On June 1 we joined Scott, Veronica, and Lassen at their time-share on the shore of Lake Tahoe. We had a fun, relaxing three days and then brought Lassen to Livermore with us while his parents had a few days to themselves. We had a fun morning with three kayaks; Lassen and me in singles and his parents in a double.
As a Boy Scout I spent a lot of time with canoes, but this is my first time to be in a kayak.
When Scott and Veronica returned from Lake Tahoe the went to Gilroy to visit Veronica’s mother, sisters, niece and nephew. It was a pleasant evening with good food and good stories.
Lassen, Anna (Veronica’s mother), Veronica, and Scott
Lassen with his cousin, Patrick. Good buddies they are.
Today we did something Lassen listed as high on his “to do” list while with us in the Bay Area, a visit to Alcatraz AKA “The Rock” in San Francisco Bay. He had read a couple of children’s books about several of the infamous inmates. In order to get there we used four modes of transportation: took a local bus from a stop on the curb outside our apartment building to the BART station for a train to the Embarcadero Station in San Francisco. From there we took a historic trolley on the F line to Pier 33 where we boarded our ferry to Alcatraz. After the tour we asked Lassen if the visit was what he expected and his response was, “It was even better than what I expected.”
Approaching Alcatraz Island.
Lassen’s photo of Pat and me, with Cathy, who is on break from teaching.
We learned about some of the history of Alcatraz as a fort protecting the Bay during the Civil War period, as an Army prison, as a Federal Prison, as a site occupied by Native Americans as a protest movement, and now as an attraction of the National Park Service. We received audio headsets that provided an excellent recording presented by former inmates and guards with lots of information and interesting stories.
We only had a snack before boarding the ferry at 11:30 so we were really hungry when we returned at about 4:00. We walked from Pier 33 to Pier 39 for something to eat. We chose Bubba Gump and were ushered to a fabulous window table where we could watch all the activity on the Bay. Lassen named the meal our “Lupper” since it was between lunch and supper. We left with full tummies and reversed our route with a trolley to BART to Dublin/Pleasanton station to the bus to Livermore. We will all sleep well tonight.
RVing Reflections 