Alcatraz

What a place! One of the quotes I found suitable was 'If you break the rules, you go to prison. If you break the prison's rules, you go to Alcatraz'. It would have been terrible to have been locked up in a place like that. We took the 3:20pm ferry to the island and while on there, the main attraction was an 1.5 hour Audio Tour of the lock-up - very good. It gave you an insight in to  how the prisoners had to live, how close it was to freedom - but so far, the whole time knowing that they would never taste that freedom again.

By far the most interesting thing was the part of the tour that explained about the 3 prisoners that escaped in 1962 - never to be seen again, assumed dead. Of course the prisoners all believed they were living in South America (as they were all learning Spanish) but the officials were all saying there was no way they would make it to shore! They collected soap, hair and various other materials and created fake heads, which they stashed in behind the air vent in their room which had been dug out by these men using nothing more than ground down spoons. Once they had made the holes, they would spend night after night (for more than a year) inside the air vent cavity building their way to the roof. At night-fall they put the fake heads in their beds, with sheets and towels underneath the sheets to make it look like a body, in case a prison officer looked in their cell.  They also built themselves a make-shift raft out of looted materials and raincoats whilst in the wall cavity. Once completed, they simply climbed through the dug out vent, climbed up through the pipes to the roof, jumped over the fence, tumbled down the cliff face to the shore and escaped on the raft they made. Next morning, when the head count on the prisoners was done the guards couldn't wake a few of the prisoners. It wasn't until then that the missing men were discovered.

Travelling across san Francisco bay heading out to Alcatraz with the city in the background. As you can see, even on a fine day it is very windy out on the water.

Approaching Alcatraz by Ferry

Despite the temptation, Riley & Bailey were able to be let out of the cell

For dinner we ate at the most renowned seafood restaurant in San Fran - Scomo's, which had sensational food. We are now packed up and ready to head to Reno, Nevada tomorrow. After 18 days here, it will be our first time out of California - very excited.

~Riley.