I’m a broken record at this point, but I really need to develop a habit of going through and posting my photos no longer than a week after I take them lol. Anyway, I took a trip with my favorite companion to Alcatraz on February 8th.
It was a rare, beautiful sunny day.
I drove to her place and we took BART to SF, then walked from the Embarcadero station to the Ferry Building. There was a large group of people (affiliated with a certain group1) doing their exercises in front of the Ferry Building. You can see them in the second photo in the yellow jackets.
We browsed the stores in the Ferry Building, grabbed some snacks for the trip, and bought some really delicious momos from a Nepalese street food vendor. Then we walked toward Pier 33 for the ferry to Alcatraz.
Being February, it was pretty chilly, but since it was so sunny, we weren’t too cold. The ride to Alcatraz was pretty nice, and since we took the 11am time slot, we got there before the big tourist crowds arrived.
After walking up to the prison, we took the audio tour through the cells. It was a fascinating glimpse of a by-gone era. I can’t imagine living in these cells. The tour did a really good job of humanizing the prisoners who lived there.
In one of the cell blocks, there was a small window with a direct view of the city. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to see the world so clear, and yet so out-of-reach. I took this photo through the murky glass.
In one of the exhibits, they put two fake “prisoners” in their beds to show how they lived, but made the unfortunately decision to use dummy heads. The heads were soft and sort of melted into the pillows, and the blankets were pulled up to the hairline. It was like two scalps stuffed into the beds. It looked incredibly creepy and wrong lol. I wish they didn’t put the dummy heads in the beds.
After finishing the tour, we walked outside and explored the grounds opened to the public, including the garden. The most interesting part of the island to me was how many seagulls there was all over the island. They sun-bathed like cats.
I took most of the photos with my trusty 27mm, but by the end when we were about to take the ferry back to SF, I switched to my Pocket Dispo lens. I had bought it over the holidays but never really had a chance to test it out until now.
The above is a before and after I switched lenses. I was really pleased with the effect. The tiny aperture darkened the exposure on all my photos and added a polarized tone. On the ferry ride back, I took the only shot of the island in a shaky moment on the boat.
After docking back in SF, we walked to Pier 39 since we were so close. I hadn’t been there in years, so there was a bit of novelty to my nostalgia. Unfortunately, reality did not measure up. It was a nice day out, but way too many people and I made a poor decision in food2.
Then we strolled around before heading back to the Ferry Building. My highlight was finding the cleanest public restroom I’ve ever seen.
I was a bit fascinated by these boats and what was inside, since they were just docked there, and some had signs for restaurants. We didn’t dare to go inside to check though, so that’ll remain a mystery.
All in all, it was a very nice day spent in SF. I’d like to visit the city again, it’s been so long since I’ve been there. We used to take BART to Montgomery and walk to Japantown all the time. Maybe sometime in the future we’ll make that trek again.
Footnotes
- I’m talking about the religious group that was persecuted by the CCP. The one with their dubious newspaper and very prolific dance troupe. I don’t want to name them for SEO reasons. ↩︎
- This was the second time I ordered fried sliced clams, and both times was bad. I love clams so I think I keep hoping it’ll be good, but after this time, I will never order it again lol. ↩︎
