Until they found out I was a Buckeye of course because the entire first block of cells is dedicated to Wolverine fans only.
Ok, maybe I watch too many movies or just have a way-too-active imagination, but getting on the boat to Alcatraz, I had visions of accidentally wandering into someplace the tourists aren't meant to see and being locked up in some unknown section of the once maximum-security penitentiary, and I spend the rest of my life trying to escape from an island prison where in the 29 years it was in operation, 36 prisoners attempted, and all but five were recaptured or "were otherwise accounted for" (found dead in the freezing waters of the bay) - and even those last five were presumed dead. Not good odds.
And the informational booklet they hand you before you get on the boat doesn't help these fears. It explains "Some sections of Alcatraz are unsafe and thus closed to public visitation. DO NOT enter these areas." I'm telling you - something is going on behind closed doors. Should have packed my wet suit in my purse that day. :P
(I think it is a good thing I never watched Shutter Island because the previews alone were enough to plant the seed of concern.)
There is a lot about Alcatraz you'd never guess. Like the fact that kids lived there, playing hopscotch beside the most notorious criminals ever. While Alcatraz was open as a prison, families and children of many of the correctional officers lived in apartments on the island. The kids rode a ferry over to San Francisco for school and came home to the island every evening. Can you imagine being a San Fran kid invited to a birthday slumber party on the Rock?
And who knew that after the prisoners left, Native Americans and birds moved in?
After the penitentiary closed, there was a 19-month American Indian occupation and protest, and then the lands were designated as a national park and it is now a tourist trap and bird sanctuary. The entire place was covered with birds!
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Fun fact from the Alcatraz Island National Park website:
Did You Know?
The red dot on an adult gull’s lower mandible (beak) serves as a target for chicks to peck to inform their parent that they need feeding.
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We did an audio tour of the island, which was actually a surprisingly great guide. They took you step by step through the prison, providing not only facts but stories from former prison guards and prisoners and tales of the breakout attempts.
After the audio tour, we took in the sights of San Fran. I always expected Alcatraz to be completely isolated - far from civilization - but the city was surprisingly close. The prisoners said it was truly torture to be able to hear the sounds of San Francisco night life drifting across the bay - "so close, but so far away" could never be so accurate.
Needless to say, I wasn't locked up on the island. They let me back on the tourist ferry back to Pier 33. But I'm just lucky I didn't stumble onto one of those closed, unsafe areas... I'm just sayin...
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