Welcome aboard for your very unofficial tour of Alcatraz! First off, the Alcatraz City Cruises company does a great job of jetting you over to the island – and they leave about every half hour during the day AND accommodate more than 200 passengers per trip. Win!
Before you board, you can get a "paper mache" type layout of the island. It's not a huge island but all the buildings are squished in there somehow.
Beautiful waters despite the ugly destination.
My co-worker Tom and I feeling rebellious going to prison!
Alcatraz was a federal penitentiary until 1963. In 1969 Indigenous activists occupied Alcatraz for 19 months.
A guard's watch tower that at first looked like a lighthouse to this lighthouse fan.
The official "welcome" entrance to Alcatraz.
A former "officers club" that burned in a fire either caused by Indians or hippies. The jury is still out on that.
Lovely sign on the roof so you know you do NOT want to land there.
The model industries building.
The current state of electrical...
...And plumbing. In case someone has this crazy idea to reopen this place!
More from the Indian occupation.
Well of course there's a morgue. Not everyone can survive these luxurious island accommodations.
In the cellhouse now.... no privacy for showers or anything else.
My childhood dream house had spiral stairs. But yeah, not so sure in this setting!
The narrators in our fascinating audio tour of the cellhouse...
Who knows how they got former inmates to participate, but it added a real-feel element to the tour.
Three levels of cells. My first thought was
Shawshank Redemption! Such a similar look and feel. And Al "Scarface" Capone was here!
Cells were 5 feet wide so even I am too tall to sleep in the "width". Not by much.
I can smile when I know it's just a tour and I don't have to spend extended time here. Of course, women weren't welcome anyway.
Solitary confinement is as bad as it sounds.
The prisoner on the audio tour said he'd just have to adjust to the dark and pretend to play a TV screen in from him to visualize something – anything.
Oh just me looking at angles and finding something pretty – architecturally.
Prison library again reminded me of the
Shawshank movie!
Free time for most included smoking – they got a lot of cigarettes – and hobbies like chess and music.
The escapees in 1962 made fake mask heads to put in their beds while they burrowed out of prison via the tunnels they dug with spoons. There were three of them and they were never found.
Prison cafeteria offering a balanced meal!
The kitchen crew made sure there was a knife matching each black outline on the cutlery board. Should I be alarmed they were all missing?!
Random beauty because prison gardens were actually a thing.
An artsy shot of the Bay Bridge.
A light house that appears to be more used by birds than anything else!
Evening view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the island.
Oh yeah, we're in California. There are palm trees here!
More surprising garden work.
And a little bit more.
Another artsy shot of the Bay Bridge over to Oakland.
View of the San Francisco shoreline. It's definitely a compact city on a hill for lack of a better definition.
Thank you, Congress, for making Alcatraz part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. And thank you for coming along on my virtual (surely incomplete) tour of Alcatraz.
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