Trip Dates: 2008-01-27 – 2008-01-31
Hello everyone. I’m now in San Francisco. I’ve spent the past few days at a conference in San Jose, where I gave a presentation on Monday to quite a number of researchers from all over the world. Fortunately, it went well, and I received positive feedback from several researchers who were interested in collaborating with us.
San Jose, by the way, is a modern and pleasant city in the Santa Clara Valley (aka Silicon Valley) in California. It’s home to the headquarters of numerous high-tech companies, including Intel, AMD, Apple, Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Hewlett Packard, and Adobe (to name just a few). In the evenings, we usually went to a restaurant called GB, which was a combination microbrewery and steakhouse serving both great food and excellent homemade beer.
After the conference, I continued on to San Francisco. This morning I got up early and took the cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf. From there, I walked to Pier 33, where I caught a boat out to Alcatraz Island—aka “The Rock.” The trip was well worth the money. We were given a detailed tour of this highest-security prison in the United States. The prison operated until 1963 and housed famous criminals such as Al “Scarface” Capone, Robert Stroud, and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.
We were allowed inside the cells, which were generally just big enough for a narrow bed, a sink, and a couple of shelves. There was also a special wing for “difficult” prisoners, where all light was shut out and inmates could be kept in total darkness for up to a week before being let out. We even saw the cell where one prisoner, using nothing but a spoon, dug a hole in the wall big enough to escape through. Two prisoners managed to get away this way, but no one knows whether they made it to the mainland or drowned on the way.
Aside from once being the most secure prison in the U.S., Alcatraz also offers spectacular views of San Francisco, its skyline, and the Golden Gate. Today, Alcatraz is a designated national park and serves as a sanctuary for a wide variety of birds.
After returning to the mainland, I had planned to rent a bike and cycle across the Golden Gate, but due to heavy rain that plan was canceled. I might take a walk through Chinatown instead. Tomorrow I’m flying on to Mexico City, where I’ll be meeting a friend who’s promised to show me around and then take me out for the night. It will be nice with some warmer weather, because here in San Francisco—despite the signs saying “Welcome to sunny California”—there’s been icy wind and mostly rain.
I’ll probably be back with another update from Mexico in a few days. Bye for now!
Greetings from your traveling uncle Mac.
