April 14, San Francisco

In order to catch the 9:10 ferry to Alcatraz we left the hotel at 7:30. We had decided to walk the 1.5 miles to Pier 33 so that we could experience yet another view of San Francisco. We are urban hikers. The ferry ride was short but afforded a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city. We were again dressed in layers as it was chilly in the harbor and on the island.

Alcatrez was originally built to be a fort in the late 1850's. It was later a military prison until it was decommissioned in 1907. In 1934 it opened as a federal penitentiary where some notorious gangsters, bank robbers and murderers did time, among them Al Capone and Robert Stroud, "The Birdman of Alcatraz". The prison is now a National Park and a natural habitat for thousands of sea birds. The fascinating tour of the island was self guided.

We saw individual cells, solitary confinement, the recreation field, the prisoner's dining hall, the library and the holes in the wall where three prisoners chipped away for over a year to make the hole big enough for an escape. Although they did escape it is not known what happened to them. Some say they got to South America while most believe they perished in the cold current in San Francisco Bay. Outside the walls of the prison there were many birds nesting and lots of flowers making for a very peaceful setting. We stayed on the island for over three hours and thoroughly enjoyed Alcatraz.