Last week Bryan and I traveled down to California for a few days. We flew into San Francisco and were only going to be able to spend one full day there before driving down the Pacific Coast Highway and on to Southern California. Since we had never been to San Fran before we knew we had to pack all the things we wanted to do all in one day. The first thing on our list was Alcatraz. This was on Bryan's Bucket List and the main reason we choose to fly in and visit San Fran. Three days before we left for California I checked the calendar at Alcatraz and it said they were completely sold out of all tickets until sometime in October. I panicked since we only had one day to do this and I had always heard it was super easy to get tickets (WRONG!). I called everywhere looking for tickets and they were nowhere to be found. Finally thanks to TripAdvisor I saw where a lot of other tourist ran into the same problem and they said Alcatraz can not advertise this "secret rule" but they must be able to sell 100 tickets per day to the public. Even though they claim they are out of tickets, if you get to the ticket office early enough you WILL be able to visit for that day. I read on TripAdvisor that people would get in line at 3:00 or 4:00am just to assure they would get a ticket when the ticket office opened at 7:30. Thanks to this secret tip I felt a little bit better. We set our alarm for 5:00am, got ready super quick, and were in line by 5:45 that morning (since September is considered their off season we figured it wasn't necessary to get there by 3am). I was the 47th person in line and security told us people started arriving around 4:00am that day. Reminder: if you know anyone who missed out getting an Alcatraz ticket ahead of time, send them to the ticket office early that day before they open and you are good to go. I am telling yall, it was definitely worth the wait. Alcatraz is super neat (and a bit eerie too). It is crazy to think that years ago some of the worlds most famous criminals lived there--Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, Birdman Robert Stroud, just to name a few. If your a history/mafia buff like Bryan- this is a really cool experience. If you have ever seen the movie Escape From Alcatraz you probably know about the true story based on three prison inmates who tried escaping from Alcatraz. They used spoons and other utensils they found around the prison to dig out the vent area in their cell and escape. They made fake heads out of magazines and clay to make it seem like they were still sleeping in their cell while the guards walked by at night. I partially wondered in my head if all this would still be there like it was portrayed out in the movie and it was! It is a crazy sight when you see all of this in real life and think back that this event actually happened where you are at today many years ago. This prison island had the BEST views of the city of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. The guards families all lived on the island so I can only imagine the views they woke up to every morning. We also spoke to one of the inmates who spent a few years in Alcatraz. It was funny, when he introduced himself he said, "I spent a few years of my life here at Alcatraz, once it closed I spent another 50 years in a different prison ..now I come here every day to sell my book and take pictures with a bunch of girls, I know the warden must be rolling around in his grave every time this happens." To find out the story behind this inmate click here Since Bryan checked off Alcatraz from his bucket list, it was my turn to go where I wanted. Since I was a little girl (and still today) I've always been a huge fan of the show Full House. I grew up watching the Tanners and still watch the show on Nick at Nite before bed. I knew I had to go by the ole Tanner household while being in town. Granted the house doesn't look the same as it did in the 90's, it was still awesome. After this, we took our time and toured the rest of the city. The hills in San Fran are NO JOKE. Do not attempt to walk around unless you are in tip top shape. I recommend taking one of the classic cable cars around town. The down town area has the BEST shopping..just prepare to window shop unless you can spare some major pocket change. Bryan had to go into the whiskey shop down town to try some famous old whiskey. The bartender serving us happened to recognize our accents and asked us where we were from. He was a former Knoxville resident himself who just recently moved to San Fran for work (he told us he was coming back in town for the UT vs Georgia game so we had to invite him to our tailgate!) We had to end our day visiting the Golden Gate Bridge and the famous San Francisco crooked road at the end of Lombard Street. This famous street was insane! Since it was dark by this point I didn't get the best picture, but definitely a place to see if you are ever out that way.
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