Rockin' at the Clink or Clinkin' at The Rock?

woke up in this gorgeous city today and went promptly to the pier to take a ferry out to angel island and alcatraz island. i popped a dramamine to get through my potential boat motion sickness and so for our whole tour of angel island i was in a pleasantly numb groggy state. (i totally understand and fear addictions to benzodiazepines- i hear that they give you a similar chilled out feeling- but i'm such a light weight- 1 dramamine takes a little more than the edge off of me so i can't imagine what a xanax would do) and in said state, i stared out at the ocean and reflected on how excited i am for my future, my career and my life- which is good because last night i had nightmares about totally botching my first few days on the job and failing my exam and eeeeeeekkkkkk......so anyway, relaxed and not nauseous, we proceeded with our tour. the island is beautiful itself and offers incredible views of the golden gate bridge, bay bridge and the city. angel island was a military fort for many years and then an internment camp for chinese immigrants who were being shut out of the US when populations controls were being enforced. so there's much history there.




then the ferry took us to alcatraz. which is pretty intense. i get uncomfortable in places with such clear echoes of human suffering- so i laid back a little from actually going into the cells, checking out the morgue, etc. but the audio tour was cool. guards and inmates from when the prison was open (1933-1963) are interviewed and it really gives you a feel of what it would be like to live/work there. families of guards lived on the island, too. the infamy of many of the fellons was something to hear (robert "birdman" stroud who, before coming to alcatraz, allegedly kept birds in his cell in a previous prison to mask the smell of moonshine being made, george "machine gun" kelly, of course al capone, the baby faced mobster who went crazy from tertiary syphilis, among many others)...and learning of the escape attempts, about which many famous movies have been made, was also pretty impressive. there's one where 3 guys successfully got away by making fake heads for themselves out of soap and yarn and stuff and tucking them into their cots so the guards didn't notice their absence until morning.



then we walked around fisherman's wharf and got awesome clam chowder in a bread bowl, clams, oysters and fancy bloody mary's....and saw the beach bathing sea lions en masse.



then walked, well, really crawled on hands and knees the 15 blocks DIRECTLY UP to get back to our hotel. this is a very hilly city, in case you haven't heard...and my dear, we found the tallest mountain route. when we got back to our hotel, my parents and i relaxed, my insane husband ran 7 1/2 miles for his marathon training (i should really check HIM for tertiary syphilis). then we got delicious pizza (uncle vito's across the street- brocolli/mushroom/garlic) and drank one of our many bottles of wine. we did not check out the show below, but as we walked past, did find ourselves wondering exactly what makes the show world famous..... :)



all in all, a great day. to shopping and chocolating tomorrow.....trala!