San Francisco - Day #3

Heading to Alcatraz Island for a tour of the prison. Uh-oh!!:

I found the prison incredibly fascinating. I didn't think that I would. I loved that on the audio tour, actual prisoners and guards of this old prison talked you through all the rooms and stories. It was interesting to see the actual bullet holes of one of the escape attempts, and the fake heads that some men made to fool the guards while they escaped, and the prison yard, the library, the kitchen, the solitary confinement. This is me in one of those cells:

I took about one bazillion pictures of the prison inside and out. From the outside you could see this:

Which was apparently the worst form of torture for the inmates. One said that is was unbearable because everyday out in the yard they could look out and see the city and 'see what the hell it is that you were missing.'

The youngest guard ever hired at Alcatraz's name is Frank and he was there to sign his little book about Alcatraz and talk about his time there. Again..totally fascinating to me. I bought the book so I could read about the prisoner's there, like Al Capone!! Oooooh!!

After Alcatraz, our boat took us to Angel Island. It's very pretty there and there's lots of pretty views but I won't take the time to post about it cuz it would be time consuming...just like Alcatraz.

This excursion took alllllll day - about six and half hours by the time we got back. By that time, even though we had had a few snacks, we were starving!! We made a mad dash back to the hotel to shower and change and go in search of food! We took a trolley most of the way to Little Italy and then we walked to sight-see as we searched for the restaurant that called to us the most.

That restaurant ended up being Pellegrini. It had the most fantastic Italian food I have ever had in my life! We came upon this restaurant, with it's pretty decor and outside lights, and waited for a seat. I wanted one out front with the heaters blaring down on us cuz it was freezing cold and the inside was reserved. We almost didn't get a good seat but then...tada...a couple finished up and left and we were seated there. I am magic! I had this amazing Gnocchi dish and Paul had a pesto pasta thing...both so good. And their bread and oil dip was the best thing I have ever tasted. We even stuffed ourselves on dessert - fantastic dessert. It continued to get colder and colder and soon that heater was doing nothing for us so we bailed as fast as possible, took a bus to Union Square and then took the trolley back home!