Revisiting Alcatraz Island with Loved Ones in San Francisco

We took the Alcatraz cruise ferry at Pier 33

We finished the Sunday Mass at St. Mary's and walked down to the Pier to meet up with E. for our outing to the Alcatraz Island.

Unfortunately, the weather was not the best. It forecasted strong waves, rain storm and cool temperatures.


E. was early, in fact an hour early as he thought the ferry departed at 12pm.  We met him at the pier restaurant and changed our tickets to the 12:30pm ferry.

The ferry ride to Alcatraz was a little rough

The ride to the Alcatraz was rough since the waves were high and the wind was strong.

In fact, I thought might be the ferry company might cancel the trips in such rough weather situation. but it did not.

Alcatraz Island, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco, USA

The ferry ride was about only 15-20 minutes. It was not the best ride as we could hardly see anything at all on board the ferry.Alcatraz  Island, also known as the Rock, was the most famous federal prison in America.

Due to the cold water and fast current of San Francisco Bay,  Alcatraz was considered inescapable for inmates.

Alcatraz housed America's most infamous criminals 

 It used to house the most notorious and ruthless criminals during its 29 years of operation.

Closed in 1963, Alcatraz Island is now a museum, a major tourist attraction visited by about 1.4 million tourists a year.

This used to be the warden's house on Alcatraz Island

Our tour started with a short clip on the history of Alcatraz in the theatre area.














The exhibits looked a little different than when I was here a few years ago.

We were given glimpses of what life was like at Alcatraz years ago.



















The first place we saw was where the prisoners used to hand in their clothes and receive their prison uniforms.

Shower area for inmates at Alcatraz

Then we filed past the group shower place. There was no privacy during shower time at Alcatraz as there were no shower curtains or individual stalls provided to the inmates.

We followed a self guided audio tour at the Alcatraz

Each visitor was given a pair of earphones to listen to the audio guide.

The cell blocks at Alcatraz

We followed the line to the different exhibits and I could see more displays and learn more about it this time than my last visit.

Block D was used for isolation of  the most difficult inmates

We saw "The Hole" -  D Block, a place reserved for the most dangerous and violent inmates.

An isolation cell at D Block

Men kept in these treatment units received adequate food and health care.













The six front cells were for the most severe disciplinary problems. A treatment in " the hole" included total darkness and restricted diet.

However, few inmates saw the D Block.

The Gun Gallery at Alcatraz

We also saw the gun gallery.

We learned about the bloody escape attempts made by some inmates and the sacrifices of some correction officers









Though a prison, Alcatraz was also a home for many inmates who made the best of their cells and spent time for recreational activities.

We learned about some of the regulations of Alcatraz for its inmates such as Regulation # 20:

Inmates were expected to work eight hours a day, five days a week with the weekends and holidays devoted to recreation.

Wow! Many more North Americans probably work much longer hours and have less time for recreation these days. How ironic?

This room used to be a library for inmates with about 15,000 books.

Confined physically, inmates turned to reading to rid their boredom.

Some literate inmates read between 75 -100 books borrowed from the prison library.

Some well behaved inmates were allowed to take courses through correspondence.






We all enjoyed the visit to Alcatraz. E.was really interested in the displays looking at the books in the book store.
We finished the tour in a couple of hours and were back to the mainland shortly after 3pm.
We had a snack at Hillstone opposite from the pier.  It was raining hard and the traffic was very congested. It was faster walking than staying in the Uber. So we walked to E.'s apartment which looked very neat.

We enjoyed visiting Alcatraz Island during our vacation in San Francisco

Ho. came back and we got a chance to chat with her for a few minutes.  She was excited and talked to us about growing her own herbs in the apartment. I should try that too.

We went to Morton for dinner and it was an enjoyable one!

R.T.
San Francisco
USA