California Adventure Day 5: San Francisco to Monterey

Happy Birthday to Me!

This was the only day we had a time we had to be up. Our first order of business was to pack up the room, load up the car, and check out of the hotel. Then we found a little place for breakfast on our way to Alcatraz. Then we went to the dock, boarded the little boat and made it to the island.

There was a short orientation when we arrived. Notice the funny little lady:

The reason it says 'Indians Welcome' is that the island was claimed as Indian land in the 70's as part of a protest. Hundreds of American Indians took over to make a statement, and lived there for several months. After the orientation, we went and watched a quick history video and toured a couple of exhibits. We walked around the property and saw a few other buildings, and then went for the best part: the cellhouse audio tour!

The audio tour was really good, there were sound effects that made it feel like you were there with prisoners. There were stories of escape attempts, famous inmates, and the 'massacre' that killed a few guards and prisoners. Here's a cell:

It was creepy because the paint was all peeling and it looked so old. There are 4 blocks (A-D), and I think this is D block, where the most dangerous criminals were housed. Its the part that is most recognizable from TV shows; you round the corner and it feels like you've been there before. They had a cell that you could go inside. Scary!

And then there were the cells called 'the hole'. They were used for isolation and were pitch black, with nothing inside. In the audio tour, they had a former prisoner describe a game he used to play when he was put isolation. He would pull a button out of his pocket, throw it up in the air and when it hit the ground, he would get on his hands and knees and search for it. Then he'd throw it up again. The tour asked you to walk inside the cell, close your eyes, and imagine it. As he was describing the button game, there was the sound of a button clattering on the concrete floor. I didn't close my eyes. And I got out of there when I heard the button clattering. It was creepy!

Here's a view of that cellblock:

One of the worst parts of being in prison at Alcatraz was that you had great views of the city, but you couldn't get there. It's about a mile long swim and the water is very cold and rocky. We got a few great pictures of the skyline.

Here's the lighthouse:

One interesting story is that 3 prisoners tried to escape by making fake heads that they put under their pillows. Beforehand, they dug holes through the air vents with spoons (according to legend- more likely they sharpened the spoons down). They crawled out the air vents and two of them have never been found. Some people think they drowned in the bay, some think they are in Europe, but it's still unsolved.

Here's one of the fake heads:

And look underneath the sink, that's the hole they crawled through:

After we finished the audio tour, which ended in the cafeteria and had the scariest stories of all, we explored the island a little more. I don't remember the stories, but there was something about how the spaghetti was really good and then they changed it and the prisoners revolted and they made it good again. There was the serving counter which has probably been there since the prison was in service and you could walk right up to it and pretend you were getting your food. The same counter that Al Capone and the Birdman touched!

Here's a view of the yard, where prisoners gathered for recreation:

And there's Bean at the other end of the yard in front of the water tower:

Another city view (this might go in a frame!):

We hopped back on the boat and headed back to the mainland. Here's the dock as we were pulling away:

And a sign in the brush that reads "WARNING: something about helping prisoners and don't do it"And another view of the island as we were getting farther away:

We walked back to the hotel, got in the car, and hit the road again. It was my turn to drive! This day had lots of activities, obviously first with Alcatraz, but we planned to stop in San Jose and see the Winchester Mystery House. We got hungry for lunch somewhere in the Big Sur area, so we pulled off and stopped at a place called Buck's for lunch. The decor was very eclectic, like TGI Fridays times 10.

I had some excellent fish tacos, and Bean had some kind of sandwich. Our waitress was very quick and friendly and said she was a vegetarian so she couldn't recommend a particular dish, but said the fish tacos were very popular.

Something interesting was happening at the table behind us. Several young girls were having a birthday party. The waiters came by and sang Happy Birthday and I pretended they were singing to me. Up until that point, it didn't really feel like a birthday. Then one of the waiters asked the birthday girl how old she was and she said, "I'm 7."

I looked at Bean and said, "I am 20 years older than that little girl. I could be her mom!" And then proceded to silently freak out. The little girls were walking around with their root beer bottles saying 'Cheers! Cheers!' and clinking them together. Then they started to sing 'YMCA' with all of the wrong words. I remember being that age and thinking I was SO cool, and it made me feel really old.

There was one other funny thing about that lunch- the rice that came with my fish tacos was supposed to be mexican rice, but it had peas and carrots in it! It was not tasty.

We hit the road again and made it to the Winchester Mystery House early afternoon. The tour was 2 hours and we paid the extra $5 for the behind the scenes tour that was an hour after that. As soon as we got into the holding room with the rest of the tour and the tour guide started talking, her voice was so annoying I couldn't wait for her to stop talking. At first I thought she was talking so shrilly to get our attention, but it just continued through the tour. There were 2 little kids and one of them kept chiming in and asking questions that she already answered and she sort of let him interrupt the tour too many times.

Every time we went into a room, she'd say, "Come on in, come on in, take a look, take a look". None of the furniture on display was original. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside- although I'm not sure why because we were allowed to touch anything we wanted, except for two fireplaces and one hand railing. I assume everything else was not original, or had been restored and that's why we were allowed to touch it. Some notable features were the room where Mrs. Winchester died, a room that she was trapped in during an earthquake and still had the walls missing, and a staircase that goes into a ceiling.

I don't really remember any of the stories, but I do remember that the front door was never used and that Mrs. Winchester didn't have any visitors- she had no friends! What a sad life, to continually build this house that is weird and have no friends.

After we finished with that tour, the few of us that signed up for the behind the scenes tour met up and picked up our hard hats.

It made us think we were going on a dangerous tour, but it was really more of a tour of the grounds, but we did go into an unfinished room where we learned that her method really wasn't that strange. She would add on a complete room- all 4 walls- on top of whatever was there. So if there was a window on the side she was going to add on to, she would just add the walls over it. So if you're in the original room, there's a window that opens into a wall; but in the addition, it just looks like a regular wall. That took all of the mystery out of the mystery house.

Here's part of the exterior from the garden view:

The Door to Nowhere:

Another exterior view:

We also toured the basement which was creepy. By that point, I was ready to get out of there and be done with it. It felt like a tourist trap. I think it was the fact that all of the tour guides were younger than us, didn't know answers to random historical questions, and plus we had the comparison of the Hearst Castle's excellent tour guide...it was just average. I'm glad we went but it wasn't what I expected.

On the way to Monterey, Bean looked up a couple of hotels on his phone and found one that we passed right by on the drive into town. We stopped in, asked if they had any rooms, and she recommended the king with an ocean view. We said we were fine with a queen room and asked for a dinner recommendation. She suggested a place called the Sardine Factory, then upgraded us to the king with a view room for free!

We walked in the room and said, "WOW". It's the only room so far we felt the need to take pictures of.

She called and made dinner reservations for us at 8pm, so we just relaxed and got ready for dinner. And enjoyed the view:

Then something crazy happened- I looked at the coffee table and saw a bottle of wine, some chocolates, and a card that said "Happy Anniversary". The wine was still chilled, but it was obviously meant for the people in the room the night before. The housekeepers hadn't removed it when they cleaned. Or maybe they dropped it off and the guests never came. Not sure on how that chardonnay (my favorite) ended up in our room, but I decided it made my day even more special! There was also a book about the Sardine Factory on the table.

I got out the two birthday cards that came so early I was able to pack them for the trip, had a glass of wine, some chocolates, and read the cards! Birthdays are the greatest!

We started walking down the street to dinner and we both loved Monterey. The people were friendly, no particular age group (Pismo Beach felt like a college town and Carmel felt like a retirement village), lots of cute shops and restaurants, and everything so far had been surprisingly special.

At the Sardine Factory, they sat us in a beautiful atrium with a huge white chandelier. Our dinner started off with escargot, scallops and bread, an acai martini for me and beer for Bean. I ordered a steak with risotto on the side, and Bean had some pasta dish (I think). We had a wonderful conversation about our trip, future trips, our lives, our future. It was like being in a little bubble with great service.

My favorite part was that we both ordered sparkling wine to go with our creme brulee!

I'm not a good enough photographer to capture the room, so I'll have to just keep it in my memory. Here's the sign out in front of the restaurant:

This hotel was #1 on our list and the dinner was also #1. I'm so lucky to have such a great experience on my birthday; especially since all of the planning in the world would not have guaranteed a nice evening. In fact, I think if we did plan it there's no way it could have turned out as great. I guess that's one thing I learned by turning a year older this year- sometimes not planning every detail makes the experience much more worthwhile.