Alcatraz

December 31, 2005

There was some kind of insane torrential rain storm last night that kept me awake and afraid that our fragile single-pane windows would not withstand the pressure. Oy!

Ben and I headed down to cheesy and touristy Fisherman's Wharf, as we had 1:45 pm tickets to go tour Alcatraz...sweet!

The weather cleared and we were blessed with some sun, ridiculous wind, and no rain (woohoo!). We boarded the Blue and Gold fleet ferry for the ride over to the "Rock". It had been around 4.5 years since I had done this tour, so it was a nice revisit.

Ben before getting on the ferry

Views from the ferry:
















On the way up to the cell block tour



The audio tour:
The corridor between cell blocks B & C







The isolation cells in D block

Where the knives used to be housed in the kitchen

A broken window in the mess hall

Model of Alcatraz

On the rock after the tour

The remains of the fireplace and mantle in the Warden's house

The lighthouse

The burned-out Warden's house



Leaving the rock

The Transamerica building

The city's most famous bookstore: City Lights in North Beach

Ben's favorite car shot from the dashboard

Scharffen Berger

December 30, 2005

Yesterday, Ben and I had a wallet-taxing, overwhelming shopping day down at the Gilroy Premium Outlets. After several hours of non-bloggable shopping activities, we went to San Jose to hang out with my family and have dinner. Little Olivia was still feeling under the weather, so she was only able to provide intermittent cute moments.

Today was Day 5 on the crazy itinerary, where Ben, Key, Katharine and I headed to Berkeley. We went to Cafe Cacao for lunch, where the calories were abundant. There was the to-die-for hot chocolate, and then I had the burger with carmelized onions and cheddar, with sweet potato fries.

After lunch, I had booked a private group tour at Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory. Our lovely tour guide, Julia, explained about the origins and appearance of cacoa "beans" and how the chocolate-making process works. There were displays, chocolate tasters, pun-jokes, I loved it.

At Scharffen Berger

Kat and Key in the chocolate store at Scharffen Berger

Kat enjoying the aroma of pure cocoa butter

Getting the hairnets on for the factory tour

Ben, Bea, Kat and Key getting ready for the factory tour with their fashionable hairnets

We got earmuffs!









The Melangeur



Chocolate being poured into the molds

Delicious bittersweet baking bars

The ladies at the end of the tour

Tasting the different types of chocolate after the tour

The factory line getting everything ready for Valentine's Day

After the tour, we headed back to the city and grabbed some groceries at Trader Joe's for dinner that evening at Abe's place (where Anna and Wendy also live).

The dinner menu:
- bacon-wrapped scallops
- seared sesame-coated ahi tuna
- mixed salad with pecans and anjou pears
- roasted baby dill potatoes
- penne pasta with homemade sauce by Ben
- strawberry mochi ice cream









After a long, relaxing dinner, three bottles of red wine and a bottle of ice wine later, we had thoroughly covered the topics of civilians and ultimate frisbee, how Frodo has become the confused and guilt-ridden Jewish French-Canadian that he is, how Frodo doesn't like reggae, dancehall or country music, and famous regional Italian cookbooks. After leaving Anna's, the rest of us headed over to Lucky 13 for another drink.