Escape from (the flies at) Alcatraz, raising money for Everest.

About a million visitors a year visit Alcatraz and there is nearly a fly for every one of them. 

Having visited Napa and Sonoma in wine country the day before, we dropped off the hire car and as usual picked up the trolley bus on the F-line to take us to pier 33 where the Alcatraz tours begin.  There was an infestation of small black flies which kept everyone in the queue swiping and swatting all the way up to the boat, in the boat and then up to the prison house on the island where mercifully they disappeared.  Alcatraz is what we would now call a maximum security prison.  "If you break the rules of society you go prison, if you break the prison rules you go to Alcatraz" so goes a famous and anonymous quote.  I knew a little bit about it from films such as 'Escape from Alcatraz' and 'The Bird Man of Alcatraz' which was based on the true story of Robert Stroud who served, at seventeen years, one of the longest periods of incarceration on the island. He was fairly mad to begin with, having been sent down for a bunch of murders, kidnapping and robbery, but he must have been entirely round the bend by the time he got moved.  What I didn't know is that the island started off as a military look-out post during the civil war and then became a military prison before become a max security prison for the general populus.  Some notable criminals have had a stay here including Al (Scarface) Capone. It was closed in 1963 when the cost of maintaining the crumbling buildings became prohibitive and when the movement for rehabilitation rather than just incarceration of prisoners became the fashion.  No one is ever believed to have escaped from the island despite several attempts. The audio-tour that is included in the price of the ticket to Alcatraz is really well done and it is funny to see everyone walking around, stopping at designated points in the tour, nodding or shaking their heads before moving on.  If in San Francisco I can highly recommend giving it a go, despite the flies.

It takes us an age to get a trolley bus back to the hotel because it is rush hour now and all the buses are full. We manage at last to squeeze ourselves onto one and it is a long and hot 45 minutes until we are at last spat out at the last stop on the line.   The day improves though as we are able to get into one of the best restaurants in the neighbourhood for dinner - Frances restaurant (frances-sf.com) on 17th street - and we have a long and enjoyable last evening in the city.  I chat to the manager there about my plans to have a pop-up restaurant when I get back home.  It will be my first funding event for Everest.