Alcatraz Island

Sunday turned out to be a really rainy day but that has never stopped us from having a wonderful day. We had to board the boat for Alcatraz at 9AM at Pier one. I couldn't believe all the people that were there! We went to San Francisco about this very same time last year and there was hardly anyone ........anywhere. But this year it was one busy place.

We did take rain gear with us..but bought the cute Alcatraz rain gear for $5.00!

This building was used mostly for those who lived on the island that were employees, such as guards families. She said there were dances here and it was a wonderful happy place to live. The children never saw nor mingled with the inmates. It was really fun as one of the children that lived here twice was here this day and we were able to visit with her and learned some interesting facts. As children they were ferried from the Island for school and other activities. We were really curious about what they did with the sewage and well.............you can imagine, it was what we thought! It just went into the Bay!!!!!!!! Yikes.

This is the morgue. Talk about a really small building. Even when the inmates died and were taken off the island, they were still shackled and handcuffed.

Upon entering "the rock"...........each inmate was taken to these very public showers and given a small bar of soap, their new clothes, one sheet and one blanket.

We bought a book written by Darwin E. Coon in the gift shop and It just so happened that he had been there recently and we got a signed copy. He actually had just passed away two weeks prior. What an interesting book as it caught my attention immediately as he was an "Iowa Boy". It gave great insights to Alcatraz to prison life as he spent many years in the various prison systems and four years on Alcatraz. Life was not easy on the rock!