Dirk and Lauren: In Jail

Dirk and I took a night tour of Alcatraz a few weeks ago.  The night tours sell out often, so we had to book this tour two weeks in advance.  I am so glad that we were able to check it off of our California "To Do" List. It was one of my favorite things that we have done in CA so far.

We hopped on the boat just before sunset and were able to see great views of Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the San Francisco skyline from the top of the boat.  All of us tourists were running from one side of the boat to another, snapping up all of the photo ops.  The wind was ridiculously strong, and at one point Dirk actually had to hold me steady so that I didn't crash into some white sneaker wearing, fanny pack sporting tourist. Here are some pictures from the twenty minute boat ride over to Alcatraz:

Once we made it to the island, our boat captain walked with us up the hills to the prison building.  He provided some narrative about how the prisoners arrived on the island much like we just did.  Once they reached the top of the hill, the prisoners were called one by one to receive their prison number, which was their new name.  I listened to the captains spiel, while keeping a watchful eye on all of the birds that inhabit the island.  There were hundreds swarming around, and I had a (totally realistic) fear that one was going to poop on my head. 

Love birds

aiming at my head...

Finally, we made it inside the prison. We took an audio tour, which was really very well done.  Former prisoners and a former prison guard were the narrators.  The audio tour told us exactly where to walk and look so that we were able to take in all of the interesting facts and sights.  Here's a little bit of what we saw.  (I took hundreds of pictures!)

The shower area.  Just like Mrs. White's 6th grade gym class!

(the joke writes itself)

Prison cell

The view from a tiny window

Lauren, the prisoner through the visitor window

The main hallway with three levels of cells

In addition to the audio tour, there were other programs going on that night.  One of the extra programs was a prison door demonstration.  Two of the Park Rangers showed how the prison doors worked since they did not have a lock and key.  The sound was deafening!

It was super cool to be visiting the prison at night.  It was a bit eerie, even though the Rangers ensured us that there was no paranormal activity on the island.  The views of the city were amazing! The tour was worth it just to see that.

I really need to go back an retouch some of these photos, but I really don't have the patience for that at the moment. So anyway, I liked it. I had fun. The end.