We had booked the 1pm ferry to Alcatraz so headed towards Fisherman's Wharf with plenty of time so we wouldn't miss it. We found a car park nearby and the cashier told us the daily charge was $17 if we left prior to 7pm as there was a ball game on. As we walked out the car park we noticed AT&T Park directly across the road and wondered if tickets were still available.

10 minutes later we had brought two tickets that were reasonably priced and in a really good location. The sales person advised that the game started at 7.15pm & that the gates opened at 5.15pm. The first 20,000 people through the gates got a free collectors Giants scarf. Too easy.

We loaded pier 33 into maps and started walking briskly as it estimated that it would take 55 minutes by foot (oops not so nearby) and that didn't leave much time for lunch. As we got closer the standard toilet search was necessary, so as Sam desperately searched for a restroom I stood in line at Subway. He eventually found a toilet at McDonalds and after 15 minutes at Subway I finally got a footlong.

We raced towards the wharf only to discover that maps had loaded pier 45 instead of pier 33, so we sprinted to the correct pier. Got there just in time and scoffed down the footlong as we boarded.

Alcatraz was amazing. I was expecting that we would have a tour guide, but as usual, it was an audio tour experience. The audio tour was informative and included audio from Alcatraz prison guards & prisoners and allowed you to pause if you needed extra time to take photos etc.

Alcatraz opened as a federal prison in 1934 and was designed to hold prisoners who continuously caused trouble at other federal prisons. During its 29 years in operation it held some of the most notorious criminals in American history, such as Al Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud (the Birdman of Alcatraz), George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Bumpy Johnson, Rafael Cancel Miranda (a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party who attacked the United States Capitol building in 1954), Mickey Cohen, Arthur R. "Doc" Barker, James "Whitey" Bulger, and Alvin "Creepy" Karpis (who served more time at Alcatraz than any other inmate). It also provided housing for the Prisons staff and their families (no thanks).

It's claimed that no prisoner successfully escaped and five are listed as "missing and presumed drowned". A total of 36 prisoners made 14 escape attempts over the 29 years. The most violent occurred in May 1946, when a failed escape attempt by six prisoners led to the Battle of Alcatraz. Two guards were killed along with three of the inmates. Eleven guards and one convict were also injured. Two of the surviving convicts were later executed for their roles.

On the night of 11 June 1962 Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin carried out the famous escape from Alcatraz. They made dummy heads from a mixture of soap, toilet paper and real hair and left them in their beds to fool prison officers making night-time inspections. They escaped from their cells by crawling through holes in the cell walls which they had dug with spoons over the course of a year. Behind their cells was a service corridor which they then escaped through. It wasn't until the next morning that the fake heads were discovered.

It's not known if they survived the escape, but it was hinted on the audio tour that they may have been heading to South America as they had all been learning Spanish. We may never know.....but Sam hopes they made it out alive.

We decided to get to the ballpark at 5.15pm so we could get our free scarfs and decided to get the train instead of the hour walk. When we approached the ballpark we realised that everyone else must have wanted the free scarf too. We joined the masses of people queuing to get in all entrances and didn't hold our breath. But to our surprise and excitement, we officially became San Francisco Giants fans when we were handed scarfs.

We had dinner & beers in the pub that connected to the ballpark. We invited two ladies to join us at our table as the pub was packed and seating was limited. We had some hilarious conversations with them, and I'm sure that they would've gone home that night to YouTube what on Earth the crazy sport of Netball is.

The Giants baseball game was so much fun and we were surrounded by some enthusiastic fans. We had wicked seats and our scarfs kept us warm after the sun went down. They keep you entertained throughout with shots of the crowd which included the kiss cam, which had us cracking up. A big time fan proposed to his now fiance in a golf cart that drove around the field between innings. I brought a giant bag of popcorn from a guy selling it up & down the stairs.

The young guy sitting in front of us reminded me of my brother Phil and stood up yelling a lot. The man that sat next to Sam was amazed whenever I returned from the bathroom with a fresh beer for Sam, as his wife apparently wasn't as well trained. The game ended up going into a tenth inning and after four entertaining hour's the Giants unfortunately lost. But we are Giants fans for life.