Day: April 3, 2022

Alcatraz

Today had a lot of pictures, so brace yourself. In the morning, we watched The Princess Diaries because it features San Francisco. It was a hit for kids and grown-ups alike.

Then we went to a delicious breakfast Jere picked out at a place called, “The Grove”. On the way, Jere and I had fun launching Ammon and Clarissa.

Breakfast was superb, and the great weather made eating outside really pleasant.

I had a leaf bug in my salad!

Then we went to Alcatraz. Jere was excited to go too because he has never been. He almost went on a date their, but when his date tried to buy tickets she accidentally didn’t press the button to purchase them, so he hasn’t gone yet.

Alcatraz was amazing. Everyone except Clarissa had a audio-tour with a handheld device. We learned about famous prisoners, sad stories (one prison went to Alcatraz for stealing $16 when he was broke and hungry, and also there were segregation and racism issues), crazy stories (the time prisoners caused a ruckus over declining spaghetti quality, and people who had escaped their cells), living situations of the prisoners (cell was about 5’X9′, there was a field for sports, prisoners often had hobbies) and more.

field for sports
One prison was an artist
It was crazy how small the cells were. These particular cells had an extra door for extra security and there was a wall blocking most of their view out of their cell.
Ammon’s favorite part of the tour was the audio-tour
There were some prisoners who escaped and made paper mache replicas of their heads which they left in their beds to make the guards think they were still in their cells. People aren’t sure how they got out, but some think they used spoons to carve the vent holes to their room to be big enough to fit through (if I understood the story correctly).
Visiting booth
Example menu at Alcatraz. The dining hall was the most dangerous place since so many dangerous people are all in a room together with kitchen utensils. The knives in the kitchen had carved out silhouettes behinds them so employees of the prison could instantly tell if a knife was missing (more than one went missing). The dining room was equipped with toxic gas that could be deployed if needed, but it never was. Even with the near revolt over the declining food quality, the warden was able to get people to behave by smashing in windows and brandishing a pistol.

We saw a lot of seagulls on the island. Here are a few shots.

Right after the prison was decommissioned around 1964 (due to deterioration from the harsh elements on the island and the great costs associated with keeping everything in good repair), Native Americans occupied the island to assert the rights of Native Americans. They painted the message above on the water tower. The occupation eventually ended and the writing on the water tower was removed, but the National Parks Service recently had family from the originally occupying tribes write the message a new so people can remember the occupation of the Native Americans on Alcatraz.

So now for my favorite part of the entire trip to Alcatraz, and I apologize I went overboard on the photos. I LOVED the brick and rock walls at Alcatraz. The colors and textures were all so fascinating. I went to a Modern Art museum the day after and commented to Lily that as amazing as the museum was, no modern art there was as impressive to me as the amazing art I saw in the walls at Alcatraz. See below for what I’m talking about.

Lily was our tour guide outside and used her map/guide to help us all learn.

View from Alcatraz

After Alcatraz, we got to experience the hills of San Francisco first hand as we walked almost a mile to lunch. Clarissa fell asleep I ended up carrying her up a super steep hill.

We ate at Tony’s and it was incredibly good. That restaurant has won awards for pizza even in Italy. Clarissa slept through the whole thing and has no idea we even stopped for lunch.

After a late lunch, we drove down Lombard street, a crazy steep street that zig-zags all the way down (and has a Bill Cosby bit about it), and then drove to another delicious restaurant to have dinner with our friends Jon and Shirley (and their two kids). We were pretty full from our late lunch, but still the food was super enjoyable and it was so fun to catch up with our friends. We love them so much. I talked with Jon about our jobs among other things and Shirley and Lily also caught up. Also, the kids (especially Ammon) had a lot of fun playing with their adorable girls.