Alcatraz

We had to do the tour of Alcatraz! Alcatraz is an old prison located on a small island out in the middle of San Francisco Bay.

I don't remember what was going on here, but Kate does not look very impressed.

Here's a few pics of Kate and I inside the prison cell block.

This is me chilling in solitary confinement.

Here you can see the Golden Gate bridge in the background. It's foggy, as usual.

They say the worst thing about being imprisoned on Alcatraz island is that you can see the free world so nearby. Apparently you can even hear people out at the bars laughing on Saturday night. So close, yet so far...

Hiking in Fairfield

My cousin Margaux lives in Fairfield, California. I went to visit her one weekend. While I was there, I wanted to do a bit of hiking and explore the very unique countryside.

Fairfield is only half an hour from foggy, humid San Francisco, yet it is like a desert. There are very few trees, and the large rolling hills are covered with dry waist-high brush.

BART

The San Francisco Bay Area has two light-rail systems that are both fairly similar to the Go Train. One of these systems is called BART. Here I am with Kate taking the BART train across (er... under) San Francisco Bay to go to Oakland.

After taking those pictures, I noticed there was some guy snoozing in the seat behind us with his mouth wide open. He was snoring too. I was quite tempted to drop a penny in his mouth just to see what happens!

Civic Center

Our apartment was right next to Civic Center, which is the large public square in front of City Hall. Here are a couple pics that I took after we visited the farmer's market one sunny day.

Here is a funny sign in front of the fenced-in playground in front of City Hall.

Bay to Breakers Race

The Bay to Breakers Race happens once every summer in San Francisco. It's a running race that starts in the city and ends somewhere on the other side of the peninsula on the Pacific coast. There are a small number of serious runners who take part, but for the most part it's just tens of thousands of drunken college students.

The tradition is for people to show up to the race dressed up in a crazy costume and armed with lots of beer and liquor. Here are some pictures of the debauchery as it passed by my house. If I had known it was going to be such fun I would have taken part!

There were tens of thousands of drunk people. It was less of a race and more of a spontaneous parade.

This year there was an effort to crack down on the drinking and prevent people from bringing huge floats. Eventually, the crackdown was abandoned though. Here are some people protesting the crackdown on fun.

The floats were hilarious. There isn't any way to have motor-powered floats, so they're all human-powered. This float had about a dozen ropes attached to the front, which were being pulled by some runners.

There was some construction going on at a building adjacent to the race route. Here are some drunken people dancing to loud music on the scaffolding.

Here's some naked old dudes.

Moving In Soon

I will be moving in to my new apartment in downtown San Francisco either today after work or tomorrow morning. I'll be sure to post some pictures really soon!

First Commute

I will be living in downtown San Francisco this summer in an apartment with Kate. Google is in Mountain View, which is about an hour's drive away. Therefore, I must commute.

Commuting to Google is easy and comfortable, thanks to the Google shuttles. There are pickup stops all around the San Francisco Bay Area, including in downtown.

The coolest part of the Google shuttles is that they have Wifi access. In fact, I'm writing this blog post from the shuttle, on my way to my first day of work!

Looks like we're arriving, see ya later!