Day 21

With such a busy day panned, we started early this morning and were checked out and on the bus before 9am. We had sweet talked the hotel into letting us leave the car in their car park, instead off paying the predicted $30 parking rates closer to the wharf. Instead, we paid much less for the bus - unfortunately the travel pass had expired at midnight so we weren't able to us that anymore. First port of call was the sea lions, who were awake now but still not very playful. Only a few of them were in the water, the rest were lying on exactly the same wooden platform as last night, occasionally screaming out as the brave few that went swimming climbed over the top of them to get back into water.

We carried on around the dock area, taking in sights of the bay that had been hidden last night. Although we had spotted the outline of an island  it was good to see we were right - Alcatraz was visible from the shore. We didn't really know much about the rock, but as a prison that was supposedly difficult to escape from, it was very close to shore - easily swimmable. Hopefully, the tour would explain to us why the prisoners didn't just jump off and swim to shore.

Arriving back at Pier 33, it was frustrating to see that same day tours were available today. We started getting ready, while Clare stood in the line for the toilets, I tried to find a water fountain to full up our water bottle before we got out there. Having no luck finding one on my own, I spotted 2 burred looking security guards and went over for a chat. There was no public water fountains around, but they were bored so one went to fill it up from their staff fountain the other talked about the dangers of providing anything to people because if the danger if being sued. Welcome to America!

Eventually, we were on the ferry and it departed only 5 minutes late. This company was the only one able to land on the island, having the monopoly on it and being run by the government national parks service explained entirely why it was so poorly organised on the shore and why the ticket staff who's job it was to deal with customers were so rude. When we landed, the mandatory talk to attend that was run for the guests on our boat had already started - hopefully we didn't miss anything to important. First thing was a Discovery channel film about the history of Alcatraz which was really interesting and finally explained why they didn't all jump and swim to shore. The water was frigid all year round  and the currents around the island were impossible to predict - to swim unaided without a wetsuit would take it out of you very quickly. 3 escapees had last been seen trying to escape this way on a rain coat raft and never heard of again. After a year of planning, and digging out of their cell with a metal soup spoon no one knows what happened to them.

After the video, we walked up to the prison block for the free audio tour. There is so much more to the island than just the prison, but with our already limited timeframe we just didn't have time to explore it all. The audio tour was fascinating, and time just disappeared on us. It was certainly funny watching everyone listening in silence to their headphones, walking when instructed to walk, stopping when instructed, and even looking only at the things the audio tour instructed them to look at. The few disobedient black sheep wandering around of their own accord definitely stood out, and even then conformed by speaking in whispers as of they were in a library! Soon our time was up, 2 hours had flown by and we hadn't even reached the end of the audio tour, let alone explored the rest of the island. We headed back to the ferry, ready to continue with the rest of the day.

Back in the city, we walked up towards our bus stop, just off course slightly was a chocoholics heaven. This chocolate shop had been recommended to us twice, here it was famous for sundaes, which of course we had to stop and try! They also had a chocolate factory set up to show how the chocolate was made. After our delicious break we got back on the bus and headed to the hotel. Shortly after 2 we were back on the road, heading North out the city (driving north over the golden gate bridge was free!). We were off to the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, but taking a more scenic route despite the time constraints.

As we headed out the city we were able to appreciate the scale and colour of the bridge, even thigh wine other other bridges in the city look more fancy, its easy to see why this is an iconic bridge.
We missed the turn for our scenic drive, realising when we arrived in the next town along, 20 miles too far. Instead of just turning around and getting back on the highway, we decided to take the smaller roads, with no map with enough detail to navigate by and limited GPS signal. What could go wrong?
By sheer determination we navigated our way through the back streets of Petaluma, eventually hitting some 'main' roads outin the right direction. This route took us along some brilliant countryside, passing Sonoma and Napa - both small towns with big names and important stature for the area. The biggest problem we faced was that the factory brochure that we had said the tours closed at 4pm. It didn't elaborate whether the last tour finished at 4pm or started then. We were very much hoping that it started at 4pm, as we dashed our way across the countryside. The first delay had been the missed turning, but quickly the delay's stacked up as slow moving vehicles and road works alternated in keeping us moving slowly. We battled on, and soon reached the main highway. Foot to the floor, we cut across the lanes, joining the fastest moving vehicles while Clare checked out the brochure for the more detailed directions that would surely be on there. The factory was on Jelly Belly lane so they must have been fairly established there when the roads where being built/named, leading us to believe they would have got around to signposting from the highway. With little warning, the upcoming junction sign matched with what we were expecting to turn off - our cut through had brought us up much higher than we thought. With only a few hundred meters to the turnoff we had 5 lanes of traffic to work through, but managed to cut through. The turnoff led us onto another road, and immediately there was an exit - too late! We'd missed the turnoff and it was 3.55pm As we raced down to the next junction, we spotted the factory off to the side of the road. Turning off quickly, we made turn after turn through an industrial estate, eventually spotted some tiny signs in the setting sunlight pointing us to the parking. It was 4.01pm but we'd made it, and raced to catch onto the tour which had just started to leave!

40 minutes later, we'd tasted Jelly bean in different stages of production and were fully corporate inducted into why Jelly Belly are the best candy makers in the world.... We had 20 minutes to browse the shop, and discovered that there were no flavours available that couldn't be found in the UK. The UK even had MORE flavours than produced for the American markets. Purchases made as they closed up the shop, we were the last customers to leave. Sat in the carpark we had to replan our evening. Originally, we had been hoping to head east to the Yosemite national park to camp for the night, but with darkness quickly approaching we wouldn't be able to see the park. Our budget was being tightly controlled, so we wanted to avoid another costly motel if possible. Our revised plan, was to drive on as intended for the national park, stop for lunch when we got hungry and then when we found a campsite on the outskirts of the park we could just pitch tent and sleep for the night, able to continue on in the daylight to appreciate the scenery.

Plan decided, we headed onwards. We had no internet on my phone, but Google maps showed very different roads to what we could see on the large scale map. Google must be wrong we decided and planned our route accordingly. Eventually we needed fuel and ended up having dinner at a Macdonalds next to the petrol station. The only advantage of Macdonalds was cheap food and free internet. If other fast food chains ever catch on and advertise that they offer an alternative sales in MacDonalds around the world would be nearly extinguished. Sat eating dinner, we were able to navigate our route. We still didn't agree with what Google maps was planning for us, and largely struck out on our own. 20 minutes later, we could see why google hadn't advertised this route. We were driving on endlessly straight roads, with occasional 5 building villages dotted along and were constantly overtaken by (probably drunk) locals, angered by a car keeping to the speed limit (mostly) when all they wanted was to get home to their farms before the cops could spot them. The sky was so clear and unobstructed we could see for miles ahead and the stars surrounded us. With no light pollution we could see the stars clearer than even Banff night skies.

A few wrong turns kept us on our toes, but by 9pm we were ready to stop - the only problem was there were no services along this route. No motels, or shop car parks. Even the tourist information centres doubled up as a Fire Station and we didn't want to risk a farm burning down because we were parked up in front of the horse and water cart shed.

Eventually, we found a Recreational Park and Lake, with a self registration camping. It was really dark, but the toilet block within 50meters of every (empty) site lit us up well enough to put the tent up and make the bed. Soon we were tucked up, and listening to the sounds of the wildlife. Clare was soon asleep, but the night creatures were out in force, a pack of animals and their high pitched yelps echoed around the area - they must be at the lake a few hundred meters away. Research leads me to beleive it was a small group of Mountain Coyotes. A wolf howl shut them up, leaving me the opportunity to hear the rest of the wildlife rustling and scurrying around - a perfect backing noise to sleep to.