California Adventures---San Francisco, Day 2

On our last day in the sunshine state, we started the morning by doing some shopping at the Union Square area and then walked back to the Ferry Building to get some chai at one of my favorite coffee shops, Peet's Coffee. However, we didn't plan our time very well and were still at Pier 7 or 9 at about 5 minutes until we had to get on our boat to Alcatraz. In 2 seconds, we were in a cab and in 2 minutes, we were at the right pier and made our boat just before it left the dock. We cruised to the island on which this mystical prison stands and were rewarded by amazing views of the city and the Bay bridge.

Alcatraz sits on an island that is only 1.5 miles from San Francisco, but is surrounded by rough and cold waters, which is why there has never been a documented successful escape from the isolated prison (there were 3 guys that managed to escape using spoons to open up air vents, but they were never found or heard from---some say they actually made it to South America). We learned this and other interesting facts on our tour of the premises, which were very grim (I mean, it is a prison after all). The cells were pretty tiny, but fairly light unlike the ones in the discipline block where the cells were more spacious, but completely dark. Some of the famous prisoners to be secluded in Alcatraz were Capone and Birdman. After the prison was shut down in the early sixties, a group of Native Americans from different tribes briefly occupied it in the late sixties wanting to establish an independent territory, but the plot was soon abandoned because of the location.




After making the boat trip back and enjoying some more local delicacies for lunch at a famous local hotspot, Boudin, we walked down the Wharf to Ghiradelli Square where we got some chocolate goodies and then experienced another San Fran public transport, the trolley, back to the Ferry Building (which we ended up visiting 3 or 4times in the span of 1.5 days) to enjoy the cute shops.

E picked us up from out hotel after check-out to enjoy another one of my favorite restaurants, Nan King (best chinese ever!) and some more Peet's before going to SFO for our red-eye home.