San Francisco, Part II

Day two of our San Francisco expedition saw us exploring Fisherman's Wharf and the surrounding areas. Ghirardelli Square, home to the first Ghirardelli Chocolate store (technically the third, but the first two--both in San Francisco--were destroyed by fire and earthquake, respectively). They also had a section devoted to the production of chocolate, which was fascinating to see. Ellen especially enjoyed that part. There was also an ice cream shop attached to the chocolate store/factory, which was expectedly scrumptious.

The centerpiece of our sightseeing was a tour of Alcatraz Island. Alcatraz has served a variety of purposes over the years--fort and prison are but two--and the National Park Service guides did an excellent job of outlining the island's history. It is a cold, forbidding place, and I can't imagine what it would have been like to live or work there for any extended period of time (guards and their families were quartered on the island, partly to ease the logistical burden of covering three eight-hour shifts each day on an island but primarily so that reinforcements would be readily at hand should they ever be required).

Having seen the 1996 Hollywood action film The Rock at least a dozen times, I was excited to see how the real place compared to the movie set. Parts of the movie were filmed on the island, which remained open to visitors during production, but certain liberties were taken to accommodate the needs of the story. The shower room, for example, looks nothing like its Hollywood depiction (for starters, there is no second level).

While it may not have had the glamor of a big-budget Hollywood production, Alcatraz was not without its own "action sequences." You can still see the pockmarks on the floor from where Marines dropped grenades on holed-up prisoners during the three-day "Battle of Alcatraz" in 1946, or the cells that held the only three men to ever escape from Alcatraz without being recovered (they are officially presumed drowned in San Francisco Bay, but no bodies have ever been recovered).

When we returned to the mainland, Ellen took me to Pier 39, where we were able to see California sea lions sunning themselves on the dock. I've seen sea lions before, but only in aquariums, so it was exciting to see them up close in the wild. I'm told that in the warmer months--I use the term relatively, as yesterday's high was in the mid-60s--the sea lions and seals are omnipresent around the pier, not to mention quite loud.