Trip to San Francisco - Part One: Alcatraz

This past weekend we spent a couple of days in the always amazing San Francisco. I just love going to San Francisco, whether we are doing the tourist thing (Alcatraz anyone?) or just people watching, it is always an amazing and memorable trip. I truly believe that the most interesting people live in San Francisco, and I don't think anyone who lives in the city is ever bored!

This entry will be primarily photos from my trip that I would like to share. I love snapping pictures and wanted to take the new camera for a heavy-duty test run this past weekend. I will start first with photos of our Alcatraz trip.

I am sure that many of you know whether it be through history from school, or from the media, what Alcatraz was and what it is today. Alcatraz was basically the highest form of a maximum security prison in the United States from 1934-1963.

Alcatraz basically housed some of the "worst"criminals, mostly men who came from other prisons who had behavioral issues at the first prison that they went to. I think that the picture above sums that up perfectly. If you are interested in learning more about Alcatraz, Click Here. I could talk a lot more about it but I think that Wikipedia does an excellent job. I personally find it all very interesting.

Actually, here's something I really found interesting, some food for thought, if you will... when I was there and looking around and hearing about how terrible that prison really is, I just kept thinking, man these guys must have really been some serious psychopaths and just did incredibly horrific crimes. And then, I was looking at the pictures of some of the inmates and their crimes... I only saw one murderer. That's not to say that there weren't more, but I was just a little shocked. Most of the inmates were there for things like tax evasion, bank robbery, and attempted kidnapping. I was pretty surprised, because here I was imagining what the worst of the worst could possibly do... but then I was thinking that maybe our society has just become very desensitized that it takes something extreme (think Saw movies, or Silence of the Lambs type killers) for us to think that someone deserves such harsh punishment. What do you think?

Now that I've put a little history behind our trip...

Russ and I took an afternoon visit on the only cruise company that is authorized to go on shore to Alcatraz...

When we arrived, we walked around for a little bit and just admired some of the decrepit buildings. What really took my breath away was the amazing contrast between the crumbling, dark buildings and the bright bay in the background with cute white sail boats everywhere. My pictures, unfortunately, don't entirely capture the effect, but it really was an incredible contrast.

After we walked around the grounds a bit, we headed into the main prison (see above). We then looked around and were given a walkman-type player with headphones for the audio-guided tour. At first I was a little disappointed that they didn't have an actual tour guide... and even thought, Geez, I probably won't even listen to this corny thing. I put on the headphones and started to listen. It was narrated by former correctional officers as well as former inmates, and it actually ended up being quite good and not at all "corny". It was actually very surreal hearing everything as it had background noises and everything the way the prison would have sounded back when it was operating. On one part when I was walking by some of the dark, empty jail cells, a voice even whispered (in the correct ear and everything) "Hey! Hey you!" LOL, yeah that pretty much creeped me out for a second there. If anyone lives nearby or ever plans on visiting the bay area, I would definitely recommend the audio tour, it was very interesting and literally walked you through each step. Somehow it also controlled the traffic (because people had started their tour at different times), and it was very easy to move around, pause & take my time to see something, or hurry through something I wasn't interested in. I really loved it!

Here are some pictures from throughout our tour, & some of Russ and I just messing around in one of the cells that was open.

Below is a picture of the cell from which one of three prisoners (or maybe all from this one? I'm not quite sure) that escaped from Alcatraz. (& I hope I have the rest of this correct...) The only three to ever escape, and they were never seen again. The story is actually pretty fascinating... they dug through the cell with a spoon. They had hidden it for, who knows how long, with a piece of cardboard painted to look like the vent that should have been there. Then, after escaping, had placed dummy heads into their beds that were painted to look like them (real hair and everything). It kept authorities off their trail for quite awhile.

Below see the crumbling Warden's house... it must have been very beautiful at one point. The warden also had an amazing office with a view that probably is one of the best in San Francisco.

What was truly the greatest part was the absolutely amazing weather that we had. It wasn't chilly, and the day was just beautiful, as you can tell by some of the outside pictures. Seeing Alcatraz like that really made me feel for some of what the prisoners must have felt (not that I sympathize, but you know what I mean)... the tour guide told us that they watched as the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge was being built and that they could see life going on in the amazing city just over the water. They even looked forward to New Years Eve when the noise of parties were carried over to them, and they could hear life that was still going on while they were imprisoned in what was generally a very damp and cold prison.

As you can probably tell, I really enjoyed doing the tourist thing and seeing something that (surprisingly) I had never seen, even on a class field trip... and I'm only about an hour and a half away. Once again, whether you live near or far, this is certainly something to add to a "must see" list!

Well, I think that will be all for right now... I need to hit the hay and I don't think my computer can handle me uploading many more pictures!

Good night for now!

-K

ALSO: Can someone let me know if this shows up okay on your screen? It was a little funky on mine, and I'm still playing around with the formatting on here. Thanks!