All the kit set out ready to go.
Waiting at the train station for the train over to catch the rail air.
Meetin Byrnie in the Rail air lounge he hasn't slept at all due to having to finish an OU maths assignment
In the lounge trying to get a picture of the two of us take 1
take 2
take 3
and finally take 4
some clouds we were getting near to san francisco by this point.
more clouds
This may even be san francisco
more shots on the route in
some more scenery
a bridge possible oakland but not really sure
some sort of flat area possibly an air port
on our final approach now
getting pretty close now
In the room at the Hilton Fisherman's Wharf on Jones St. Nice room it has a little nook with the wardrobe and small coffee machine just off the bathroom.
the bathroom looks nice enough.
The beds look comfy, no in room wifi but free wifi in the lounge area.
Little chair and a desk, my bed in the fore ground
The view of the street, not sure which street.
The view from the chair, nice sized telly.
The Corridor in the hilton, very long and a bit horror film esq. Keep expecting to be confronted by identical twins who say “come and play with us forever and ever and ever”. You can just about make out byrnie standing by our room.
sealions by night not quite got the hang of the night mode on this camera. Had to add fill light so you can see anything. Golden gate in the background.
another go not much better
the golden gate
the city
I find the long exposure option but have nothing to keep it steady with
It's not blury it's art!
Probably going to try this again with a better surface to put the camera on
Byrnie tucking into his ribeye, which he got 20% off the price due to actually ordering a much smaller steak that they didn't have. I had Clam Linguine ... which you can't see.
This is the place where we had breakfast, steak and eggs for me and canadian bacon and eggs for Byrnie. It was a chinese american dinner very much what you would expect from a stereotypical american dinner right down to beach boys on the radio but run and staffed by chinese. It was nice.
Some cable cars.
The TransAm Building
and again
Byrnie wondering why I need quite so many pictures of the transam building
the oakland bridge
Oh look the transam building again
Byrnie taking a panorama
Coit tower
Looking down the embacadero
Our boat that took us to alcatraz
View from the back of the boat of Coit tower
Coit tower and the transam building in the same shot
The Pier we just left
The Oakland Bridge
Byrnie posing in front of the San Francisco city
Some of the seagulls following the boat
The golden gate
The Rock
Main prison building and the light house
I think this was one of the workshops
Byrnie posing in front of the golden gate
The Little rock where at least one of the escapies ended their escape
This building is one of the oldest dating back to when it was a fort. The long slits are for cannons.
A group of native americans claimed Alcatraz for a while hence the sign
One of the park rangers that gave a little tour on the way up to the cell block. Alcatraz is a national park.
The Cell house
This is the drain pipe they climbed down in the movie of escape from alcatraz, the actual one is somewhere else.
Where the prisoners left their stuff
The showers
The Cells
The view
Picture of the ex-guards who were on the audio tour
The ex-inmates who were giving the audio tour
The treatment wing where trouble prisoners lived
some of the famous prisoners held in the treatment wing like al capone
The hole or solitary confinement
pretty dark inside
Picture of byrnie looking at me in the cell
Picture of byrnie looking at me taking a picture of him in the hole
The Library
Not many books any more
Some shelves left though
The battle of alcatraz. Bernie Coy used a improvised bar spreader to get into the gun gallery to get the keys and escape into the recreation area. That part of the plan worked flawlessly but the keys they retrieved didn't open the door.
This is the gun gallery with the keys hanging down in the middle they were held there so the guards keys were safe and out the way.
Up the top there of the gun gallery was where Bernie Coy spread the bars and got in.
When they couldn't get out they began taking hostages and keeping them in this cell as guards came to find out why noone was answering the phone. Eventually their frustration at not being able to get out led to violence against the captive guards.
Inside a cell
Eventually when they couldn't remove the prisoners they called in the marines. These pock marks are where grenades dropped from a hole in the ceiling.
The prisoners hid in the utility coridor
Eventually prisoners had a radio which is in the lower right.
The visitation area
The administrative office
A prison guard uniform
The light house
The four wardens of alcatraz
This is inside the wardens office which now is pretty much bare.
A group of Native Americans took Alcatraz. In the 1970's after they got rid of them they began bulldozing the buildings it only stopped after it became a national park in 1972.
The cells where the guys escaped from alcatraz you can see the fake head and the hole in the wall.
The utility corridor that the prisoners escaped into
The dinning hall, the canisters on the ceiling could dispense tear gas thought they never used it.
the kitchen
You can see the knife block had templates for all the knives so they could tell if any went missing. Some still did though.
The kitchen
The last inmate
The operating room in the hospital
Hydro therapy room
The Xray room
This is Robert Shrouds cell he was the so called bird man of alcatraz. This despite the fact he never had any birds at alcatraz. I guess the bird man of levingworth federal prison doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Shroud was a multiple murderer and a dangerous and manipulative person he managed to get this huge cell.
Some 35 people tried to escape from alcatraz, only one is known to have made it and he was caugh and returned almost immediately. These three are the guys they made the movie about they escaped but no one knows if they made it or were killed trying to cross the bay.
arty shot sf reflected in the glass of alcatraz
This is the view from the main block. It must have been terrible for the inmates being able to see San Francisco so close and yet so far due to the terribly cold water and dangerous currents.
The cell door control mechanism, it had all sorts of options for opening the doors. It was all mechanical.
Gun emplacement over the recreational area
A Cannon from the original fort
farewell to Alcatraz
Some beers
Some Beers in ice
Our hotel with Byrnie standing out front
The cells closing
The Golden Gate
A tall ship
some other boat decked out to look like a paddle steamer
Yet another picture of the golden gate, there will be a lot of these
San Francisco skyline with the Coit tower and the TransAm building
Seagull
Some sort of Grebe like bird that was diving in the bay
One of SF steep streets
Byrnie stopping to enjoy some Speef (Spicy Beef, it's actually beef jerky but Speef or Bice is a better name)
Lot of seagulls on the front
This sort of scrub area is what SF used to look like before people came and destroyed it
The golden gate with Byrnie and some of the reclaimed original dunes
You can see what I think is the palace of fine arts (round thing) and te transam
The field in the foreground used to be an airfield for small prop driven planes.
You can see the fort here that is a civil war era emplacement which guarded San Francisco bay and its gold wealth
Better view of Fort Point
Some of the historic earth works old bunkers that used to hold cannons now all overgrown
This got pretty low towards the end
These chaps from vietnam took Byrnie to one side, I assumed to take their picture. Actually they wanted to have their picture taken an American and picked Byrnie as a suitable candidate. EPIC FAIL!
Flag tastic
A view out the other side of the bridge not an awful lot there
There were periodic holes in the concrete of the walk way this is the view through one.
Fort point viewed from the bridge
you can see most of the route we walked to get this far. We came all along the shore from the other side of the hill near the white buildings in the middle.
The shadow the bridge casts
Shadow pointing right towards Alcatraz
It's a bloody long walk across the bridge (even further if you started at fisherman's wharf)
TransAm by night
We found this restaurant and had a very nice meal with a pretty fancy bottle of wine which Byrnie is holding.
This is the restaurant Houston's which didn't have a huge range but what it did do it did very well.
IHOP where we had Bannana and walnut pancakes with eggs, hashbrowns, and in my case sausages.
Sun setting over the golden gate 1 of 50
The Rock mit Seagul
some other tourists and photo critics
I started pissing about with the camera's manual modes at this point
Byrnie taking a few night shots
long exposure shot of the rock
Cop car that pulled in front of the camera
orion
Odd shaped glass of Sam Adams beer.
Byrnie trys the bread bowl clam chowder.
Oh no! Accidental additional lobster! This was a lot more appetising than this picture makes it seem.
The wobbly road on Lombard street
Which is at the top of another really tall hill
Byrnie taking a shot of the tower
The rock
Cable car at the top of the hill
Byrnie talking his life in his hands taking a photo
view down the wobbly street
Once again he dices with death
The oakland bridge
Some strange camel statue
Danger is his middle name
And again with the timed vertical pictures
the rock a us flag and a statue of some bloke
View from the top of the tower
Our hotel is in the centre of this picture. It is the square building across the road from the triangular building.
Fishes! Anchovies
A Garibaldi
a crab
The big under tank tunnel which was a touch dark for photography
On the moving treadmill going into the water tunnel thing is an eye opening experience
some rays
tiger sharks
this is either a swell shark or some other type of shark
the outside of the aquarium. it's false advertising there are no hump back whales.
This chap tricked Byrnie into a shoe shine
Byrnie enjoying a nice martini
Mario's Bohemian Cigar store which makes the best sandwich in San Francisco acording to reliable sources. I'll admit the Focaccia grilled chicken #1 was damn good probably the best sandwich I've had in SF it was also the only one thought so hard to qualify it as the best hands down.
A statue put up to as a tribute to Lillie Coit
Enjoying a pint of Sam Adams in the hotel bar.
