Escape TO Alcatraz

After the game on Sunday we took a boat to Alcatraz on Sunday evening. It was a busy day but the evening trip to Alcatraz was totally worth it. We sat on the top deck heading out, and had an amazing view of the city as we left it behind. The evening tour includes several talks by the tour guides on the boat and on they way up to the cell house. We took an audio tour of the cell house that included being "in the hole", in the solitary confiement cell in total darkness with the black out door closed... it was so creepy. We were only in there for a minute tops, but I was so ready to get out. We listened to another tour about various escapes that was interesting too. By that time it was dark and the island was way cold. I had on my gloves and my hood up. The ride back to the city was beautiful, you could see the city completely lit up at night. We only ventured out on the deck briefly, as it was very cold. We tried to take a picture of the city lit up at night, but neither of us could get a good shot with our cameras.

After we got off the boat is was nearly 10 p.m. and we hadn't eaten any dinner yet. We went to Hard Rock Cafe because it was close and it was open and we were starving. The service was horrible, but the food was decent (albeit overpriced, but we kind of knew that going in). Anyway, after eating it was late enough that we were able to ride the cable car back to the hotel, with just one other family (ironically Cards fans from the Chicago area) so we each had our personal pole to hang from.

The first cable car was only going half way down the line, and the very grouchy operator was quick to tell us that. When we inquired if there would be another car going the entire way (at this point it was late on a Sunday night, we didn't know how much longer they would be running) he snapped at us "You see all those cars over there, they have to go somewhere!". He was such an azz, but that has been our only encounter with nasty service. Everyone else has been quite friendly and helpful to us poor tourists.