Today was a morning boat ride across the bay to the Rock - Alcatraz Island, now a protected national parks area. Whilst some spots were closed for nesting season and / or maintenance work, we had quite a good look around.

The place, though no longer used as a penitentiary since 1963, is still quite impressive, inspiring - and educational, especially the bit about all of the (attempted) escapes and te big riot of 1949...

Unfortunately i hadn't realised quite how much the place (mainly out-buildings) had been pretty much destroyed by the big fire of 1970.

That made for a good excursion anyways, then we were off to Pier 45. There we discovered a pretty cool warehouse that holds a large number of retro/ old fashioned coin operated machines - games but also fortune telling, animated puppets or fairgrounds etc., all still very much functional - good fun!

Dinner at Hard Rock Café!