Framedlight

Getting up in the 'Aloft' Hotel we had a quick breakfast and then packed our bags, again, and put them into storage. Our flight back to Heathrow was not till 7.45pm and we were only minutes away from the airport. Mairi said she would like to spend our last hours in the US at the Golden Gate Park. We were not best placed for easy travel back into the city, so this entailed a half hour walk along busy main roads until we reached a proper train station. Having travelled back into San Francisco we then caught a bus to the park. The park covers an extensive area and we did not have enough time to do it justice. We walked in past Stow Lake where the gulls and pigeons were abundant. The squirrels were friendly and I saw an American robin, thrush size unlike our small rounder version. Lunch was taken in the Japanese Tea Garden, a beautifully manicured area with all the things you would expect, a willow pattern bridge, raked gravel and carp. ...

We left Alcatraz, arrived back on to the mainland around 2.00pm and walked down to Fisherman's Wharf to eat at a crowded outdoor restaurant. There is a collection of old ships in the Maritime National Park,  just by the Wharf so we went down to have a look. The collection runs from an 1890 steam ferryboat, the Eureka, to an 1886 square-rigger the Balclutha. There is also a 1907 steam tug the Hercules and a paddle tug the Eppleton. When the park closed we made our way back to the train terminus passing the turning area for the cable car. We got back to the Saint Francis Hotel, collected out luggage and got a taxi to the Aloft hotel near the airport (corny name). We would have liked to have stayed a further night in the city but they were fully booked. However there was a small indoor swimming pool at the Aloft, which was not being used by anyone else. So we spent a little time going up and down until we got bored and went t...

A lady ranger (Alcatraz is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area) was waiting on the dock for us to arrive. When we had all gathered round she explained a little of the history of Alcatraz and told us to walk up the hill to the cellhouse where we would receive our tour audio packs and headphones. The building behind her is the barracks of the old fort. Alcatraz was used as a defense for San Francisco, a fort being built here in 1850 when the city had reached a population of 20,000. During the civil war the city was a Union stronghold and a prime target for Confederate raiders.  The use of Alcatraz as a prison dates back to this time, when soldiers convicted of crimes like desertion, assault and worse were kept here along with captured native Indians and convicts from the Spanish American War of 1898.  We walked up the hill passing part of the understorey of the old fort and the obligatory stars and stripes (always looks good against a blue sky). ...