Moving forwards........

A fabulous day in San Francisco. The sun was shining as we left to go down to Fisherman's Wharf where we had tickets for a trip to Alcatraz. As the boat left the harbour and swung out towards the island we could see the Golden Gate Bridge to our left but it was unfortunately rather too misty for my camera to focus on. We spent just over two hours on the island where there was an excellent audio commentary which led you through the cell blocks and you learned about daily life for the prisoners and even had comments from former prisoners interspersed with the narration. The cells were thought provoking, especially those where prisoners were kept in solitary confinement or even worse, in The Hole where the cell was totally dark with NO furniture at all, just bare walls. By the time we emerged from the fascinating tour the sea mist had well and truly descended and we could no longer see the skyline of the city which had taunted the prisoners so many years ago when they could see it so close yet it remained so totally out of reach across the cold and treacherous waters of the bay.

Once back on the mainland we we lucky enough to be offered tickets, by the friend we were staying with, for a seat in a special harbour side viewing area to watch the first leg of the Americas Cup. It was really exciting as the catamarans were racing in quite rough seas with very poor visibility. This shot is of Ben Ainslie and his team as they won their first race with some incredibly spirited handling of their catamaran. This is the start of a new venture for Ben as he moves forward following his success at realising his ambition and Gold at the single handed racing in the Olympics. Although entirely different I began to reflect on reaching my own goal in posting my 365th consecutive blip today during a difficult time of personal readjustment. I have won my gold too and tomorrow is the start of a new blip year for me with hopes of continuing adventures and being able to move forward some more. Blip has given me a specific daily focus and introduced me to so many interesting and warm hearted people across the globe with whom I have been able to share my daily ups and downs. This is such an incredible and positive site and I would like to thank all the folk at blip headquarters and, of course, my fellow blippers who have made this journey with me and taken the time to leave friendly and encouraging comments, stars and hearts along the way.