Peter and Vicki's Travel Blog: We escaped Alcatraz!

Another day full of interest and adventure!

We didn't find any hippies - think they are "grey nomads" like us now!, but we did find lots of interesting people and characters, especially along the Embarcadero - the waterfront boulevard. There are all types of buskers - some very talented, human statues, and other weird and wonderful characters with their own very unique way to get a tip. The human dancing skeleton was interesting to say the least - lol, but the best one for the day was a man crouched down along the pavement covered in branches of leaves (holding them in his hands), then springing up and shouting "BOO!" at unsuspecting people passing by - Pete and I got caught beautifully - scared the living daylights out of us! Though it may have been candid camera! Not sure how many tips he got for the day! lol Tho

We've covered about 20ks over the last couple of days so we know these hills of San Fran well! (good exercise!) Our first port of call this morning was the 210 foot Coit Tower on top of Telegraph Hill, built with funds left by Lillie Coit for the beautification of San Francisco. the tower was designed in the shape of a fire hose nozzle. What amazing views of this beautiful city from the top of the tower. it was so good to see the sun shining today!

From the tower we headed down to Pier 33 and onto the ferry which took us across the Bay to Alcatraz, or as it is affectionately known by the locals, "The Rock".Alcatraz means "Island of the sea birds"- heralding back to the days before human occupation. This 12 acres in the middle of the bay has worn many coats - a bird rookery, a fort, a lighthouse, a prison and today it is one of the national parks at the Golden Gate and again a bird rookery. After we watched a short film covering the history of "the rock" we explored this notorious island. It was really interesting and eye-opening taking the self guided audio tour around the prison and hearing about the facility and its inmates - including some of the most famous and desperate criminals - Al Capone, "Machine Gun" Kelly and Robert "Birdman" Stroud. Alcatraz -
"for the most desperate and irredeemable of prisoners..." only ever had about 300 inmates there - they were only known by their inmate numbers and never referred to by name - this was part of the punishment - they were a nobody! The Rock was all about punishment, it wasn't a correctional facility.

After successfully escaping Alcatraz (and we could see why the inmates would want to! NONE succeeded even though they tried! ) we did a fun round trip on the Cable Car to Chinatown and back to Fisherman's Wharf - we sat beside the grip man (the brake man) and watched his skill driving the cable car as well as enjoy the sights of San Fran as we climbed up and down its many hills!

After visiting one of the many art galleries around the bay foreshore streets ,we finished the day at the famous San Fran Ghirardelli chocolate and ice cream shop