SketchCrawl Alcatraz

What a day yesterday!
It was one of those early morings where your subconsious knows something exciting is going to happen that day, so you keep waking up and trying to fall back asleep again. I woke up probably four times before I gave up waiting for it to be time to get up so I got up anyway. At 9:30 we took off for Pier 39 San Francisco and got there at four minutes to eleven, right on time. I met my friend Catie there and we walked back to the car together to put her backpack in the truck. On our way back to Pier 39, only two blocks away, as we were crossing the crosswalk, Ronnie Del Carmen drove up and I waved frantically. I pointed to my shirt (the navy SketchCrawl one that my scanner made look maroon in that picture a few posts ago). Then he understood why this weird girl was waving at him heheh... All the SketchCrawlers gathered around Enrico as he took names down on his sketchpad. I saw a few familiar faces in the crowd...it was impossible to tell how many people came; whenever the whole group was together we were around other crowds too so I couldn't count. The only way to tell if they were with us is if they 1) were wearing a SketchCrawl T-shirt (maroon ones!) or 2) had a sketchbook in his or her hands.
In the line to get on the ferry I met some neat folks who I kept in touch with off and on for the rest of the day. When we got there everyone split up and went anywhere they wanted to. It's such a small island, it's hard to get lost on. Catie and I found a nice place to sit and draw the old buildings in front of the bay, facing the Bay Bridge, I believe.
We wandered about some more then began heading back to the ferry at about 1:30. I had the impression we had to leave the island at that time, but just to check I asked Enrico and he said that we were just meating to eat lunch. Whew! Good thing I asked him or else Catie and I would have missed out on quite a lot more. I brought fish-less sushi (basically california roll without the crab) and cookies and chips. The rest of the day was just as good, if not better than the beginning. When we reached the top of the island I found out that the famed Tadahiro Uesugi was sketching around with us too! Wow. Cool. Talked with a some more cool people, sketched a few more sketches, then too soon it was time to get back on the ferry. Ronnie was at the other end of the top deck and when he saw me he motioned for me to come over. He looked through my sketchbook and I felt like everyone else around was looking at it too...both an amazing and intimidating experience. But I felt like a million bucks, just to have him look at what I did during the day... :) He allowed Catie and I to look at his work as well. Simply drop-dead stunning, what this guy does I tell you...
Overall I'm really happy with what I accomplished; my main disappointment last time was that I really didn't do as many sketches as I had wanted to. This time I went berserk and sketched more than I thought! Pictures from top: a little girl on the ferry ride over; me and Catie's first stop; a sketching man in green whom I later found out was Jason Katz of Pixar(!); a woman looking out at the view; firehydrant kind of rushed; a really still girl that I was so excited to draw that I tried too hard and didn't do too well on; and my favorite one of a cool plant sticking up over the City. And Catie timed me as I drew this flower, because it was time to go I think and we couldn't sit down to draw it. She gave me 20 seconds. Oh No! Blogger closes down in 10 minutes! Must...finish...posting...pictures...