San Francisco 1

San Francisco has always been one of my favourite US cities and this and the next post will demonstrate why. A week or so ago it took less than an hour to drive from Santa Clara to SF and we headed directly to the Golden Gate bridge to show Max what a real bridge looks like. He was impressed! The first picture shows the party (Emily and Rebecca; Max and Ella) preparing to walk and run to the first of the two pylons. Even I ran across the bridge to the stares of the oldies.

Then we drove across to the Sausalito side in Marin county for a view back across the bridge and the bay. You may be able to make out the bay bridge from SF to Oakland in the background of the third photo. You can also see the SF CBD and, in the middle of the bay a couple of km offshore, the famous island of Alcatraz - our next destination.

 Here it is closer up, a view taken from one of the frequent ferries that ply the route. The rocky outcrop is surrounded by freezing water, often heavy fogs (though not on this winter day!), and strong currents, all of which make escape difficult, nay impossible. Needless to say, some of the US's most desperate criminals wound up here including for a while Al Capone.

Good prisoners had special privileges, like access to the library, where according to one sign, they tended to read Kant, Schopenhauer and Hegel (!!). Another privilege was their ability to use the recreation area below which doubled as a basketball court and bridge club. I can't quite imagine Capone playing bridge, but I sent this photo to my own club in Armidale to demonstrate the superiority of our premises.

Whilst on the island, I was banged up for a short while as you can see. Max loved both the ferry trip and roaming around the island, and it was also useful for us to remind him what happens to naughty people!

In the evening we met up with Greg who came up on the Google bus from work for a delightful meal in what appeared to be SF's Italian district. The meal included some of the best Gelati in the city.

AS