Communist Country

When visiting the gun range at the start of our roadtrip in Vegas, we mentioned that we were planning on visiting San Francisco. We knew San Francisco is sort of a tree-hugging homo-loving hippy city but it was quite hilarious to hear them rednecks call San Francisco "Communist Country". However when talking to some of the San Francisco locals it kinda felt like home. People don't carry guns around here and actually drive normal-sized cars. Although I've got to say too many Priuses is too many. Also it was quite surprising how hard it was to find a simple bar to have a drink. After walking almost the entire Embarcadero we saw a good old Irish pub. Inside we finally had a Stella, and I can't tell you how good it felt to drink a decent pint of beer. The traditional Guinness to go with the traditional Irish live band made it a really nice enjoyable experience.
What else did we do in San Francisco? We visited the USS Pampanito submarine that was permanently stationed at the Fisherman's Warf. We also had a juicy burger at the Hard Rock Cafe, walked through downtown SF, including China Town, North Beach and Union Square and did some fruitless shopping along the way. But most of our time was spent on a little island called Alcatraz. Being a die hard fan of the movie "The Rock" I really enjoyed the tour through the most famous prison on earth. Also the movie "Escape from Alcatraz", filmed on the island in black in white with Clint Eastwood based on a true story of the only possibly successful escape attempt, played before my eyes when walking through the different compartiments of the prison. We were too late for the night tour so we can only imagine what that would have been. Apparently the guided night tour is even better! Kim and Charissa also went to the Golden Gate Park, a couple government buildings such as City Hall and The Painted Ladies in Alamo Square Park .
We stayed in a yought hostel for two nights. The last night while discussing our options for the trip to Vegas, the fire alarm went off. It was around midnight when we all had to leave the building and witness how two giant firetruck-oldtimers parked right in front of our nose with sirens and lights on, the whole package. The San Fancisco fire department still has really traditional firetrucks, so it surely was an awesome experience. No fire though!
The next day we took off to Las Vegas. We departed around six in the morning to make sure we could get back in Vegas on time for another round of awesome gun practising! We drove past Death Valley, the hottest place on earth (magmatic areas not included). We had to turn off the airco in our car, to prevent the engine from overheating. It got about 125°F which is almost 52°C. Pants came off on that one.