Exploring San Francisco: Azkaban

3:30 PM - 11:00 PM

-Ferry to Azkaban, I mean Alcatraz. 

-Night Tour of "The Rock."

(The night tour of Alcatraz is AMAZING, PS.)

-Ferry back to the mainland

-Dinner at an Italian restaraunt @ Pier 39

From the Ferry Ride:

@ Alcatraz. Photos of inmates.

Cool staircase, PS.

Each corridor and space had a nickname: Broadway, Times Square, etc.

The Gun Galley at the top (where the guards kept vigil, behind the metal bars) 
& the key system - when requested the key was sent down to the prison floor via the rope and hook.

Weathered door to the courtyard outside.

Photos of friend Jesika, who came to visit for the weekend and let me test out my new 50mm 1.4 lens on her:

How about THAT sunset:

 The reception desk to the prison.

 The Hospital wing of the prison.

One of the areas open for the night tour. Very, very cool.

 Sunset and the Golden Gate Bridge through the frosted glass blocks. Loving my new 50mm lens.

The Hydro "Therapy" chamber in the hospital wing... creepy!

Exam table

Can't you just picture inmates staring out at the world from these windows? Lonely desperation...

Hospital ward

This is my favorite shot from the day. Isn't it crazy creepy? Yah.

 There are all sorts of after hours lectures and extra features on the night tour. Very, very cool.

Exploring San Francisco: Submarine

2:00pm-3:30pm

Explored Pier 39.

Walked to Pier 45.

Found a WWII Submarine.

That's right. I said A WWII SUBMARINE.

The USS Pampanito

SO worth the $10 admission fee.

One laundry machine for 70+ men. 

How often do you really think they washed their clothes? 

(Also, only one shower too. Ditto for washing of bodies?)

This bunk is sandwiched between torpedoes. 

Yup.

Better not toss and turn at night if you sleep there.

Torpedo tubes

A hatch. It's TEENY TINY. 

There are four or five of these to pass through when traversing the length of the sub. 

These divide the sub into watertight compartments.

RED ALERT! The lighting on "the bridge" is red.

How would you like to sleep in such tight quarters? 

(You can't really see them from this photo, but the bunks 

go five rows deep to the left. Imagine the smell! Or don't.)

Kaboom!

PS - Apparently you can rent out the submarine for overnight stays! How cool is that?

Change IS Good

If you're here (reading this from my website and not some variety of reader), you've probably noticed a few changes happening!

-A new look/feel (I'm not quite done changing the site design yet, so look out for more changes later on).

-New Title

-New Domain Name (www.departurediaries.com)

It was time for an update.

I hope you enjoy my new site!

Christy

(photo reposted from somewhere on the interweb...)

2012 Calendar Project: August

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

The hues of youth upon a brow of woe,

Which man deemed old two thousand years ago.

Match me such marvel save in Eastern clime,

A rose-red city, half as old as time.

-Dean Burgon

Exploring San Francisco: A Field, a Palace and a Tower

A friend and I recently ventured into my local metropolitan center, aka San Francisco and did some exploring.

The weekend is best summarized by said friend's phone call to her husband: "Hey babe, I just saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, toured a WWII Submarine and now I'm going to see Azkaban, I mean Alcatraz (yah, Alcatraz may have been renamed Azkaban for my entertainment) Tomorrow I'm going to see a Tuscan Castle!" His sarcastic response "Great. Let me know when you fly a fighter jet!"

11:00am - 2:00pm

Crissy Field, Palace of Fine Arts, Hike up to the Coit tower.

  The Palace of Fine Arts

 Coit Tower

The REALLYCOOL Back path up/down to/from Coit Tower, which wanders by an amazing neighborhood and some very cool, unexpected gardens in the middle of the city. If you're lucky, you'll see the famous Parrots.

2012 Calendar Project: December

Monterey, California

"It is no good telling yourself that one day you will wish you had never made that change; it is no good anticipating regrets. Every tomorrow ought not to resemble every yesterday." -- Beryl Markham

SERIOUSLY. SO. BLESSED.

I'm going to be an Auntie again. AND again.

That's right, my sister is having TWINS!

The proof positive:

(Don't tell my sister, but I've already nicknamed them.)

We're all blown away, super excited and a little freaked out. Twins don't run in either of the parental units' families.

Oh, and until we find out the genders of Baby A and Baby B, Q is still my only nephew. So here is my most recent video masterpiece (haha) of master Q-tip (AKA the cutest Nephew in the universe). He just turned two and someone gave him a little toy projector thinger.

Who needs a cat, I've got a nephew!