One of the great things about playing host to family and
friends is the opportunity to do the touristy things at which residents
otherwise scoff. Since Mom, Matthew,
Hollie, and Mike were in town, Ali and I jumped at the chance to follow in Nick
Cage’s footsteps by partaking in the night tour at Alcatraz.
Tickets are difficult to come by. We, fortunately, secured our tickets several
months ago. My first impression of
Alcatraz Island was: wow, this thing is much smaller than it looked in ‘The
Rock.’ Measuring-in at a measly 12 acres
makes Alcatraz about the size of 10 soccer fields.
The tour was a lot of fun.
The cells were truly tiny. There
was no room for claustrophobia within those walls. Each one was mysterious and intriguing from a
distance. Standing inside of one evoked
very different emotions though! I posed
for a picture from inside of “the hole” but got the heck out of there before
anyone could make a prank out of it.
The cellblocks are the undisputed main attraction but the
rest of the island shouldn’t be missed.
Even as a visitor, the kitchen and cafeteria didn’t feel safe. It might have had something to do with the
utensil outlines in the cupboards! Back
in the day, the prison guards made painted outlines of the kitchen utensils on
the cupboards as a very quick way for taking inventory lest a prisoner smuggle
a deadly weapon from the kitchen.
The infirmary was truly creepy. We walked around the medical ward for a few
minutes before promptly returning to the less medieval and rusty parts of the building. The recreation yard wasn’t much to write home
about but it was the site of, perhaps, the most accidentally artistic picture
of me ever taken. This is my best James
Dean impression.
