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Published: June 26th 2013
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Just Where They Should Be
Actually, we're flipped. They should be inside, rather than in the visiting area. Jeff, Liam and I visited Alcatraz in November 2004 and it was a very interesting place. There is also an interesting virtual cache there, so we decided to go again. After spending far too long on the Bay Bridge, we easily found parking and then stood in line, too. The ride over was brief, and then a crush of people disembarked for self-guided tours of the island. The other five all did the audio tour, and it looked like all of them were engrossed in what it had to say. They walked through the cell blocks, the library, dining hall, visiting area. I took a slightly different tactic, following the escape plan written out by the cache owner. It brought me out the recreation area to a path with an overlook of the Golden Gate Bridge and a walk through the gardens, most of which were designed and cared for by the prisoners. I couldn't make my final escape because I couldn't find one specific piece of information, but it was a fun way to see the island.
After arriving back on the mainland, we decided to stick around the piers for a while. We slowly headed over to Pier
39 to see the sea lions, significantly fewer than we had seen there before, but still exciting for the boys. We had lunch at a little open air diner, where the pigeons seemed to believe they belonged. Mom and Dad decided to hang out there, while we went down a little further. On our walk, we stopped at the Musee Mecanique, a free collection of coin-operated machines. They had all sorts of things--fortune tellers, little scenes, tests of strength and sex appeal. One of them carried the label, "Please be gentle with these machines. Most of them are or will be older than you will ever be." Liam and Jeff pretended to play air hockey while Cole pretended to shoot a bunch of stuff. I suppose if we had been nicer we would have let them play for real, but they had fun anyway.
Our last stop on the walking tour was the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. The visitor center had interesting information about the development of the city as a shipping area, the development of the waterfront, and many of the industries and people associated with it. The more exciting part was Hyde Pier, where there
Broadway, Maybe?
I think this is between cell blocks C and D, but I could be wrong. Doing my own thing, I was able to stay somewhat away from the masses. are five ships waiting to be discovered, maybe more. We quickly visited a houseboat, skipped the CA, but then spent some time watching two guys renovated a smaller boat. The boys had many questions for them, and then starting talking about Gibbs' boat (from NCIS). We went on a ferry and a 3-masted schooner, the boys' favorite. There are also a couple tugboats, but we skipped them, too.
The wharf area is an interesting place. Last time we were there, a guy was painted gold and miming something. This time, he or someone else was painted silver. While in the visitor center, we noticed a disheveled looking woman carrying a cardboard cutout of someone. Jeff remembers it being Elvis, but I think he's wrong. On the way back, we followed a middle-aged man with most of his boxers showing, talking to himself and smoking. The boys were quite confused.
I wasn't ready to be done for the day, so we left our comfortable parking spot, thankful that our windows hadn't been smashed, as opposed to the two cars parked opposite us. We headed up to Golden Gate Park and the San Francisco Botanic Garden. Mom's been
Guard Tower
This building is currently being restored. taking photos of flowers during much of our trip, so I thought she'd enjoy some more. They have 55 acres, most of which we did not do, but we visited the ancient gardens, Australia, the redwoods, southeast Asia, and a variety of other areas. It looked like many of the flowers were a little past prime, but it was still a very beautiful walk.
- - - - -
Conversation of the Day:
L: Mom, can you check the license plates on your side?
K: Sure, Liam.
L: Which is that one?
K: California.
C: California. California. They're all California.
K: Cole, do you know why that is?
C: 'Cuz we're in California.
Geocaches Found: 8
New License Plate States Seen: 1 (HI)
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Tot: 0.356s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 63; dbt: 0.1774s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.5mb
Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I just looked up "geocacheing"...
as your blogs had mentioned this several times and I had never heard of it. Sound interesting, but I don't have a smart phone.