Looking Back at Alcatraz

11 Friday May 2012

Posted by Crystal in Photography, Travel

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Alcatraz, california, Photography, san francisco, Travel

Some of these I’ve already posted on here when I blogged about my SF trip (Linked here) in 2010, others are newly edited. I’m slowly going through my pictures and organizing/tagging them in a more efficient manner, so I’ve decided to edit more of the old pics and share about some of the places in more detail than I have in the past on here.

Enjoy a morning at Alcatraz!

begin the day by finding the correct departure point.

enjoy a lovely, windy ride on alcatraz cruises

wander the island and find all the little details that make you happy

wander the island and find all the little things are interesting

be very glad this is not where you live

look through the teeny tiny windows

;-)

Things I really liked:

– this sounds ridiculous, but I LOVED the gift shop. It was very well done. They’ve got a great marketing/merchandising team.
– that you could go along at your own pace. Helpful for someone like me, who tends to stop and take pictures of everything.
– the information on the audio tour was really interesting. I did get to the point where I was on information overload, but that was about the time I had planned to leave.

Thoughts on Alcatraz

I’m not sure I would just go again for the fun of it. I’d probably want to get more merchandise at some point though. I’d go again with a friend who hadn’t been. As much as I liked it, and I did, it’s not on my list of things to do next time I visit San Francisco.

Anyone else been there? What did you like?

::edit:: Freshly Pressed! I’M SO EXCITED! And shocked. And excited. So, welcome! Look around while you’re here and THANKS FOR VISITING!

San Francisco 2010: Wednesday {part deux}

13 Saturday Nov 2010

Posted by Crystal in Photography, Travel

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california, Palace of Fine Arts, Photography, san francisco, Travel

After the wandering at Coit Tower, I ventured back on the muni and stopped to take pictures of what I am calling the “Emerald City House.” Which I attribute to the fact that I am rereading all the L. Frank Baum Oz books.

Oddly enough, this house was a block away from Cafe Francisco, where I sat and waited for the muni that morning. I even have pictures of this house, I just didn’t see the windows from that angle. I then went to the place I had been anticipating ever since we drove by it on the tour Monday:

The Palace of Fine Arts

Built for the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915, it was so beloved that the city kept it. In the 60s it was refurbished, and either fortunately or unfortunately, it currently was having some work done so I couldn’t walk through it. But then, a bunch of tourists in the pictures probably could have snatched some of the magic away.

So here you go, Wednesday’s new favorites place:

Sigh. I totally want one.

I wandered a bit on Chestnut, which has a ton of shops, got dinner, and went back to the hostel for the evening.

San Francisco 2010: Tuesday

09 Tuesday Nov 2010

Posted by Crystal in Photography, Travel

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california, golden gate bridge, golden gate park, Legion of Honor, museum, san francisco

Tuesday was free museum day! Woo!

I chose to start off my day at the Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum. Beautiful location, building, & collection.

Close to the main entrance of the museum, which is in Lincoln Park, is a Holocaust Memorial. It’s rather heartbreaking – a man holds on to barbed wire in front of a pile of bodies.

Unfortunately, I was unable to stay for long, so I whizzed through the museum and did not see as much as I would have liked to. These rooms made me absurdly happy:

In the afternoon I went to Golden Gate Park and whizzed through the de Young Museum as well. (If you follow me on twitter, you may recall the giant safety pin.)

Afterward I wandered the immediate vicinity of museum #2, then made a stop at the Golden Gate Bridge viewing area on this side of the water.