San Francisco

June 1
Headed to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco to take the ferry to Alcatraz - the notorious maximum security prison. However, seems there's plenty to see and do along the way. Like this guy who calls himself Bush Man. He squats behind those big branches on the side of the sidewalk and when an unsuspecting pedestrian comes along, he opens the branches and yells "ahhhh!!" This is consistently effective at scaring people, including me.

And apparently, this is what I look like from the side in cartoon land.



Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz is definitely worth the visit. The island orginally housed a fort for national security. Once outdated, the military used it for a prison. After that, it was converted into a federal prison and had as guests the likes of George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Al "Scarface" Capone, Meyer "Mickey" Cohen, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis and Robert Stroud "Birdman of Alcatraz." The families of the guards actually lived on the island as well in a somewhat suburban like area.

I took cable cars to get around and sure they're cute in that... hey, I don't have to be anywhere anytime soon ..kind of way. But, if you really need to get somewhere quickly, well cable cars aren't the mode of transportation you should consider. Or maybe, it's just that California slower pace I'm not used to. But this conductor was ever so cool at his job and super friendly.