Escape to Alkatraz

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Today I am in search of socks! Weird as this may sound, I packed far too many summer clothes and now we've run out of socks. There's a Sports Basement near Golden Gate Bridge and stupidly I shun the Sat Nav in favour of my good sense of direction. This nearly turns into a disaster, we realise too late that we've missed the turning for Crissy Fields and are heading straight for Golden Gate Bridge and Marin County. Luckily Kev manages to squeeze into the right lane and we catch the last turn off before the bridge.This turns out to be a bit of a bonus and we park up and gawp at the Bridge. There are a couple of great viewing platforms so we play the tourist and take lots of photos. Alkatraz is also visible from here, I wonder if there's a part of San Francisco where you can't see it clearly.
We head off and find the Sports Basement, where we stock up on socks and lots of lovely North Face stuff at stupid prices. It's still early and as we're not going to head off on foot into the city until the afternoon, we take the lightning car tour of San Francisco. We check out Haight Ashbury, it's lots of hippy shops and a park, not much else, so we change direction and drive back into the city. Up through China Town, down into the Financial District and finally back along Embarcadero and up towards Lombard Street.
We drop the car back at our motel and head off on foot again. I don't think I've ever done quite so much walking. We go back to the Wharf, grab a quick sandwich and wander around for a while before heading down to Pier 33 for our ferry and Alkatraz tour.
The ferry ride is short and the sea not too choppy, I'm a bit rubbish on boats and don't fancy legging it outside to puke over the side. We circle the Island and then the boat docks. The tour is quite indepth and the guides like to give just about every ounce of information you could possibly ask for. There's a winding hill road that takes you up 13 stories to the main building. Prisoners would have entered this way, you go through the shower block and then onto the cells. There is the opportunity to see just about all parts of the prison. The only bits unavailable are the old Govenor's house, the prison Guard housing and the old worshop areas. We go through the regular cells, dining room, outside recreation space, solitary confinement, the library, the dining hall and finally the hospital. It's bleak and cold. I don't imagine it was much different from this while it was in use. The cells where the 1962 escape took place are just as they were when this happened. The missing grates and space where the inmates chiselled out crawlspace with spoon handles and the service corrider where they escaped from. It's a fascinating tour and I would recommend it to anyone visiting SF. We catch the early 7.15! ferry back to shore and it's just started to rain. We make it to Nick's Lighthouse a fantastic fish restaurant before the heaven's open. It's good to be inside and warm. Nick's isn't a recommended from the guidebook place, it was the busiest and the food looked good.
We go for a fried calamari starter, and two types of Seafood Fettucini. The calamari arrives and is huge. Cooked to perfection in a fab light almost tempura type batter. I have to stop eating it as I know my crab fettucini is going to arrive and I'm getting pretty stuffed. Our main course arrive and the food couldn't be better. Kev's gone for a saffron fettucini with scallops and prawns, it's amazing and my crab fettucini really does piss all over the 'world famous crab cakes' I had in Monterey a couple of nights ago. We leave stuffed and the weather is against us. It's raining cats and dogs and I really can't walk another step. We spot a cab and the driver has us back to the hotel in minutes. Off to Humboldt County tomorrow for the Avenue of Giants.

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Comments

[trenton]

hi
awsome tour