We hiked over and took the 10:10 ferry into the city. The weather has been spectacular this week and appears that it will be the same till we head out early Friday morning for the long drive to Klamath Lake. We got off the ferry and contemplated hoping on the Muni or walking to Pier 33. I checked it out via google maps and it was only a 20 minute walk, so we did that. It looks like the ferry landing is Pier 0, and a lot of piers in between 1 and 33 are missing.
We got there about an hour prior to departure, so we 
purchased some snacks and had lunch on the tables they have arranged by the boarding ramp. The boat was a bit late arriving for our boarding, but we made it to Alcatraz just a few minutes late. They must have been using cattle prods to get the masses loaded so fast.
I had never been to Alcatraz before, even being in San Francisco many times before. I never remembered to book a tour in advance, and when I tried they were always full.
The island looked pretty worse for wear from the 5,000 folks visiting it every day and apparently not much maintenance happening. Lots of areas are blocked off as unsafe. After following the people ahead of us, making a wrong turn and going up a hill and down the other side only to find a dead end, I decided to look at the map for myself.
We then proceeded to hike back down to the path that leads to 
the cell block. Thankfully it wasn’t very warm as the hills are steep to get up to the top of the rock where the cell block is located. We each received an audio machine with headphones and proceeds to walk the cells while listening to an old guard narrate what we were seeing. The most creepy part was 
the solitary confinement cells. (the hole) They were pitch black inside.
The narration went over the Battle of Alcatraz, where back in the 40’s, inmates got ahold of guns and took a bunch of guards hostage. The warden called in the marines. They pointed out the pock marks in the floor from exploding grenades the marines dropped in from holes in the roof. They pointed out the cells where the escapees were housed, and also showed you the crawlspace they went up to get to the roof. It was pretty 
impressive they could have done that.
Did I mention the cells were extremely small, 5′ wide and 9′ long, they looked about 7′ tall or a bit shorter. Although the cells in the incorrigible cell block (D) were a bit larger than the others. I really think they needed to put in a bird cage into the bird man’s cell. Seems they need a bit of marketing help.
We went outside into the yard and they had an awesome view of the city 
from there.
The island has a lot of flowering plants and they were all blooming while we were there. That was pretty nice.
