Alcatraz!

What an amazing day.... I got up quite wearily at the equivalent of 3am NZ time and did my best to dress myself properly and catch the early ferry to Alcatraz....

Alcatraz is a strange place, and the bit that weirded me out the most was the recreation yard. It has enormously high walls (two storeys?) and beyond them is the most amazing view of San Fran. My favourite story was about a prison escape that was thwarted because one of the guards has been lazy on this particular day and not put a particular key back in the guard's station. Anyway, a grim pace, and I took rather predictable photos (Al Capone's cell anyone....?).

After the trip back I walked along Fisherman's Wharf. I can see why locals loathe it, and why tourists love it. I saw the same shirts in seventeen million different shops, and the only one I liked at all was in this weird men's style that goes way past your bottom (all the kids on the street are wearing shirts at this crazy length... almost to the knees...). So, I gave those a pass. I also managed to resist lime and fluro yellow cargo shorts, but only just... I promise they were cooler than that sounds...

Having had enough of being a tacky tourist I decided to go on an adventure, and take a risk with my sense of direction. I wandered around the financial district a bit, and pretended to be a guest at a posh hotel so I could use the restroom (the bus driver told me I'd get away with it if I "acted like a tourist"). I tried to find a shirt in the attached shopping mall, but I could only find aforementioned giraffe style so consoled myself with vegetables. Although, I had to decline offers of fries, mashed potatoes, Coke and strombolli before they'd believe a salad was enough. I finished that off with steamed rice from another place (again, the only real food that wasn't made from a pack of which they couldn't tell me the ingredients), and headed home.

Favourite 'only in America' moment- the sign on the bus that says "Information freely given but safety requires avoiding unneccesary conversation'. I'd love that on a shirt.

All together another amazing day! The weather this morning, ferry trip across the harbour, and cable cars have been a bit like living in a different Wellington. Felt a bit weird every so often. I'm going biking across to the other side of the Bay in the morning - giving me a hearty appetite for frog tomorrow, by the looks of your emails and comments...