Alcatraz was wicked! Soooo worth the $26 which essentially pays more for your boat ride out there than anything! It started as a lighthouse, then military base, then military prison and then The Rock as we know it...a federal maximum security prison. Now it's a National Park.
They've got an audio tour that takes you through the entire prison. It's absolutely ridiculous. The narration was done by former officers and inmates. The audio tour puts you right back into the 40s; the background sounds of men yelling and clanking at their cells....man. I'll be honest, for me, it was a tad bit scary how easy it was for me to experience the scene. Standing right outside the cell where officers were held hostage and shot, where the grenades dropped through the ceiling, where the prisoners sat and ate their meals, and where they played their games outdoors. CRAZY! Yes, and being in the solitary confinement cell where the prisoners had no bed, bathroom, or even light was quite scary. An interesting part about the prison was the attempted escapes and successful escapes by some of the inmates. Most drowned in the water and failed...so they say.
It wasn't being in prison that made them want to escape, it was the fact that they could see the city, they could taste the freedom. At night they could hear the clanking of glasses and laughter from the city shoreline a mile away and THAT was what drove them to escape...the good life. They could even smell the aroma of food and women.
It was strangely surreal for me. Almost as if I'd been there before...perhaps in another lifetime! haha.
Very funny Keats!
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