BBQ and Alcatraz . . .
After an enjoyable morning of coffee and doing nothing else, our son Chris called about 11:30am to see if we were home. He and Linda were coming by to borrow my Square credit card reader.
If you ever need to take a credit card, even only occasionally, and you have an iPad, iPhone, or an Android phone, the Square is for you.
Your account is free, the reader is free, and they only charge 2.75% and no transaction fee. That’s cheaper than some of my clients get with their regular merchant accounts
It’s very simple to use. The reader plugs into earphone jack on your device, and after running the app, you just enter the amount and swipe the card.
In 12-36 hours the money shows up in your bank account and you get an email telling you it’s there. When I did a test using my own credit card one afternoon, the money was there the next morning.
Anyway, Chris makes a very popular Habanero Jelly, and now Apple Butter and Banana Butter. He’s going to be selling it at the Kemah Farmer’s Market this weekend, and although most people pay cash, he wants to be able to take credit cards if necessary. He signed up for a reader a few days ago and already has his account setup, but his reader hasn’t come in yet.
About 1pm I headed out for an afternoon of mostly errands, with a little client stuff thrown in for fun.
After a drive-thru at the bank, I stopped off to pick up a Houston Chronicle. Not for the news. Who wants day-old news when you’ve got the Internet?
No, I wanted the Fry’s Electronics sales ad that always comes in the Friday edition. I’ve got a number of client projects in work, and I want to see what Fry’s has to offer.
My next stop was to check in with a client. I’m trying to get him to upgrade his main machine before we leave in a couple of months. His old machine is about 4 years old and due for an upgrade.
Coming home I stopped by the dry cleaners to pick our summer bedspread that I dropped off the other day. When we’re back here in Houston we have a heavier one for the winter, and then switch back to the summer one right before we leave.
Leaving the dry cleaners I dropped off the clean one at the store room until we’re ready to leave.
Later, a little before 5pm Jan and I headed over through Dickinson to I-45 and then north up to Spring Creek BBQ, one of the best (or at least the closest, best) rib places in this area. And their sides, BBQ Beans, Green Beans, Corn on the Cob, Mac ‘n Cheese, Potato Salad, Cole Slaw, and fresh, hot, homemade rolls, are also hard to beat. And the sides are all you can eat, too.
Really, really, really good!
I’m reposting our visit to Alcatraz in May of 2010.
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Thought for the Day:
Have the courage to grow up and become the person you were really meant to be.
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The Rock
Originally posted on May 10, 2010
This morning we left about 9 am headed for prison…
Alcatraz, that is.
By 10 am we were parked at a parking lot right across the street from Pier 33 on The Embarcadero, the street that runs along San Francisco’s waterfront
We were suppose to be in line to board our ferry at 10:30 am and I thought I had allowed plenty of time, but I didn’t count on it taking 20 minutes to pay for our parking.
This was one of those parking lots where your parking spot had a number and you go to an automated machine, enter you spot number, and feed machine cash or a credit card. The problem was that many of the people trying to pay were foreign tourists who apparently didn’t read English very well. And they were having a lot of trouble with the machine. So there was a long line at the machine.
Luckily, since we were right across the street from the dock, we had time for a quick bathroom break before picking up our tickets and getting in line.
While waiting in line, we could see Coit Tower up the hill behind us. This was neat because we just saw Coit Tower in the closing episode of Amazing Race on Sunday night, where the contestants had to climb the side of the tower to get their next clue.
Our ferry, the Alcatraz Clipper left the dock about 11 am, right on time and headed toward Alcatraz Island, about 2 miles away.
Off to our left we could see the Golden Gate Bridge that we had crossed earlier emerging from the fog.
And then Alcatraz itself started to become visible.
The “Indians Welcome” sign is left over from the Indian occupation of Alcatraz in 1969.
The first thing we noticed was all the lush vegetation around. Lots and lots of flowers, shrubs, and ground covers.
We made the quarter-mile, 130 foot vertical climb up to the cellhouse and began our audio tour using headphones, narrated by former guards and inmates.
Here’s the shower room for the inmates. Guess you couldn’t be too shy.
The three levels of cells.
And here’s a typical cell. 5 feet wide by 9 feet deep by 7 feet high.
And here’s Jan being locked away in one of the high-security detention cells.
The gouges and holes in the floor were made by grenades dropped into the cell blocks by the US Marines during a botched escape attempt in 1946.
Looking back at downtown San Francisco from The Rock.
One of the actual cells that the three inmates used spoons to tunnel thru the concrete and disappear from Alcatraz in 1962. They were never found, nor were their bodies. The FBI concluded they had drowned, but other inmates and guards who were there at the time think they all escaped to South America, since they had all been studying Spanish via correspondence course.
That’s the hole underneath the sink.
After watching a very good 20 minute film on the history of Alcatraz Island.
The island became Fort Alcatraz in 1858 and remained under direct Army control until 1907 when it officially became an Army prison.
In 1933 the Army closed their prison facilities and transferred the island to the newly-formed Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Then it 1934 it reopened as America’s highest security prison. Over the years, it was home to many famous inmates, like Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelley, Alvin Karpis, and Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz.
On March 21, 1963, Alcatraz was officially closed, and the remaining inmates transferred to other Federal prisons.
We caught the 1:35 pm ferry back to the dock and headed for the car.
Then we headed over to Joe’s Cable Car Diner. We had seen this place on Diner’s, Drive-ins, and Dives and wanted to check it out.
They mainly serve hamburgers, or as they say, “Ground Steak Burgers”. And talk about fresh ground! They grind your burger from fresh chuck as you order it.
And Joe, the owner, is adamant about his burgers. He was sitting at the next table when got our orders, and when he saw Jan start to put mustard on her burger, he said, loudly, “No, No, No. You must taste it first. Don’t put anything on it before you taste it”
Jan and I both agreed this was absolutely the best burger we have ever eaten, bar none.
As we were leaving the restaurant about 3:45 pm, Jan talked to our daughter Brandi as we headed back to the rig.
Getting home about 5 pm, we settled in.
Tomorrow we’re going to take a DUCK Tour of San Francisco, ride the cable cars, and eat at Fisherman’s Wharf.
Another busy day.
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