Seagulls of Alcatraz
June 5 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
The best part of our Alcatraz tour was watching it disappear into the distance from the Alcatraz City Cruises boat as we headed back to San Francisco.
I don’t mean to be disrespectful, and I’m not sure why my memory had convinced me it was one of the most amazing tours I’d ever done, but in a word… it wasn’t.
It was one of those holiday moments where you find yourself thinking you could have been doing something else.
That said, watching the sunset over Alcatraz was genuinely beautiful and ended up being my favourite part of the entire experience.
Both of us were a little underwhelmed. Once on the island, there wasn’t really much to explore beyond the cell block, and we didn’t find there was anything particularly special about doing it at night.
Some of the prison’s most famous inmates included Al Capone and Robert Stroud. One interesting fact about Capone is that he spent time playing banjo in the prison band while serving his sentence. Despite his nickname, Stroud wasn’t actually allowed to keep birds at Alcatraz—the birds that made him famous were kept during his earlier imprisonment elsewhere. We were also interested in the famous 1962 escape attempt by Frank Morris and brothers John Anglin and Clarence Anglin. Their bodies were never found, and to this day nobody knows for certain whether they survived the icy waters of San Francisco Bay.
At one point we noticed seagulls everywhere, which made us both laugh because it brought back memories of last year’s adventures. You’ll see from the photos that the seagulls became a bit of a feature of the visit! After Port Isaac experience last year, and Mark losing his lunch, we couldn’t help but laugh. Thankfully there was no food allowed on Alcatraz, otherwise we might have lost our dinner as well.
The views back across the bay towards San Francisco were fantastic.
We rewarded ourselves with a wine 🍷 on the trip back—we needed it! Hair of the dog, officially closing the Alcatraz chapter. There aren’t many things in life that I’m absolutely certain about, but I am certain that I will never return to Alcatraz.
Afterwards, we headed to Fisherman’s Wharf and enjoyed a sourdough clam chowder from Boudin Bakery. It was the perfect way to finish a chilly evening and, honestly, ended up being one of the highlights of the night.Read more
TravelerThat’s a shame. We really loved the nighttime tour and funny enough, we had chowder there too and thought it was terrible LOL. You just never know what you’ll get when travelling.
TravelerExactly. Everyone has a different view of things, and often it comes down to mood on the day and energy/vibe level. I don’t think either of us were in the right frame of mind. There were TOO MANY people on the tour as well. The way the audio was set up was crazy! 200 people listening to the same audio meant at least 20 of them were at the same place trying to fit in a 2 x 2 cell at the same time!?! It should be arranged so it’s more staggered. Anyway, someone else’s problem 💆♂️ Didn’t “hate” it, just not a highlight
TravelerYou are exactly right about mood. I’ve loathed cities because of a broken toenail and bad weather which by the end was my favourite city LOL - mood is 100%. And yeah that un coordinated thing with the audio I can see that how that would ruin your experience.