The Rock

Yesterday I ventured into downtown San Francisco again. I had big plans to ride my first cable car, visit Ghiradelli Square, and then breeze through Fisherman's Wharf to take pictures before heading to Pier 33 to catch the boat to Alcatraz. I got off the BART at the Powell stop near the cable car turnaround and much to my dismay, there were already hundreds of people in line. The line stretched clear to the next block. Bah. I've been to San Francisco on three separate occasions now and still have not ridden a freakin' cable car. I tell myself that someday I will, but am I ever going to be patient enough to wait in that horrible line? Probably not. To make matters worse, it took so long to figure out how else to get to the waterfront that I ate up most of my pre-Alcatraz sightseeing time. So I eventually hopped on the right bus and just went to Pier 33.

Then I took a 15 minute boat ride over to Alcatraz Island. After getting off onto the dock, they gave us a short spiel about the history of Alcatraz and how to proceed with the tour. Instead of making groups of people walk around together with a tour guide, they give everyone a little mp3 player and headphones to listen to a pre-recorded cellhouse tour at their own pace. I enjoyed doing it this way, especially since I was there by myself and wouldn't have had anyone to talk to anyway. Hearing the accounts from actual prisoners and guards who lived on the island and seeing the cells as the way they were decades ago was so interesting. It was almost eerie to look at the cells where guards were held hostage and shot during the Battle of Alcatraz. I also never realized that at one time Native Americans occupied the island as part of their civil rights movement and that originally the island had served as Fort Alcatraz to protect the Bay during the gold rush. The thing I was MOST surprised about though was that one of the four rows of cells within the cell-house was nicknamed Michigan Avenue, but I haven't been able to figure out why. The others were Broadway, Seedy Street, and the D-Block.

A typical cellSolitary confinementThe shower roomLeftover symbols of the Indian occupation

I spent over two hours on the island, touring the cell-house and watching a video on the history of island. But by then my back was killing me from being on my feet for two straight days so I boarded the ferry to go back to San Francisco. I should have offered to drive it, since I have so much experience driving ferries on Janelle's island! I made friends with a South African guy on the way back who had been on the same pace as me throughout the whole tour. Too bad he left for work to come to the US during the World Cup!

After that I went back to Oakland and eventually headed to Kimberly's so I could get up very early this morning to watch the US vs. Slovenia match. It was heartbreaking, but a good game to see. After this weekend my sightseeing will be less frequent..I start work on Monday, woo!