05-20-2009 Hills Hills and More Hills

Pictures of me in the hostel room...pretty nice place and very cheap comparatively.


Picture showing how steep the hills are.


And another. Up around the base of the hill Coit tower is on.

That famous winding street. Hope to see it tomorrow on the way out of town.


I think I have found a hobby...finding surveying monuments. This is the one for Coit tower.


Alcatraz from Coit...yes I have way too many pictures of Alcatraz...you will see...





.Looking at Coit from the base.


.The elevator going up. Needed an elevator opperator because it did not stop on the floors automatically. First time I have actually seen or been in a elevator of this type.


.We stayed basically where the red awning.


I liked this picture because it showed the topography of the city...nice and hilly.


Golden gate from atop Coit tower...


Pier 39 from Coit...


Looking from the base of the hill that Coit tower is on. One of the steepest hills I have ever seen. Thankfully we only had to walk down this side...even that was a bit of a challenge to be honest.


Inside one of the Piers...perhaps...35?


Leaving the mainland for Alcatraz

Seagulls were able to glide over our boat the whole way due to wind in the bay....here is an example.




Another example


Seagulls

Pictured from the boat.


Approaching Alcatraz.

The first thing we did when we got off the boat was listen to the park ranger because it was required.


A hallway we were not allowed down.


Picture showing the run down condition of the prison.


Guard tower.


I love this picture. The lighting and the colors just look amazing to me. It is really a picture of nothing though...


Water tower.


Along with birds, buildings, and rocks...Alcatraz has quite the flower collection.


Seagull


Over look of some of the buildings...


Area of the audio tour. We opted out as we got over a third of the tour cost back for not taking part in the audio tour. It was very quiet with everyone listening to their own broadcast. They all just walked around like zombies...kinda scary


Coast guard chopper hovering - apparently watching as another chopper makes training passes.


This photo is of a cell block and apparently the park service decided it was a good area to store all of their random things...


Added this picture because I couldnt decide which one looked better so added both.


Picture of a cell...


One of the cells where the great escape took place...notice the vent cover.


View of the city from the cell block.

Rules...click to enlarge as with all the other photos
To the left the head officer's quarters.


First light house on the west coast? it is a light house not sure if it is the first one though.


Seal above the door that opens to the picture below. The letters in red were added from the Indian take over.



Where is Waldo?!?! Just kidding that is mean. I really like the shirt personally. We managed to follow her around quite a bit. She sat in front of us on the boat ride over. What caught our attention is that she was alone. Then I started looking at her camera. It is a very nice Canon model. Anyways after we noticed her alone we started noticing a ton of people were by themselves touring the island. It seemed rather odd to both of us. Also notice the zombie head phones.


No comment needed...


Head officer's house.


The head officers house....with a bird in the fire place nesting.
Cells in the cell block below


One of the cell blocks
Coming down the stairs from the meal area to the recreation yard.



Coming down the stairs from the meal area to the recreation yard.


Inside the recreation area.


Over looking the bay near the recreation area.


On the other side of the wall from the recreation area.


The recreation yard for the prisoners. They could see San Francisco from the yard. Talk about insult to injury to the prisoners.

The dining area of Alcatraz prison - restored to what it would have looked like before the close of the prison.


Half way up looking out over the sea. Not real sure what the buildings were that are pictured.


Seagulls chilling out on one of the buildings...Alcatraz is truly a bird sanctuary.


Random seagull on Alcatraz


I herded this pigeon around like a sheep dog for like 30 yards. Apparently he forgot how to fly. Finally I quit pestering him.


The loading area on Alcatraz. I dont know if you can see it but there is a staircase in the middle of the foliage area. It is a near vertical climb that we assume was part of the original fort structure. Looks very unsafe.

Alcatraz as we are leaving from the back of the ferry.


While trying to take pictures a random wave hit while I was off balance. The photo is the result of me trying to catching my balance and squeezing the take a picture button. I thought it was amusing.


While coming back from Alcatraz we played a small game of chicken with a cargo vessel that was much bigger then us. Finally we slowed down and waited for the vessel to pass.
A better view of the cargo vessel.
A picture of a seagull gliding behind the boat as we returned to the mainland.


More Seagulls gliding!


Chop shop at Pier 32? A lot of random cars in there...


Sea Lions at Pier 39....at least we think they are sea lions...


More...

sunbathing...all of them were doing this...


Hoping from one platform to the other....


Lounging in the sun...


People drawing the sea lions...

These guys are hilarious as they just kinda crawl over, bark, and show their teeth to each other.


Possibly the oddest surveying monument I have ever seen. This one had a date of 1882 on it. It was in some park between our place and pier 39. We randomly found it as we were walking back.


A picture of China Town in San Francisco. We are housed about 2 blocks from here. Needless to say we were totally confused by this area when we found it.