One of the places I did not expect to go when I started thinking in advance about my recent California trip was a tour of Alcatraz!  However, my son set up a tour and I was enthusiastic to check it out!

One and a quarter miles offshore from San Francisco, this small island was once a fort, a military prison, and a maximum-security federal penitentiary (closed in 1963).  It is also the site of the first lighthouse on the West Coast.

Alcatraz Island is a designated national historic landmark and the National Park Service does an excellent job of preserving the island.  It also provides tourists a very well organized ferry ride out to the island with a great self-guided tour once on the island.

I have never seen any prison in my lifetime so it was a little creepy to tour a vacated federal penitentiary, but so very interesting!

I spoke with a guard who was working on the island at the time the penitentiary closed and he told me his family never even locked the doors of their home while living on the island!  Learning that the island housed prisoners who continually caused trouble at other federal prisons (including the notorious Al Capone), I think I would locked my door if I was an island resident!

What a great historic tour!

This was the library – I wish the books were still there!

I hope you enjoy seeing some of the photos I took while on Alcatraz Island today on Friday field trip!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a fabulous weekend!

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie