Big Trip--Day 3 (Alcatraz)

On Thursday came the excursion around which our entire trip was oriented--visiting Alcatraz. Linda's uncle Ernie Lageson was a guard on Alcatraz during the 1940s, and he and his family lived on the island for several years. Linda's cousin Ernie Jr. was even the paperboy for the island. Ernie Jr. has written several books about Alcatraz, both historical and personal, and visits the island frequently for book signings and the like. Mike and I actually ran into him by chance when we visited the island two years ago and he happened to be there the same day for a book signing.

Linda had wanted to visit Alcatraz with Ernie as our guide, so we planned ahead and bought tickets about 6 weeks before the trip. A good thing, too, as when we arrived at the dock a sign stated that the next available ferry tickets were for a week from that date! My parents joined us for the day, as neither of them had ever been to Alcatraz, despite both being California natives. Neither Ron nor Linda had been before either. Ernie met us at the Alcatraz ferry landing and we all headed over.

Once on the island we hiked up the hill to the Cell House. Alcatraz is part of the National Park Service, and Ernie knows many of the park rangers from his frequent trips to the island. He used his connections to get us "backstage" to parts of the Cell House that are usually off-limits to the general public. We got to go upstairs to the hospital wing, to see where they housed injured, sick, and mentally ill inmates. Mike got quite a few pictures which he was kind enough to allow me to include here...

I managed to get a few shots of Steven walking around one of the cells, but he's not great at holding still for pictures!

I wish he'd shifted just an inch to his left so we could see his face!

After our time on the island, we drove across the Bay Bridge to Kensington, where we had lunch and spent the afternoon with Ernie and his wife Jeanne at their home. They had a large backyard where Mike and I spent some time letting Steven run around.