Kentridge High School San Francisco Choir Trip

I can’t believe how “chipper” these guys look after an almost 17 hour, all night, bus-ride! We basically started our day in the clothes we had slept in, our first adventure, The Alcatraz Tour!  

 I have always wanted to go to Alcatraz – so I was pretty excited. The audio tour was really well done – narrated by Alcatraz guards and inmates. 

 
Is it just me or does the Alcatraz flag look an awful lot like the tv show "Survivor" flag?

At first I thought “This island isn’t very creepy or intimidating”and then we started the tour. It was pretty amazing and really interesting.

This is a view from inside one of the solitary confinement cells. Linda wouldn’t come in with me.

 To capture the feeling I took the prison pictures in B/W. 

The view of San Francisco from the island is amazing.

Our next big stop for the day – The Golden Gate Bridge.It was an incredibly windy day – but almost everyone in the group attempted to walk across the bridge.  Maria was my buddy - speedwalking with her knee brace, what a trooper.  Many people crossed the bridge on bikes – I would look into doing that next time.

Dinner was planned for the Cathay House in Chinatown. Linda and I had read terrible online reviews about this place, which concerned us. Honestly – for such a big group it was great, the owner and staff were very, very accommodating. I thought the food was fine – I wouldn’t recommend the broccoli and beef though – that was reeeeeeeeallly salty.

2^nd Day of Adventure:
I think everyone crashed pretty hard the night before – so getting up early for warm-ups didn’t seem to be too much of a difficulty. By the way – Embassy Suites in San Jose was fantastic!The breakfast in the morning was HUGE…so much to choose from. If you asked for bacon they gave you 6 strips….it was awesome.

The choir did a great job and so we decided to reward ourselves afterward with IN-N-OUT burger. It was hard for me to believe that so many people had never had an IN-N-OUT burger! I’m pretty sure we created a few new fans.

After lunch we finally had a free afternoon to explore Pier #39 and the surrounding area. Everyone broke off into groups. Our group did a lot of shopping – and we of course stopped at Ghirardelli for our free chocolate. I also purchased a huge sour dough loaf (be sure to ask them for butter).  It was soooooooooo good.   Oh, and notice the photobomber in the picture below - nice one Maria! 

We found this Maze of Mirrors place on the 2^ndfloor of Pier #39. The guy running it was hilarious. We all paid our $5 (price of an all-day pass) and had a great time. I had fun trying to take pictures without flash and while “disco”lighting flashed in neon colors every few seconds. Robby was the best at scaring us – we never knew which one was really him.

Linda and Megan had their portraits drawn. We ended the day with dinner at Bubba Gump's on Pier #39. The food was great.

 3^rd Day of Adventure:

We got to sleep in and it was HEAVEN!! Then we headed off to Great America.   Again, I was worried because the online reviews were ridiculously horrible.  Honestly - I think everyone had a great time.   It was a beautiful sunny day and we made the most of it.   I suggested we meet up at the bumper cars at 4pm. Everyone showed up and it turned out to be a ton of fun.   I decided against bringing my “big” camera and just took random pictures with my cell phone.   The Awards Dinner & Dance were great – the food was great, they took 2^nd place in their division and they had a great time dancing with the other schools.

Overall – a great trip with a ton of fun people!