Friday, June 22, 2012

{Alcatraz}

One of our favorite things we did while in San Francisco was to tour Alcatraz.  Alcatraz Island is located 1 1/4 miles from Fisherman's Wharf.  It is best known as the infamous former federal prison which housed Al Capone.  It was closed in 1963 due to its expense to maintain the facility.




Each of us were given a set of headphones which directed us on tour of the facility.  The voices were from men who had been housed in Alcatraz.  It held our boys attention through the whole prison!

 This better be the only time my children are behind bars!!!!


 The outside yard where the prisoners would spend hours at a time out in the frigid cold.



We learned it was torture for the prisoners to be in prison, but to see the beauty and freedom of San Francisco in the distance, which is why these men attempted to escape!

 Items the men used to dig out of their cells. 







This is the small vent the men escaped through.


 This is the dummy head the men made out of soap, cement, & paint.


The utility corridor the men crawled through to escape Alcatraz.  It is still a mystery to whether the men died in the freezing water or if they escaped to Mexico.


Alcatraz was definitely a cool place to visit!  My hopes for this visit was to scare my children from ever doing anything bad that would result in them going to prison....I think I succeeded!


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