May 27, 2003
Escape To Alcatraz
My dad left late last week after a weeklong visit. He spent the first few days shivering in San Francisco, but by Friday the weather warmed up some and I took a day off from work to go to Alcatraz with him. Neither of us had been there, and this seemed like a good time to go (decent weather and not too many tourists yet.) It was definitely prison-like, except much more run-down then you'd see in a movie (or real life I suppose, although I wouldn't know.)
For those of you who don't know, Alcatraz was a federal prison located on a small island in San Francisco Bay. It's windy, cold, and very desolate. And, since it hasn't been a prison in decades, it's very run-down, too.
The main building, the one that held prisoners, is still in decent shape, but many of the other buildings, like housing for the guards and their families, is either gone or in such delapidated condition that you can't go inside. We rented the audio tour, which focused exclusively on the main prison building. Most of the cells on the ground floor are "decorated" as they would have been 50 years ago. This consisted of a bed, fold down chair and table, toilet, sink, and a few ammenities like toilet paper and shaving brush. Each cell also had piped in radio that inmates could listen to with special headphones.
There were several small gift shops on the island, where I bought the "Alcatraz Women's Club Cookbook." I picked it up thinking it was a joke, but it is a reprint of a 1952 cookbook. Apparently the guards and other workers and their families lived on the island full-time, and had social clubs and regular community activities. I had always assumed the guards commuted in from the City daily. The cookbook isn't anything special, just typical recipes you'd find in a 1950s church cookbook, but the title is fun.
We headed home on the next-to-last ferry back to the City, with the hopes of taking a cable car to downtown. The line was long, so we found a bus that eventually got us to the Caltrain station (via the longest and most un-scenic route in San Francisco it seemed.) We took Caltrain to Palo Alto and walked to Crystal Dynamics, where Gary works, and he drove us home.
As a day-trip for someone who has seen most of the City, Alcatraz is a lot of fun. If you've never been to San Francisco before and only have a few days, I'd skip it, and instead just buy the t-shirt proclaiming you had recently escaped.
Posted by Jen at May 27, 2003 07:29 AM