West Coast: Day 5

I was on my own for day 5 of this west coast trip. My college roommate, Zac, and my friend I was staying with, Jordan, both had to work. I took the CalTrain again from San Jose to San Francisco in hopes of taking a tour to Alcatraz. Even though it was highly recommended to get tickets in advanced, I thought it was extremely unlikely the tours would sell out considering it was a Monday and schools are still in session. Unfortunately, the unlikely was reality: all Alcatraz tours were sold out until I was out town. Even though I was bummed out, I made the most of my afternoon in the city by the bay. I walked around Pier 39 and saw the sea lions on the docks, walked around Fisherman's Wharf and had claim chowder in a sourdough bowl, viewed the old ships at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, and had chocolate samples in Ghirardelli Square. I also went on a 1 hour boat tour of the bay that went through the Golden Gate and around Alcatraz.

I then made my way to the nearest BART station and took BART to the O.co Oakland Coliseum for the A's vs. Rangers game. More on the venue, game, and atmosphere in a later post. The game ended early and I made the long journey back to San Jose. I rode BART for about an hour from the Coliseum to the transfer. I then took the CalTrain for an hour more and arrived in San Jose just after midnight. I was very lucky catching trains out of the Coliseum: one BART train later and I would have needed to wait for the next CalTrain arriving in San Jose at 1:30 AM.