could relax in the evening, watched some TV and entertained visitors.

E. came over and we enjoyed sometime watching TV together. It was homey.

A well equipped kitchen at the suite

Though we rarely used the cooking facility at the condo, there was a well equipped kitchen where we boiled water and made tea and hot chocolates in the evenings.

Our hotel was close to many attractions in San Francisco

The best part about this vacation resort was its excellent location.


We were able to walk everywhere from this resort property to all the places we wanted to visit.

Standing Outside our hotel at the Suites at Fisherman's Wharf

We were sad on the day we checked out, wishing that we could have spent our entire vacation at this very nice resort!

R.T.
Suites at Fisherman Wharf
San Francisco
USA

Revisiting Alcatraz Island with Loved Ones in San Francisco

We took the Alcatraz cruise ferry at Pier 33

We finished the Sunday Mass at St. Mary's and walked down to the Pier to meet up with E. for our outing to the Alcatraz Island.

Unfortunately, the weather was not the best. It forecasted strong waves, rain storm and cool temperatures.


E. was early, in fact an hour early as he thought the ferry departed at 12pm.  We met him at the pier restaurant and changed our tickets to the 12:30pm ferry.

The ferry ride to Alcatraz was a little rough

The ride to the Alcatraz was rough since the waves were high and the wind was strong.

In fact, I thought might be the ferry company might cancel the trips in such rough weather situation. but it did not.

Alcatraz Island, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco, USA

The ferry ride was about only 15-20 minutes. It was not the best ride as we could hardly see anything at all on board the ferry.Alcatraz  Island, also known as the Rock, was the most famous federal prison in America.

Due to the cold water and fast current of San Francisco Bay,  Alcatraz was considered inescapable for inmates.

Alcatraz housed America's most infamous criminals 

 It used to house the most notorious and ruthless criminals during its 29 years of operation.

Closed in 1963, Alcatraz Island is now a museum, a major tourist attraction visited by about 1.4 million tourists a year.

This used to be the warden's house on Alcatraz Island

Our tour started with a short clip on the history of Alcatraz in the theatre area.














The exhibits looked a little different than when I was here a few years ago.

We were given glimpses of what life was like at Alcatraz years ago.



















The first place we saw was where the prisoners used to hand in their clothes and receive their prison uniforms.

Shower area for inmates at Alcatraz

Then we filed past the group shower place. There was no privacy during shower time at Alcatraz as there were no shower curtains or individual stalls provided to the inmates.

We followed a self guided audio tour at the Alcatraz

Each visitor was given a pair of earphones to listen to the audio guide.

The cell blocks at Alcatraz

We followed the line to the different exhibits and I could see more displays and learn more about it this time than my last visit.

Block D was used for isolation of  the most difficult inmates

We saw "The Hole" -  D Block, a place reserved for the most dangerous and violent inmates.

An isolation cell at D Block

Men kept in these treatment units received adequate food and health care.













The six front cells were for the most severe disciplinary problems. A treatment in " the hole" included total darkness and restricted diet.

However, few inmates saw the D Block.

The Gun Gallery at Alcatraz

We also saw the gun gallery.

We learned about the bloody escape attempts made by some inmates and the sacrifices of some correction officers









Though a prison, Alcatraz was also a home for many inmates who made the best of their cells and spent time for recreational activities.

We learned about some of the regulations of Alcatraz for its inmates such as Regulation # 20:

Inmates were expected to work eight hours a day, five days a week with the weekends and holidays devoted to recreation.

Wow! Many more North Americans probably work much longer hours and have less time for recreation these days. How ironic?

This room used to be a library for inmates with about 15,000 books.

Confined physically, inmates turned to reading to rid their boredom.

Some literate inmates read between 75 -100 books borrowed from the prison library.

Some well behaved inmates were allowed to take courses through correspondence.






We all enjoyed the visit to Alcatraz. E.was really interested in the displays looking at the books in the book store.
We finished the tour in a couple of hours and were back to the mainland shortly after 3pm.
We had a snack at Hillstone opposite from the pier.  It was raining hard and the traffic was very congested. It was faster walking than staying in the Uber. So we walked to E.'s apartment which looked very neat.

We enjoyed visiting Alcatraz Island during our vacation in San Francisco

Ho. came back and we got a chance to chat with her for a few minutes.  She was excited and talked to us about growing her own herbs in the apartment. I should try that too.

We went to Morton for dinner and it was an enjoyable one!

R.T.
San Francisco
USA

A Sunday Mass at Old Saint Mary's Cathedral, Chinatown, San Francisco

Chinatown, San Francisco, USA

Staying at a downtown hotel in San Francisco,  we could easily walk to many attractions within 15- 30 minutes.














This was our third Sunday in this city.

Since we would have a full day ahead of us, we got up for an early Sunday service and walked to the church closest to our hotel - Old Saint Mary's Cathedral.

Old Saint Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco, USA

Located right in the heart of San Francisco's Chinatown,  OLd Saint Mary's Cathedral is an active parish serving the Chinatown and Nob Hill communities.

We attended a mass at the Old Saint Mary\s Cathedral

The cathedral is a historical landmark in San Francisco. It survived the 1906 earthquake but was gutted the next day by the fires.

It was rebuilt and reopened in 1909.

We enjoyed the singing and a different sort of message delivered by the father.

He challenged us to look at Christmas and reflect on our actions.

Old Saint Mary's Cathedral is a historical landmark in S.F.

It was good to have some quietness and reflections during the busy holiday.

We found a beautiful gift shop at the Old Saint Mary's Cathedral

the mass was not the only thing we enjoyed at the Old Saint Mary's Cathedral of San Francisco.


We found a gift shop in the church building.

Nativity scenes and many religious items were displayed at the gift shop at the church building.

At the gift shop, we found Christmas gifts reflecting the real reason of our celebration.

There were many gift items on display in this church related store.

One unique item we found was the creative original artwork made by an artist using smooth small pebbles.

We went to church and also found some meaningful Christmas gifts for our loved ones at the old Saint Mary's!


R.T.
San Francisco
USA

A Great Night Out and Desserts at Angler, a New Waterfront Restaurant in San Francisco

An antique shop in downtown S.F.

After checking out of the hotel on Jackson st, we checked into a hotel on Grant Street right in the downtown area of San Francisco.

















This location was much better as we could walk downtown easily and enjoy some night life much easier than our previous location.

Union Square, San Francisco

We texted E. and asked him to join us for dinner at one of the restaurants.

A street musician playing beautiful music, downtown SF

We walked down Union square to enjoy the night activities. The downtown area was busy humming with activities.

Unfortunately because we did not make a reservation, the place where we wanted to have dinner was fully booked. So we made a reservation for the next evening.

Downtown San Francisco at night

We went to another restaurant in a nice hotel close by, it was all full too!

Wow! It seemed that people in SF have so much money to spend, all the large popular eateries were all busy and packed with people.

A business skyscraper Downtown, SF

We went to a smaller restaurant.  The place was busy too but at least we didn't have to wait for more than 30 minutes. The Thai dishes they served at this smaller restaurant actually were very good!

E. asked us to go for a after dinner drink at a brand new restaurant by the piers.














So we had an opportunity to walked and enjoyed the night view of the city even more.

We passed by a few tall skyscrapers, one of which looked welcoming with some bright colour and an outdoor theme.

So we went in to take a look. 

E. explained to us some of the history and stories about these modern buildings.















What E. intended to take us was this nice recently opened bar/ restaurant by the piers.

It is a restaurant with an open kitchen.

While sitting inside the restaurant, we were able to see the brightly lit bay bridge outside!

While waiting for our table, we enjoyed some champagne at the waiting area.

We had other mixed drinks.
I believed this drink was called White Russian.

Since we had already eaten, we ordered some appetizers and desserts.

A coconut dessert frozen by nitrogen. Delicious! 

Everything was presented beautifully and thoughtfully by the wait staff.








I never had a frozen coconut dessert served in a half coconut shell.

It was tasty, flavorful and best of all, not too sweet. This coconut dessert was unique and delicious!

An ice cream sundae with warm caramel sauce!  

The ice cream sundae was fresh and rich. It tasted like they just made it.  The fresh caramel sauce served in front of us added a lot to the ice cream. They went well and tasted so good together!  


We enjoyed excellent service by the wait staff who were well trained, polite and could not do enough for us.


Best of all, we had some great exchange and conversations with E., which made our trip all worthwhile!



R.T.
San Francisco
USA