This is Diamond Dog, who is on YouTube! Her owner busks for a (good) living on the ferry pier at Sausalito, and is a real showman. I ended up in Sausalito because when I went to pick up my ticket for Alcatraz, it was pre booked at 13:45 and it was 10:00. The ticket comes with three days of free hop on-hop off City Sightseeing tours, and Sausalito was recommended to me as a nice place before I came away, etc. Once I got there, I got off the bus to have some lunch and then I got the ferry back to Pier 1 to catch my boat out to Alcatraz.
The bus driver told us that California’s most expensive home is in the next town over which is called Belvedere and that it recently sold for $65M. He also explained that Angel Island, which is situated in front of Sausalito, was the west coast’s equivalent of Ellis Island for immigrants for many years, but wasn’t nearly as pleasant as Ellis. He was a funny guy and did very well with the tips. One of his jokes was that Lombard Street, in San Francisco, was the country’s second most crooked street (you may remember it from Bullitt?) – does anyone know the first? Answer at the bottom of the page.*
So, Alcatraz. What a strange place! Much smaller, in terms of prisoner population) than I had expected, and it also has much more history that the thirty years it operated as a Federal Penitentiary. Fortress, lighthouse, prison during the American Civil War, a military base and then a military prison and now a national park – it’s had a long and varied history. The largest prison population it had was only 386. If you ever make it out to Alcatraz, be sure to take the audio tour of the cell blocks. It allows you great insight into the daily operation of the prison and detail on some of the escapes.
The Parks Service organise swimming events from Alcatraz to San Francisco fairly regularly too. So if you’re that way inclined, it takes around 40 minutes to swim the 1.2 miles back to the city.
Once I had seen what I wanted to see of the island (and got my head burnt!), I caught the next ferry back. I had a number of things to do on my list. I wanted to find the Kayo Books shop to buy some comic books for my son, Chris, get a haircut, grab some dinner and a coffee and then veg out for a while. Kayo Books is a renowned second-hand bookshop between Leavenworth and Post Streets, so I had a bit of a trek to make, and of course, it was closed. It only opens between Thursday and Sunday! However, and this was a bit of a find, very close by is the Angel Cafe which is owned by Lebanese folk and serves the most amazing food. I tucked into an Ozze pie, made with Filo pastry and stuffed with minced lamb, sultanas and raisins, apricot and walnuts and God knows what else. I’ll be back, as  California’s ex-Governor Arnold once said.
So, once I was fed and watered, I strolled back down Geary and stumbled across a barber/hairdresser shop. Two nice ladies of Chinese origin and a questionable grasp of the English language were working away. $10 for a haircut? That’ll do nicely. However, I forgot about the price of the baseball cap I needed afterwards
The vegging out went well also, although I didn’t get to watch the episode of Breaking Bad that I was looking forward to. Too many photographs to edit. The links are, as usual, below.
So, it’s 11:00 on Tuesday morning now. I’m going to grab some breakfast and maybe I’ll take another bus tour out to the Golden Gate Park. It’s a fantastic morning here. Enjoy your day/night/whatever!
San Francisco Day Seven – a Flickr set
My Alcatraz-related Blipshot for yesterday: Jailhouse Truck!
*America’s most crooked street: Wall Street, of course!