In the morning we went on a cruise, which was lovely, even though it lasted about 12 minutes.

Really, we were catching the boat over to Alcatraz, one of the most infamous prisons in history. When we got to the cell house, the tour was a lot different to most others.

We didn’t have a guide as such, but were asked to put on headphones and given a remote and told to control the tour ourselves. It was a bit strange, wandering deafly through masses of people with alien expressions on their face, trapped in their own little anthropocentric worlds, as dead convicts described to you the hardships of day to day life on ''the rock''.

We heard about riots from the inmates themselves, escape attempts from the guards and it was a really good way to experience Alcatraz. For the record, there are really no man eating sharks in San Francisco Bay, it was just propaganda from the Alcatraz guards. And there were only three people to ever escape, and no-one knows if they survived or not.

We returned to the mainland and split into groups, some shopping opportunities ahead of us.

Jack and I were abandoned by the girls for the low calibre experience of make-up shopping, so we headed off into the city.

Getting in was fine, the tram ran from Fisherman’s wharf straight there, but getting around was slightly more difficult. Downtown San Francisco isn’t gridded like Melbourne.

There are two different grids, running at different angles intersecting along Market Street. But we figured it out, and attacked the nine-floor Westfield shopping centre, getting some clothes along the way.

The salespeople are more forthright here, as we were jumped by a lady selling ''dead sea mineral'' products. She covered every inch of our arm with it, and then reduced the price down $90 and we couldn’t say no. Time will tell on the very high chance that we were scammed.

Getting home was hard, and I believe that the transport in Melbourne is much more fluent. We ended up giving in and flagging a taxi, which are a lot cheaper over here.

Tomorrow is our second last day (and our first heatwave). Hoping for it to be a good one.