“Two summers ago my family went to San Francisco for two weeks. It was a really fun experience! About a week through, my dad decided we should go on a duck boat tour. If you don’t know what that is it is a bus that can go into the water and practically transform into a boat. The last boat of the day was at 2:00. We were so excited because we got the last two tickets. We got on the bus and took our seats in the back, last row. We went around a few city blocks, saw some buildings, and went to China-Town. We started heading to the Industrial District where we would go into the water. I remember going down the ramp into the water, the kids were giggling, and there was a little splash. After a little while the captain called up the birthday boy to go up to the front of the boat to steer the ship. After that he rushed back to his seat, and his face was just grey. As this is happening this thick black smoke drifted towards the back of the boat. I remember thinking someone must be a really heavy smoker. We soon realized no one was smoking. Then over the intercom, the captain came on and said, ‘This is not a drill, our engine is on fire. I’ve alerted the coastguard. Please get a life jacket.’ After that, the coastguard brought us back to shore. What I can say I’ve learned from that experience is that not everything is as it seems. We felt really lucky that we got those tickets, but it was definitely not the best place to be at that time.”