Alcatraaaaz

My friend Naree, who I have known for a long time but not very well, was working for the week in Foster City near SF airport before returning to London. So we hooked up Sunday to go to Alcatraz. Its really popular, I got the last two tickets on the 3:15 boat even though I booked Thursday.
We drove in to SF and quickly visited Vista point over the GGB. Some idiot Italian in front of me in the car park backed his mustang directly into the Taurus but despite a big thump, neither car was scratched. I'm beginning to have a bit more respect for the Taurus even if I still don't like it.
We parked near the Marina like the last time I went in. We were aiming to have lunch first but due to traffic and getting a little lost in SF city, we had to almost run to pier 41 and jump straight on the boat. I had to make do with a single $4 'jumbo' hot dog from the pier side.
Alcatraz was way cool. Spooky, old, they hadn't really done any restoration work so it was in 'original' run-down condition. Made for a really good atmosphere. We got the 'award winning' audio tour and it lived up to its description. Very glad I paid the extra $4. Got to see famous inmates cells, where the dudes escaped as depicted in 'Escape From Alcratraz', right down to the grenade-marks on the floor where the marines dropped bombs onto rebelling prisoners. Loved every bit of it.
Afterwards, we went to an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet place to make up for the lack of lunch (it was 6:30 by now) so we pigged out. The restaurant looked classier outside than in but it fitted our mood. Bloody tired from so much walking afterwards.