We left Lake Tahoe and Richard this morning for the long drive back to San Francisco. As we couldn’t get a tour to Alcatraz at the beginning of the holiday we arranged it for today. The journey wasn’t too bad and we had prebooked a parking space so we arrived at the piers with time to spare. We had a fabulous view of the Golden Gate Bridge as we entered the city as there was no mist over it. We went to Bubba Gumps for lunch and then made our way to Alcatraz Landing, pier 33, to get the ferry. Evie wasn’t feeling very well but half a paracetamol perked her up enough to enjoy the visit. The ferry took us the short distance to Alcatraz where we disembarked and walked up to the prison to begin the audio tour. The island is only 1.25 miles from San Francisco and looks near enough to be able to swim. However there are rip tides and the sea is quite rough so it wasn’t really an option if you wanted to escape. The island was developed initially for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison in the middle 1800’s. In 1933 it became a federal prison to house prisoners who repeatedly caused problems at other prisons and the first inmates arrived in August 1934. The object of their time in prison was not rehabilitation but to be controlled and learn obedience. Rewards were given for good behaviour but were soon taken away if the prisoner did something wrong. The prison closed in 1963 partly because it cost too much to keep a prisoner there. During it’s 29 years of operation the penitentiary claimed that no prisoner successfully escaped. A total of 36 prisoners made 14 escape attempts, two men trying twice; 23 were caught alive, six were shot and killed during their escape, two drowned, and five are listed as "missing and presumed drowned". In 1969 the island was occupied for nearly two years by Native American activists protesting against federal policies relating to American Indians. Graffiti from their time there can still be seen. The audio tour was very good, guiding you round the cells and other areas, explaining facts as you moved on complete with sound effects. We ended the tour in the gift shop where ex-inmate Bill Baker was signing a book he had written. He has now retired from his life of crime in forgery and written the book about his time at Alcatraz so Scott bought one which was duly signed. As Evie had flagged again we decided to move on to Vallejo where we are staying for our remaining time.