Alcatraz and Pick a Pearl

Raining and miserable out we thought we would go behind bars in Alcatraz.   See the hole where the prisoners dug through the concrete with a spoon to escape from Alcatraz                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         The homemade bar spreader used to escape                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        An average cell block

 

                                            Did you know families lived on the Alcatraz Island? Yes the guards and their families lived on the island. Since the prisoners were only permitted out 1 hour per week, the kids never came in contact with them at all.  The island was actually beautiful with its lush gardens, view of the Golden Gate Bridge, and San Francisco.

A short ferry ride and we were back to the SF Piers and  the sun came out. Yea. We had just enough rain to produce this. We had seen these shops on Pier 39 where you pick an oyster to pick a pearl. We decided to give it a whirl. Pearls for the girls. Sergio, our salesman, suggested we pick the smallest, fattest, ugliest oyster we could find. We even found some with hair on them. Now pearl inside the oyster could be any size, shape, or color. It could be ringed, elongated, or round. It was part of the excitement to see what you would get. The employees do a whole ceremony where you tap the oyster 3 times with wooden tongs, on the 3rd tap you say A-loooo-ha, and they ring a bell. The oyster is shucked and they slowly pull back the meat of the oyster to present you with your pearl. The pearls are then cleaned with salt prior to setting them.                                                          Erica’s was 7 1/2 mm round creamy white with a very subtle touch of pink. Mine, a 8 1/2 mm round white. Sergio heard us talking of Jaida (one of my granddaughters) and gave us another oyster, of our choosing, for Jaida. Of course he was hoping we would have it set. Jaida’s is about at 6 mm round with a subtle touch of blue. It is so pretty. We spent some time looking for settings. Erica and I chose a 14 kt yellow gold tear drop that the pearl sits in the center.      Jaida’s was set in a simple antique style sterling setting.

In San Francisco everyone was wearing scarves around their necks and we had to be San Francisco kind of girls too. We hunted for just the right ones and they were ours. So was the chocolate covered frozen bananas. We hadn’t had one of them in years and had forgotten how good they really are.

Clam chowder in a Boudins sourdough bread bowl for dinner and strawberries for dessert. Yum.

Of course another wonderful sunset.