Angel Island

Sunday was my last day of spring break before the last quarter of my Master's program. We spent it on Angel Island, the bay's largest natural island. Larger Alameda was a peninsula until 1901 when the marsh connecting it to the mainland was removed for a shipping channel. Angel Island became an island itself 10,000 years ago after the last ice age. Miwok hunted deer here for 2000 years before the Spanish arrived in 1775. It was a military fort during the Civil War, and an immigration station until WWII. Angel Island became a state park in 1962.

It's 25 minutes by ferry from Pier 41 with views of the Golden Gate,



Sutro Tower,



Coit Tower,



The new Bay Bridge,



Alcatraz,



and Marin.



It's a lovely place for hiking or camping. I have long wanted to camp here for the night.



We actually, gasp, rented Segways. It was Guy's idea. He found it on Groupon. I have to say, once you're riding the Segway you don't feel like you look like a tool... And you can make them go pretty fast. That's always good. Anyway, you can also rent bikes to circle the island. But to see the prettiest parts, I think you must walk.

















Many people come to see the immigration station, where thousands of would-be Chinese immigrants were detained for years at a time.



Waiting indefinitely, some carved poems in the walls.







There are several of them. These are the "poems on a weary wall" in the Rich poem I posted the other day.

Other remnant's of the island's past remain as well. The serpentine quarry,



Cannon battery,



All kinds of old buildings





where "old ghosts crouch hoarsely whispering".