This is Matt and I on the boat to Alcatraz. We took this trip on the 3rd day I was in the city.

The first morning I took the bus to Baker Beach, the closest beach to the Golden Gate. The arrow on the left indicates a rock ledge I climbed on top of so I could get some sweet photos. The arrow on the right is where a totally naked man was standing that I had to walk uncomfortably close to so that I could get to those sweet photos. Matt later told me he's seen several naked girls on the beach before...apparently I went on the wrong day.

I then hiked up a path about 1.5 miles to the bridge.

This was taken atop of an old gun battery (shown in next photo) that was used in the late 1800s while Alcatraz was a US Army defense position against intruders from the Pacific. I had a heck of a time getting atop this thing and had to briefly boost myself off of a no-trespassing fence in order to get enough height to climb up what was about an 8 ft wall. As I was about to leave, a jogger appeared to the left of the grassy area in the photo running on a path I didn't know was there...meaning it was kosher to be atop the battery, the scaling of the 8 ft wall was unnecessary, and the whole story a little less cool...but still a good photo.

...part of the aforementioned battery

The Golden Gate is the #1 suicide location in the entire world. The highpoint was in 2005 when there were approx. 1,200 jumps, or 1 every 2 weeks. The #2 suicide location is someplace in Japan and averages 30 suicides a year. The city is aware of the problem but they don't want to tarnish the beauty of the bridge by installing unsightly fencing or netting. They say if you jump from the tallest point it's a 4 second free-fall before splashdown.

No, I was not inclined to jump...but I did play the scenario through in my head just to see how scary it would be. This photo is directly above one of the bridge towers. For a frame of reference, notice my feet at the bottom of the photo and the black spots below, which are birds.

This is the support system underneath the bridge. They have underneath walkways so you can get from one side to the other.

The famous hills on the north side are called the Twin Peaks. I don't know if this is actually one of the peaks or just in their general vicinity...but I DO know that I hiked my legs off in order to get this photo, which was taken by a lady who turned out to be a professional photographer from Germany.

This is a monument at the north base of the bridge called "The Lone Sailor." It's in honor of anyone who ever sailed out of the bay in service of their country. The plaque stated that this was one last chance for the sailor to look back at home and that "thousands of American seafarers have sailed past this place in peace and war to defend this country...many of them never returned."

The next day at Fisherman's Wharf, where all the tourists go.

At the Pier 39 Aquarium. Those are anchovies swimming overhead.

A stingray. Funny story: I started my walk through the tunnels at about the same time as a Mexican family w/ 2 little kids. No english was ever spoken by them, including when they had me take their photo a couple times. I was ahead of them a few feet when a 7 foot Giant Sea Bass swam behind them so I pointed at it and the Mexican mother turned around and was like "Oh oh! Burrito burrito!"...or something like that.

I met Matt for lunch where he works, which is very near AT&T Park, where the Giants play.

On the way back I walked underneath the Oakland Bay Bridge, which in my head I remembered as the bridge that had the sections of road collapse during the 1989 earthquake. There's video online of cars that couldn't see the missing section and drove right into it.

Bay Bridge

Back at the wharf I toured the USS Pampanito naval submarine. It served in several tours of duty in World War II and is now a national landmark. Admission was $9, but with my faded college ID, I snuck in for $6.

Reporting for duty. You walked atop from the ramp you see in the right corner then climbed down a small ladder at the front of the sub.

Very tight maneuvering inside.

The guns atop the sub.

This is the next day. Matt was able to take the day off so we got up bright and early (around 11am), saved the world playing Contra, then took off. The photo above is of Lombard Street, regarded as the curviest street in the US, maybe the world. It was made that way to reduce the steep grade that cars descending it would have to withstand.

We did lunch at an In-N-Out Burger then got on the boat to Alcatraz where the earlier photo was taken. The above sign was the first thing you see when approaching.

Here we are in front of the Warden's House. There were 4 wardens that served over Alcatraz while it was a federal prison, beginning in 1934. Before that it was a military fort then military prison.

This is inside the cellhouse down the main strip which they called "Broadway." There was an audio tour pointing out all the locations and rooms.

Some of the famous inmates. All were moved from cell to cell regularly, so it's not like one specific cell was Al Capone's or one of the others'.

Here we are inside a cell. Pretty small as you can see. This cell had the bed and toilet removed, so that'd make it even more crammed. Moments later we opted to be shut inside one of the isolation chambers...total blackness, including a loud slamming of the door by the cell guard. There were only 4 of these chambers. Al Capone spent some time in one of them and the famous "Birdman of Alcatraz" (look him up) was in another for most of his stay...so we might have been standing where one of those gentlemen hung out.

This is the Recreation Yard. The grassy area at the back was where baseball was played.

Also in the Rec Yard. I thought it was cool to get a shot of us here because of how many inmates probably hung out on these steps if they behaved enough to be allowed outside.

Here we are in the Mess Hall looking through to the kitchen. They had the kitchen barred off from the inmates for the safety of the cooks. However, some of the inmates were given kitchen duties to aide the jail staff. The arrow indicates something I'm going to point out in the next photo.

This block stored all the kitchen knives. They had cutouts for each knife so it would be obvious if one was missing. The tour told a story of a guard who heard a sick sound like a melon being split open and turned to see one of the inmates working in the kitchen splitting another's back open with one of the knives.

The view from Alcatraz.

After getting back to land, we hiked a path consisting of about a million upward going steps to get to the base of Coit Tower, a famous observatory.

From the top of the observatory. Alcatraz is at the top of the photo.

The arrow shows the Pampanito.

This last photo does a good job of showing the steep city streets...though many were incredibly steeper than this.