California Trip: Golden Gate and Alcatraz

Last California post...

On Thursday we spent the day in San Francisco.  We drove down famous, curvy Lombard Street.  It was a fun thing to see.

Next we drove over to the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was very windy and cold, but we walked out to the first tower.  What an amazing structure!  So glad the fog had cleared so we could get a good view of the bridge and see the city from there!

Brrrr!

Alcatraz Island

The Bay Bridge

That evening we had tickets for the Alcatraz Island night tour.  I was honestly a little nervous about going, but I'm glad we did.  The ferry ride to and from the island provided an awesome view of the bay. 

It was creepy yet very sad to me to think that we were walking the same hallways as some of America's most notorious criminals.  What a lonely, hopeless place.  I kept thinking of Chris Tomlin's Amazing Grace My Chains Are Gone as I looked into the tiny prison cells.

My chains are gone

I've been set free

My God, my Savior has ransomed me

And like a flood His mercy reigns

Unending love, amazing grace

Lane in Isolation in D Block

(I didn't even want to step inside)

 I usually don't like audio tours, but this one was super interesting. 

The communication center

It surprised me to see how pretty the landscaping was on the island.

The lights were beautiful from the ferry at night.

We grabbed a quick to-go dinner from Boudin and went back to the room.  We were tired of walking around and driving there just seemed too complicated--it took so long to go anywhere and find a place to park, etc.  We had a wonderful week, but we were both ready to get back home and see the kids.  They had a lot of fun with Grammy & Bobba while we were gone!