Day Three

You didn't think I would miss out day three did you...

"But wtf happened to Toronto, isn't that where you were going?"

Don't worry, Toronto hasn't run off anywhere, in fact it's where I am. Unfortunately I have barely had enough time to turn around since Sunday.

I do hope I remember everything, I will consult my photos for evidence. Well the plan for this day was to go to Alcatraz in the morning, and in the afternoon head back to the wharf, or go west or more south or whatever. I had booked the Alcatraz tour online two days prior (the boats fill up fast). You would think that making it to the pier by like 12:15 for the 12:35 trip would be easy. I made it difficult for myself by rolling out of bed 5 minutes before breakfast ends, watching too much CNN coverage of that day's Democratic Convention and printing the boat ticket on a hotel printer that did not work. Initially was running to the pier, but gave up and caught the cab.

Anyway this story is 'bout Alcatraz not my morning. Alcatraz was originally a military defense post for the bay area, but slowly was converted into a prison as the defense aspect became unnecessary. It closed in 1963 because of high costs. Today it's a friendly national park that has been swarmed with birds and the consequent smell. For 18 months it was even occupied by Indians who claimed it as native land.

Alcatraz is better visited than described. It isn't often one gets to visit a prison, so it's neat. Naturally, a lot of the island is closed off to the public but there is a very good audio tour, narrated by ex-guards and cons that leads you around the main prison block and describes the famous escape attempts. I bought a replica food bowl/mug from the souvenir store.

I had plans to go back to Fisherman's wharf after Alcatraz, but the island takes ages, so I decided to go to Coit Tower. This tower is on quite a high hill and is quite high itself, I didn't know how to get there so I went to the bottom of the hill and circled around until I saw the first path up. Dinner this day was at a ritzy Italian restaurant where I ate pasta with rabbit sauce.