ALCATRAZ!

Just a quick note to say that I have added a pic or two to the previous post.

We woke today, after an interrupted night though both of us slept plenty, to beaming sunshine again.  Our presumption is that the SF weather will be consistently changeable.  So we took the opportunity to be tourists and nipped on a couple of busses to get us to Pier 33 and the boat to ALCATRAZ!

I spent a lot of the day saying 'ALCATRAZ!' in an Eddie Izzard type way, and we had a brilliant day out.  We just caught a boat going out, and both the walking tour and the audio guide were compelling.

The city looked beautiful from the island, with sunshine glittering off the water in the bay.  Such a contrast with the confinement of the prison, where some of the most notorious criminals in the country were removed of their liberty and their humanity.  Charlie said that it was very reminiscent of Brixton prison, though at least with Brixton there had been some attempt at modernisation (whereas Alcatraz was closed in 1963).  But as they had been built at a similar time, this was no surprise.

Penny was exceptionally well behaved, and seemed to enjoy the walk and the exploring round the cells and the grounds.

Then we managed to jump on a boat going back to the shore (no queuing for us, yay!) before having a well-deserved lunch/dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.  We also popped in to Boudin's Bakery, one of my favourite places, as it sells so many lovely kitchen bits and pieces, and always has bread baked in fabulous shapes ... we saw a bread crocodile, and a bread dragon with a bread tortoise in its mouth.  Maybe a nod to Chinese new year?

Then home for a relaxing evening before bed ... another full day of touristy stuff, though I think the weekend will be a bit more admin based.