Will played hookie with us! yay! We stopped at .. Lake Shore - Peets + Donuts for breakfast, drove to Fisherman's Wharf .. and took the ferry to the island.

Dispite living in the bay area for so long, this was the first time I've been to Alcatraz. Did you know it was a military prison, then a federal prison, then transfer to GSA, then .. finally to NPS? Did you know Al Capone was there? Did you know that Indians occupied it?

- Listening to the Park Ranger give the introduction

-Audio tour starts here

- Historial photographs (Only parts of the 'restored' area is open to the public)

- Cut off between "Broadway" and "Michigan" Ave

- Infamous faces, G looks like he belonged on the photograph

- or perhaps he belongs in the cell. It is really creepy, I couldnt walk into one of the cells

- One of the break out attempts

- Visitation area (each prisoner was allowed one visit a month)

- "C & D Street" (the desirable part of the prison)

- C & D Street is equipped with headphone jacks with music available

- From the top of the stairs to Recreation Yard (You can see Golden Gate bridge)

- with your back to the Golden Gate bridge, you can see the lighthouse

- with the lighthouse and Golden Gate to the West, the view of downtown San Francisco, the Bay Bridge is to the East.

- Pano shot, trying out the 'camera assist' setting

We spent ~2 hours on the island. We had a surprising good lunch at Nick's Lighthouse on the Wharf ... I had a Oyster Po'boy for the first time and it was yummy. G had good fish and chips, and Will had a tasty spicy shirmp pasta.

The next few hours were ... us trying to .. find our way ... to .. Presidio, Golden Gate Park, and Palace of Fine Arts without a map! Presidio looks like Gov't buildings from the 40s, and Palace of Fine Arts was closed, and we did manage to find Golden Gate Park just about when it was getting dark. We proceeded to get lost within the park and exited to Ocean Beach.

Not one of us were hungry.. BUT .. I have a particular devotion to Roti at Straits Cafe. AND we passed by it at least three times. We stopped, we had Roti, Mutabak, Mussels, and Duck Kapitan ... the good'ol'favs.

And I was late getting back to the East Bay to meet the family. My aunt brought coats for mom, Connie, and Janet ... I sent off the pics to them. :)