Wednesday March 5th 2013
Another nice day in the Bay area. We
were up relatively early and got ready to walk to the Caltrain
station in Sunnyvale to take Baby Bullet train to the city. J. wanted
to drive but we walked (it was around 20 minutes). It was crispy
morning and the walk was really pleasant. When we got here, I sent a
letter to Transit non-profit and we got three day passes for
Caltrain, so we used them this day (instead of paying 28 dollars) –
nice. The train was packed and we had to stand to Palo Alto where
many people got off and we found a seats. Pleasant ride (about 48
minutes). After a bit of confusion, we got on the tram and later on a
historical trolley (along the Embarcadero). The trolley was packed
and it was not the most pleasant ride. At about 9.47 we got off the
trolley at Alcatraz Landing. Our boat was leaving at 10.30. We walked
through the gift shop and then just sit outside waiting for the
departure. A lot of tourists. Long line, waiting and than boarding
the boat. They were taking pictures to sell (two for 22 dollars).
Short ride to the island, windy and cold. We had really nice views of
the bay, the city and the island itself. Obviously the experience was
somewhat distorted by so many people, but again … the price of the
accessibility. We arrived, left the boat and listened to a ranger for
a few minutes.
We got the tickets for Alcatraz a day
before and when we were getting ready for this day, I looked them
over. The notice on the back of the ticket (pretty small letters) was
pretty amusing reading, judge for yourself:
After the ranger was done talking, the
herd of people started to walk towards the buildings and cell house.
Unfortunately, there is just one (open) way to tour the Alcatraz, so
the beginning was pretty bad. As many buildings deteriorated over
time, they are only the ruins today. With the views of the bay and
land in the distance, it does create really interesting pictures.
Many sites actually looked very nice, there were many flowers and
plants, birds were flying all over the place, just nice idyllic
place. Apparently we were lucky, because Model Industrial building
was open for public. We went there first. There was an exhibition of
photographs from the time the prison was closing. There were some
other pieces from the prison and printed information. And obviously
building getting older and older. We looked around and slowly walked
toward the cell house. And again, it looked so nice around us, there
were gardens and flower beds, everything was so green … such a nice
place.
Now, we were heading to the cell house
and I guess the main attraction of Alcatraz – the prison. When we
entered, we received the headphones with the audio tour. The voices
(correctional officers and even some former inmates) were telling the
story and walking us around the prison. It was really interesting,
the size of the cells and the stories behind those bars. Obviously,
they had to mention Al Capone. There were as well two major escapes.
It probably took about an hour and it was great. There were too many
people, but … The names of the corridors were kind of funny (first
we saw one called Michigan Avenue) – Times Square, Broadway. We
walked as well on the yard (it was a privilege to be allowed outside)
and we could see the city and the Golden Gate bridge. It had to be
real torture to stay at Alcatraz in those tiny cells and see the city
being so close. There was some exhibition in the dining hall called
The life after murder. J. was reading some of the stories, I did not
have much interest in it. At one point, after we walked through the
administrative part and warden's office, we stayed outside for a
second. Breezy. After we walked through the gift shop, we were free
and outside.
J. wanted to see a short documentary
movie and we were thinking about leaving on 1.30 boat. Slow walk
down. We stopped by the gardens. It used to be officer's houses.
Apparently, some of the employees used to live on Alcatraz. As well,
the warden used to be part of the elite of the city. The times has
changed. There were some additional exhibitions at the building and
as well probably 300 chair theater (pretty much empty). We walked
around waiting for the movie. We learned some more information about
Alcatraz. In 1970's Indians occupied Alcatraz for 19 months to draw
attention to their cause (being displaced and discriminated). There
are as well many birds nesting on Alcatraz now days. There was nice
chart showing number of prisoners by the country (all combined the US
was leading). When we finished watching the movie (not the greatest,
it repeated many facts we already heard) we walked down to the dock.
We discovered that the boat leaves at 1.45 so we had more time than
we thought. We sit down and just waited.
So many people boarded the boat. Short
ride back. We stayed at the back of the boat and watched the water
making waves after the engines. And Alcatraz was getting smaller and
smaller. Those views were really great. Landing. We left the boat and
walked by the board with all the photographs for sale. It was
somewhat cloudy and time to time we saw the sun. We walked along the
waterfront toward the Pier 39. We were going to use our City Pass and
visit the Aquarium.
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Surprisingly, it was relatively empty
around Pier 39. We walked up and went into the Aquarium. It was much
smaller than the one in Monterey. There were some sea creatures on
the first floor, it was nice, but we seen it before. I guess that is
a downside of having so many adventures. There was still few animals
we did not see before. After this quick tour of the top we took the
elevator to the basement, where was an exhibition of the jelly fish.
It took forever to get through (as J. was moving like a turtle). We
walked through two pretty long tunnels and were surrounded by some
many fishes. I think our previous aquariums had some type of tunnels,
but those two were long and large and incredible. The fish just
swimming around us. We saw two octopuses, but they were kind of
hiding and sleeping. Between those two tunnels, there was small space
with few displays and an aquarium with another octopus. There was
really no place to hide, so we could see him pretty well. As we were
looking at him, a hand appeared from the top and started to pet the
octopus. It was weird and amazing. Later we were told, that the
octopus can feel the taste of the hand and likes to play with that
person. After that, there was area of “touching tide pools”. Less
exciting, but there were some other random animals (chinchillas,
turtles, snakes, opossum, bees) and that made it cool. The turtles
were pretty funny. And … that was all. It was pretty small but
still great place to visit.
There was a chance we would meet J.'s
friend in the city, but unfortunately she had to keep working and it
did not happen. We sit down at Pier 39 for a moment and were thinking
about next plans (it was about 4 pm). We decided to take public
transport to Japan Town. For seven days we could use public transport
for free (part of City Pass). We run across the road and missed a
historical trolley running along the Embarcadero (line F). There was
another one in about 7 minutes and 28 seconds. The city collected
over the years old trolleys from around the world and uses them on
this line. We were in “special” one (that was the sign on the
trolley) which was from Melbourne, Australia. We got off at Ferry
Port and walked along the California Avenue to catch the cable car.
We saw them, but could not find the stop. We stopped after about
three blocks and were thinking what to do. We started to walk back,
when one car was coming. Apparently, there are no stops, just the
street intersections. We rode the car to the end (pretty nice
experience and without paying six dollars per person).
We had to walk several blocks to get to
Japan Town. It was getting colder. And we were getting kind of tired
as well. We got there. We saw some jiu-jitsu place, Korean house
restaurant and most of the store fronts had English and Japanese
signs. Basically, our visit consisted from the walking in Japan Mall.
They were two buildings full of stores and restaurants (possibly some
offices too). We went into few stores (one of them was 1.50 store,
bunch of “crab” mostly made in China with Japanese signs). In the
first building (J. was wining about being hungry) we went into one of
the restaurants (they had special menu for 8.5 dollars). At least for
a moment she has to be quiet about me not trying different things. J.
picked some food for me and we waited. It was actually pretty good
(for a taste and price). I guess we both enjoyed that. Next building,
more shops and restaurant (maybe a bit more upscale). A store with a
stationary (J. was like in heaven). After that, we went out and found
a bus to Caltrain station (on the smart phone). Somewhat rough ride
(homeless people on the bus), but we made it and got on the train
leaving at 6.56 for Sunnyvale. Just fine.
Around eight o'clock we arrived in
Sunnyvale. We had to walk home. I think neither of us enjoyed it as
we were pretty tired. But hey, we made it.
