Corner Hotel Room
View from one of the windows
Fountain (seen in the view above). I love how they have to post that adults with diarrhea shouldn't play in the fountain.
Going to Alcatraz...
We running this, let's go... I'm on a boat, I'm on a boat, everybody look at me 'cause I'm sailing on a boat...
Alcatraz was a neglected rock, a nesting site for birds, a fort, a prison, a tourist trap, and it is finally being allowed to go back to the birds, with careful landscaping and tourists around the edges.
Greenhouse, plantings
Seagull with chicks
This was the Officer's Club.
This was in the military fort days.
Inside, these were the showers for inmates.
And they paraded you right down Main Street naked, where clothes awaited you on your bunk, in your cell.
Standard 5 x 9 cell, with sink, toilet, and bed.
Solitary confinement. I'm standing in the back corner of the cell. When the outer door swings shut, the inmate is in complete darkness.
I'm sure it was tempting for Ron, but the outer doors were firmly secured in the 'open' position.
View of Angel Island. I believe they made it. I have to believe it.
View of San Francisco. It was a constant reminder to the inmates everything they'd given up by being criminals.
It was actually quite beautiful. The people who worked at the prison were often married with children. They lived in family housing on the island. The women had potluck suppers and quilting bees and cookbook fund raisers and flower gardens, and took boats into town throughout the day. The kids rode boats to school, unless the water was too rough. Rough water? No school!
Heading back to the mainland, Alcatraz and the bridge.
Fun you can have on a Cable Car!
Ron chose #4
Looks like clouds, but it's the fog rolling in.
Every fog storm has a silver lining. We were trying to outrun it, though, since we'd both read The Mist.
We beat the fog and made it to the hotel!
Finally, someone understands my "pillow nesting pod" obsession!
Pool was gorgeous, but I'm not traveling with a wet swimsuit.
We found a great mexican place where our waiter made the guac to order, right at the table!
I also ordered some mixed drink that was really pretty, and took away my knees after the second or third one. I packed leftover guac in an origami paper food diaper (not recommended). Ron said something funny and I ended up singing "Macho Man" all the way back to the hotel.
Early in the morning, which was just a couple hours later, we hit the ground limping running, and were jostling for space at the airport. We flew the first leg (San Francisco to Chicago) on the same plane, but not together. I was way in the back in an 'E' seat, between two women who did not have personal space issues and sat indian-style like I do. Ron was... up front somewhere.
The second leg (Chicago to Pittsburgh), we were on different planes. My plane was small, and was "the little airplane that could", through some pretty rough storms. The turbulence was the worst I'd experienced, and the flight attendants had to stop serving beverages and buckle in.
When I finally touched the ground, it was nearly midnight, and I was exhausted from the adrenaline I'd been living on.
Me, on terra firma.
With Ron's guidance, I made it through the airport alone, and he was waiting to pick me up at the curb. An hour and a half later, we were home.
Home!!
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