Doctor Bob's Bike Blog: Day #51 - 5/2/2011 - Monterey, CA to San Francisco, CA

It's a short 120 mile drive from Monterey to San Francisco.

There are scores...hundreds?...thousands?...a googol?...a whole bunch of reasons to visit California...beaches, mountains, mountains for biking, mountains for hiking, mountains for snowboarding, deserts, dining, blah blah blah...San Francisco alone is plenty of reason. San Francisco, besides being a place to lose your ♥ has many reasons to be an international tourist destination: chilly summer fog, the 50 hills within the city, an eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture, funky districts like Haight-Ashbury and its famous landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, Alcatraz Island and Chinatown.

We pulled in to our motel, dropped gear and hopped on a cable car on our way to lunch.

Of the 3050 restaurants listed on Tripadvisor for San Francisco, there are 310 featuring Asian cuisine. Our "must go-must eat" destination remains Yank Sing, famous for dim sum.

We've eaten here a bunch of times over the past 30 years, always living up to expectations. Yank Sing is expensive for dim sum and the Tripadvisor reviews are a little variable...I'll try somewhere else next time. I swear it. Or not.

A short walk from Yank Sing is the waterfront and the Ferry Building Marketplace, a hip indoor mall with shopping, food and, most of all, Recchiuti Confections, a place for some very fine chocolate.

From a short distance, it looks more like a jewelry store. From close up, too, when you see the prices.

There are two specific items that were on my agenda; the Lavender Vanilla and the Rose Caramel.

The white angular boxes with the brown strip on town are the Rose Caramel, surrounding the Lavender Vanilla. The lavender and the rose infusion are wonderfully aromatic.

Most people of think of chocolate in San Francisco think of Ghirardelli Chocolate, named after Italian chocolatier Domingo Ghirardelli, but now owned by the Swiss chocolatier Lindt.

You can spend a boatload of money on this stuff...I limited myself to the eight pieces in the picture above this one; a pair for each of us.

Leaving the Ferry Marketplace and heading North on foot, it's about 1.6 miles to the famed and infamously touristy Pier 39 and the whole Fisherman's Wharf area. The walk along the water takes you along the Embarcadero, home to many ports, shops and restaurants.

We stumbled, well not really stumbled because I knew exactly what it was because of the NY Time article I had read last year, into TCHO. TCHO is an artisanal chocolate shop hoping to break in to the high-end chocolate business.

TCHO has some innovative packing.

I can certainly appreciate the concept of a minimum daily chocolate requirement.

Somehow, I managed to not buy more chocolate. We continued to the Fisherman's Wharf area amongst the throngs of tourists.

The weather and scenery lends to a fantastic outdoor culture.

There are no shortage of commercial tours to do in San Francisco. Susan and I visited Alcatraz Island on our first visit to San Francisco more than 30 years ago and thought it would be nice to return with Russell and Lani.

According to National Park Service statistics, about 1.4 million visitors arrive by boat on Alcatraz Island each year. Lani and Russell take their place in line.

When Mexico ceded California to the U.S. in 1848, the U.S. Army fortified Alcatraz Island for coastal defense purposes. It first housed Civil War prisoners in 1861 and was taken over by the Department of Justice in 1933.

The short boat ride to Alcatraz gives you a chance to see the City by the Bay from the bay. Fancy that.

. 60 Bureau of Prisons families lived on the island along with the 250 prisoners.

The physical isolation of the island and the cold water with its strong currents make it an ideal prison. During its 29 year history of operation, 36 prisoners were involved in 14 attempts to escape, none known to be successful (though a couple of bodies were never found and drowning was presumed.)

Alcatraz Island has appeared many times in popular culture, most recently The Rock starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage. Its appeal as a film setting derives from its isolation and its history as a prison from which, officially, no prisoner ever successfully escaped.

Who was the target audience for this sign? Was this not stating the obvious?

As a prison, Alcatraz was too expensive to operate, costing 3x as much to house a prisoner here when compared to other federal penitentiaries. it closed in 1963.

Florida tourists at Alcatraz.

The walking audio tour gives a fascinating overview of the prison's history.

The city of San Francisco is a chilly 2 mile swim away through currents that would sweep someone out into the open ocean.

Because of its extreme isolation, on-island security was not as intense as in other maximum security prisons.

Upon arriving by boat, the new prisoners had the opportunity to bond in the shower with their new acquintances.

The audio tour, narrated by former Alcatraz prisoners and guards, takes you throughout the prison.

Al Capone and Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz are two of the prisons notable guests.

The inmate day started at 7am and ended at 9:30pm.

Even Lani can't help the cells total lack of feng shui.

In order to prepare for dinner, I took a long run down to the waterfront and headed towards the Golden Gate Bridge, considered by many to be the most beautiful bridge on the planet, if not the most photographed.

The last time I was in SF, I ran across the bridge - and back - covering about 11 miles. I ached for days. I was just happy to get down here and get a decent photo. This is a two-photo panorama shot with my iPhone. You should click on it.

Holding down the number #1 restaurant ranking on Tripadvisor in San Francisco was Restaurant Gary Danko. We dropped in.