Prison, again?

2019-12-31
Alcatraz and Coit Tower, San Francisco, CA

Alcatraz Island is also part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It didn’t surprise me that you need to book your tickets in advance; however, it did surprise me in early November that only 31 Dec was still available during my trip. But I booked tickets for that day, and hoped that the weather would cooperate. It did.

The most interesting thing to me was that Alcatraz only operated for about 30 years as a Federal prison (it was a military base and brig previously). The main occupation for the prisoners was laundry for all the military bases in the area, which is odd because the island has no source of water. It had to be barged in weekly.

It was cool to wander around and see the cells, the yards, and the infrastructure. There is a strong emphasis on the escape attempts in the tours; I guess most people are expecting to end up in prison someday? I will say that Eastern State yielded more cool pictures, so no need to travel across the country to visit a prison. Support your local penitentiary.

Afterwards we went up Telegraph Hill and got one of the last spots in line to go up Coit Tower. It has a great view of the city as well as the wharves.

We then traveled down to the shore on several amazing sets of stairs. It's like taking the stairs up to your deck, if your deck was on the 6th floor.