Wanderlust Wednesday: Alcatraz

I'm going to have two different posts on Wednesdays, some Wednesday it will be Wanderlust, about places I have travelled and done.  And sometimes it will be Wondering Wednesdays where I answer a question I have had and the answer I have found to that question.

Today I'd like to share about my trip to Alcatraz!! In complete honesty, I have never in my life been to Alcatraz, two or three times we've talked about and tried to plan to go, but we didn't realize how far in advance you would have to buy tickets so we've done other things instead.  In November when I went to the states I told Alex that the only thing on my list of things to do besides visiting everyone I could was to go to Alcatraz.

Alex booked the tickets, I let my cousins know when we were going and then a whole group of us got on the Ferry and headed to Alcatraz.

Talk about a place that has a vibe to it, there is an energy at Alcatraz unlike anything I have really experienced before, and the feeling hits you the moment you step off the boat.  You could really spend a whole day on the island, easily! We spent about 3 hours out there but I didn't do the whole island.

We did the main tour, the walking through the prison, and listened to the audio tour.  The place feels haunted without the audio tour, and then you put these headsets on and walk the tour at your own pace with others but you don't engage with others because you are almost completely immersed in this experience.  It was crazy, and those audio sets just really make it so that you can almost catch glimpses of these men who were imprisoned on this rock.

Interesting facts I learned, there was a school on Alcatraz because the guards and their family lived on the island.  Three people are believed to have escaped and it has now come out that two of them may have actually been successful. There are still prisoners from Alcatraz that are still alive, and some of them come out to Alcatraz to sell their books!

I loved some of the signs at Alcatraz about their rights! Seriously, they are still relevant today and maybe even more so, with our technology taking over so many aspects of the world.

I was blown away by the cell block tour and it's so much to take in that it would be hard to do the whole island in one visit unless you get out there super early with a picnic lunch.

So next time we go down, that's the plan, picnic lunch, stroller and good walking shoes!  Take my boys to see a piece of history, a piece of history my dad and Aunt used to see from their bedroom windows when they were children living in Oakland.