Trip 2005 - Alcatraz Island

I've already mentioned (see the entry about Venice Beach) that Chris Rock has a joke that says if a homeless man has a funny sign, then he's not really homeless. A real homeless man is too hungry to be funny. This man wasn't hungry, he simply needed money for Alcohol research. I thought that his sign was insanely clever, so I gave him some money in exchange for a picture. I told him that I too research alcohol on a daily basis. We decided to team up some day in the future to work on a joint project next time I get to San Francisco.

My Dad ordered our tickets to Alcatraz online, so we had to pick them up at will call and take the ferry at a certain time. They control the amount of people on the Island by limiting how many people can go out at a time. Once there, you are free to spend as much time wandering the island as you wish, but most people will spend 2-3 hours, if not less. We left our campsite with enough time to get downtown, but when I went to renew our site for the next day, they informed me that someone else had already rented our spot. With little time to spare, we had to pick up our tent and all of our possessions and move them a new, less favorable camp site. Fortunately, we were able to do this quickly enough to catch our ferry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sea lions love it when pretty girls stop to pose alongside them. You can hear their incessant "barking" calling tourists into their trap. When you're a stranger on the road in a strange place, you can't even trust the local animals to guide you to safety. That is why you only trust Frommer's Travel Guide in these situations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pier 39 is one of San Francisco most visited tourist attractions. The city has used that knowledge to build several places where people can spend their money unwisely. There are multiple shops, restaurants and street performers happy to take people's $$s.

 

 

 

The fine city of San Francisco looked over us like a mother hen watching over her chicks. That's pretty much the best thing that I can say right now because we had nothing else to do but look around us as we waited in line for the ferry to the rock.

 

 

These sea lions rocked. They started hanging out on these docks in 1990. Soon, hundreds of sea lions made their home here, and the city had no choice but to accommodate for them. They love this space because of the available shelter, food supply, and the chance to brighten up the faces of many children every day of the year.

Home

 

 

 

 

The ferry was just about to take off from the shore, and as we were seated, I decided to snap a group picture. My camera was delicately balancing on the railing, and Sarah was afraid that it would plunge into the ocean. Look at the worried expression on her face. I'm obviously not worried because I've been in stickier situations than this one before.

 

 

 

 

Fisherman's Wharf was pretty sweet. I only wish that my companions were into food of the sea. There was so much fresh seafood around that it made my stomach growl. You could practically watch the fishermen catch the food live then bring it to the various restaurants where the chefs cooked it to perfection right in front of your eyes. They certainly have done wonders with this area, but we didn't have time for that right now, we had an appointment with the jailer on Alcatraz Island.

Tim had me take this picture because he was certain that he was doing this very same thing 4 years ago when he last visited Alcatraz. He claims to have a picture of it somewhere, and made sure to call his friend Paul once again just as he claimed he did 4 years ago. Since I wasn't there, I have no choice but to take the picture and believe the kid.