Trip to Alcatraz...Visiting Only...

While in SanFrancisco on our vacation we visited Alcatraz. We purchased our tickets online a couple of weeks earlier as suggested to us. Good thing because it was all sold out for that day. We took a short ferry ride to the island.

Looking back on to land from Alcatraz I was reminded how close it was to land. So close but yet to the prisoners so very far. The water temperatures are in the 50s so you wouldn't survive too long swimming in it, there were a lot of currents to pull you under and of course there are sharks. I could only imagine how they would have felt looking back at the land. They were destined to be there forever....

It was quite a walk outdoors up to the actual prison. The buildings were quite oldlike and worn and in shambles.

We did pass some beautiful flowers growing along the way along the hike up.

We chose the audio tour. We were given headphones and a little recorder. Once we stepped inside the actual prison we turned it on and followed the route it directed us to.

Some of the narrators were the voices of these inmates. As we moved along the corridors which were named "Broadway Avenue'' etc. we were directed to stop at certain spots. We were told stories of the particular cells, or rooms or kitchen or corridor by them. We could hear heavy doors slamming in our ears.

Doors to cells like the ones above. In this area they were not allowed to put up anything on the walls or floors. No pictures, no rugs...nothing. There were some other areas perhaps some of the inmates had worked their way up to them. They were allowed to paint and hung their pictures. Or they read books and had them on shelves. It felt very creepy to know that some of them had been told that no one knew they were alive. Friends and relatives had been told they were dead.

There was a siege in the prison from May 2-4, 1946. There had been a lot of planning and chances taken but it didn't go so well. In the above picture some of the inmates are shown in the left pictures and officers on the right. Some of the officers were taken hostage and in the fight were shot. Three prisoners did make it to the water and were never seen again. Could they have been sooo lucky to have made it. No one knows.

The prison was closed in the 60s and the prisoners were taken to other prisons because it was becoming too rundown and expensive to repair.

We were standing there smiling. We were happy and going back home...or at least to tour some more of lovely SanFrancisco.

I hope you are enjoying your day too.... Judi xoxo

SanFrancisco Vacation

It just occurred to me I HAD downloaded pictures onto Marc's laptop we had with us on our trip to California. So I am at the cottage but can share some pictures with you.

San Francisco had so much to see. I enjoyed driving up those steep streets like Hyde Street....

and driving back down them...wheeeee..... This drive would not be as fun if they had our snow....

We drove down Lombart Street known as the crookedest street in the world. Now because of the nature of the street and the borders and flowers in between the curves, I couldn't get a shot of it from the top down.

It is a constant parade of cars that slowly follows each other down the sharp winding street. The street sort of curves from the garage of a house on your right to the garage of a house on the left....

See all the little people standing by the red building part way down the hill on your right?

The houses are lovely on this street as well. I wonder how they ever get onto their street with all these cars.

Can you get how it goes from this pictures? Really neat.

Then at the curves along the partial wall are planted beautiful flowers. They grow in abundance all the way down the street in this manner.

Well here are those "tiny" people we saw at the bottom and partway down the hill in one of the above pictures. They were all watching us driving down and taking pictures of the cars. You can see from this picture that you can keep on driving downnnnnnnnnnnn....

I wanted to share this blurry picture with you because see that island at the top of the picture a short distance in the water with white buildings? Thats Alcatraz. I didn't realize it was so close to San Francisco, so close to land. We went there and that was interesting. I can't even imagine how the prisoners felt being able to look at land so close...but to them with the frigid waters and sharks so very far.... I'll share that another time.

Thats some of the fun driving I'll share today..... have a lovely day yourself! Judi xoxo