Hi everyone! It has been a long time since I have posted anything. Things are just really busy around here! Robby is already in the middle of his semester and I am about to finish up my critical care classes! We have been here more than two months, and it really doesn't seem that long. Well, we finally went to Alcatraz and it was incredible! Sunday was definitely the prettiest day we have had since we moved here (as if it could be any more beautiful!) We took the Bart to SF and then we took a ferry to the Island. The view of SF from the ferry and Alcatraz was perfect. The fog is gone right now and it is just hot enough to wear short sleeves but not too hot to wear pants. The tour of Alcatraz was great. We saw everything. There is also a great audio tour that you take of the penitentiary that is very interesting and fun. Alcatraz wasn't a penitentiary until about 1909, before that it was a military base. I also thought it was pretty interesting to know that all of the inmates there were not in prison for life. They were just sent there because they were considered "high risk", meaning that they were not getting along well in the prison they were in, or they might try to escape. Alcatraz also is not surrounded by man eating sharks like everyone thinks. In fact the only sharks that live in the bay area are sand sharks! The reason it is so hard to escape from Alcatraz is because of the strong currents and cold waters! The Island was also only a penitentiary for about 20 years and then it was shut down because it was too expensive to keep up and because the government realized that it probably wasn't such a good idea to put all of the "high risk" inmates in one place! After that it became inhabited by Indians, and now it is a state park! Anyways, there are a lot of other neat things about the place, but you guys will just have to see them for yourselves when you come and visit us! Robby and I had a great time and we also lucked out because Sunday just happened to be the day that the Blue Angels were going to do a show over the bay between SF and the GG bridge! We had front row seats from the island! It was great fun and it was also very comical to watch all of the boats in the bay! Supposedly, you don't have to have a boating license to drive a boat in the bay and there were hundreds of boats in the water watching the show! The little boats kept getting caught in the strong currents and running into each other! It was quite a show! I have tons more pictures of the day on Snapfish, so if anyone wants to see them just email me and I will send you an invite to see the album. The ones on this post are of Alcatraz island (an aerial view) us riding up to Alcatraz on the ferry, me behind bars!, Robby listening to the audio tour in the penitentiary infront of the cells, the view of the GG bridge from Alcatraz with all of the little boats in the water, and the view of SF from Alcatraz with more boats! One of the former inmates told us that it was the views you had from every side of Alcatraz that made it so unbearable to be imprisoned there. It reminded you every day of the beauty you were missing! That's why so many wanted to escape! Plus it is really only 1.6 miles from SF, so you could hear the people celebrating New Years and at times when there was a lot going on in SF. In all I would have to say that this was my very favorite day so far. I love it here. I do I do!
