Alcatraz | Anotherdayinparadise2's Blog

I’ve just finished packing my cases, and when I saw Jake’s theme for this week is ‘BAY’, I couldn’t resist posting a few pics of the gorgeous San Francisco Bay. They were taken in July 1995 on our very first trip to the USA. We started off in LA, motored over to Palm Springs, then to Tombstone Arizona, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, up the east side of the Sierra Nevada, across Yosemite National Park, and then to San Francisco, where we stayed in the Fisherman’s Wharf area. We loved this beautiful city, even though the ‘summer’ weather was rather chilly, and there was a lot of mist over the bay. This is the best shot we could get of the Golden Gate Bridge, without actually flying over it.

This was looking down at Horse Shoe Bay from the bridge.

Here’s a view of the city from the other side of the Golden Gate bridge.

My favourite pic across the bay, is this one, looking out towards Alcatraz, with the gorgeous sailing ship which happened to appear at just the right moment. 🙂

We’ll soon be leaving for Heathrow airport, and my next post should be from sunny South Africa. 🙂

To see Jake’s amazing animations, as well as other entries for the theme, just click here.

Jake’s theme this week is a lovely one, and I have found a few photos to show you.

The first one is of Alcatraz Island, taken from Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. It’s often referred to as “The Rock,” and was firstly a military prison in 1868, and then a federal prison from 1933 until 1963. In 1972, it became a national recreation area and in 1986, was designated a National Historic landmark. I was reading some of the history of this island on Wiki, and it was so fascinating. One of the best know inmates was Al Capone, who was incarcerated there in 1934, for four and a half years.

I guess I had to include one sunset shot, and this photo was taken whilst crossing the Nile from Luxor. In the distance is the ‘Valley of the Kings’, where can be found the tombs of the Pharaohs and noblemen of ancient Egypt.

Back on dry land, you can see the pyramids way in the distance. You can tell how far away they were, because my teenage son looks so huge in comparison. 🙂

This photo, was taken whilst skimming across Lake Titicaca from Bolivia to Peru, in a high-speed Hydrofoil. We had a breathtaking view of the snow-capped Andes mountains in the far distance.

This last one was taken much closer to home; in fact from my bedroom window. If you look carefully, you will see a funnel-shaped cloud, which is a tornadic water-spout, way out at sea in the Indian Ocean. This is apparently quite a rare event, but not uncommon off our part of the South African coast towards the end of summer.