Cruising the Bay


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Published: July 10th 2007
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Today was spent cruising the bay at San Fran checking out Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge. The day started with the watch alarm buzzing at 6:45 in the morning - it's sad I know, but we have been sleeping in till 8ish lately! We grabbed a quick bite and caught a couple of trams to Pier 33 for our cruise to Alcatraz - leaving at 9:30. Turns out that the trip to the pier was a bit quicker than we thought. We rocked up at about 7:50 and had to gate crash a cafe that wasn't going to open till 8:30 - everyone just kept streaming in; the shop keeper will probably lock the door till he is ready tomorrow!

We finally boarded the boat to Alcatraz at 9:30 and headed out into the bay. It's quite an impressive area; such a large expanse of water, with a small inlet and the Golden Gate 'bridging' the gap. Alcatraz is a couple of km's into the bay, and juts out of the middle of nowhere - probably a good spot for guarding the area from naval attacks back in the 1800's. Turns out it was used to protect the area during the gold rush years. The island was then used as a military prison until 1934. Between 1934 and 1963 it was used as a federal prison and housed inmates like 'Al Capone' and 'Machine Gun' Kelly - who actually never knew how to operate one!

The escapees tour by one of the local park rangers (yes, Alcatraz is a national park), and the audio tour of the actual prison was pretty informative and well worth the freezing boat ride (water temp is 12 degrees year round, with cloud cover and a strong wind). The prisoners were only allowed hot showers so that their bodies didn't adjust to the cold water - even champion swimmers don't last long in that water! And the current is enormous!

It was interesting to hear how differently the movies portrayed some of the prisoners that stayed at Alcatraz - just a slight twist on some of the stories (some prisoners didn't exist, one movie has a guy sentenced for stealing $5 - turns out he murdered 5 people, raped several, and robbed this, that, and the other! The movie stars Kevin Bacon if you want to see the fictional version.) It was also amazing to learn that there are still NO reported succesful escapes...Sean Connery probably didn't make it in the end - SORRY! There were about 7 people who did escape, but none have ever been found, though the oil barrels that were used as floating devices were. There is also a large Great White Shark population on the far far side of the Golden Gate, so if you got swept past there, your chances were slim.

When we got back from Alcatraz we headed to Pier 39 for lunch ($5 for a jug of water - bastards). We then headed to the Golden Gate bridge. The bridge is HUGE - an engineering feat worth seeing! The shear size of the cables alone is impressive, let alone the span and height of the bridge. We even got to check out a few boats heading underneath us to the piers.

Finally, we spent the wee hours of the afternoon washing clothes and writing blogs.... it's a hard life, but I'm sure we will get used to it! Catchya later dudes.


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View to the BridgeView to the Bridge
View to the Bridge

A HUGE ship heading in.


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