San Francisco Day 3: Alcatraz and a Nap

Day three in the Fog City took us to Pier 31 to catch a ferry to Alcatraz. Alcatraz is an island in the middle of the bay that was once home to Alcatraz prison, for anyone who didn't know. It closed down in 1963, and after some tumultuous years, was named part of the National Park Services and receives tourists. The place is very cool and kinda made me wish I was a park ranger.

The ticket to Alcatraz includes an audio tour, and while I normally shun those types of things, it was actually quite handy for this. And very well narrated, with former guards and prisoners taking their turns. It was also nice to be directed around and told about various things. Since everyone had one, you'd see large groups of people all move, look and point at the same things at the same time!
































The most interesting thing I learned about Alcatraz is that it has a vast ecological system of birds and flowers and plants that you would never imagine. Birds love it there because there are no predators and abundant food in the bay. They were all over the island and it was quite cool to see them all.















I could go on and on about Alcatraz, but I'm trying to keep this short. Check this out, or the awesome documentary made about it. Seriously, there was a lot I didn't know about it and the tour was super educational.

After Alcatraz we hit up Pier 39 again, got some ice cream, and then made it back to our hotel where we both took a nap. The bike ride from the day before had caught up with us.

But then we headed out, refreshed, to check out the iconic image of San Francisco: those houses with the city skyline in the background. We had a puzzle of this when I was a kid, and it was really cool to see it in person and have it be exactly the same!

Then we took various forms of transportation--walking, cable car, bus, trolley car--all over the city and ended up at Yerba Buena gardens. It has a very Bryant Park feel to it. The flowers were beginning to bloom and you could smell their scent in the air. There was an awesome fountain area dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. that was very inspiring. If I lived in San Fran I would definitely come to this park all the time and just read or relax.



This was our last night in San Francisco. We grabbed some food at a diner and settled back in our hotel to get some rest for our next day...