Family Vacation 2011 Day 2- Alcatraz & Fisherman's Wharf

Day 2 of our San Francisco vacation included public transportation. We took the F line down to Pier 39. Now Scott and I worked our arm muscles while holding onto the ceiling straps and got the pleasure of smelling individuals very closely that did not believe in deodorant. The boys, on the other hand, loved this!

Getting ready to board the ferry to go to Alcatraz Island. And William showing off.

On the ferry. The boys were glued to the windows.

This is the first thing you see as you get off of the ferry.

Inside the penitentiary

Trapped! Now if I only could talk the boys into this every once in a while :)

If you don't know the history of Alcatraz, it's a good read. The "Battle of Alcatraz" is very interesting and so is the escape. This is one of the cell where one of the "trios incredible escape" happened. They used spoons to dig their way out of their cells. See the hole under the sink?

What I found very interesting is that Alcatraz island was a small community. People would love to live there because it was cheaper than San Francisco and because it was the safest community to live in. I know, doesn't that sound odd? But true, they knew where all the criminals were.
and people never locked their doors. This is an apartment complex on the island.

Here is a view of San Francisco from Alcatraz Island.

And the view of Alcatraz Island from San Francisco.

The ride back to SF.

Next we headed over to Fisherman's Wharf to Pier 39 to see the seals and to ride the carousel.

Harry talked William into sitting on the seat for once.

The seals.

We did finally ride the trolley back to our hotel. The trolley has a ridiculous wait on the weekends (over two hours) so we waited until Monday.

Then we met up with Meghan Sharp and her boyfriend for dinner. We went to college with Meghan and have not seen her since graduation over 10 years ago! It was so nice to catch up.

Day 2 was fun. Onto day 3.