The birthday trip to Alcatraz

It's a beautiful day in March and it's the birthday of the best husband ever. And this calls of course for something special. So the boys and I plan a great day.
We all meet up the evening before in SF and have dinner at the Burritt Room and Tavern, it's a nice little place with great food and excellent cocktails and on top some nice live music. We haven't been out like this for a while so we really enjoy ourselves.
We stay the night in SF and after a small breakfast we head for Pier 33 where the ferry leaves for Alcatraz.
Of course we have excellent sunny weather, we packed jackets because we heard that it can get really chilly, but we actually needed sunscreen. And here are some pics from our tour.

waiting at the dock, collecting some information.

view from the ferry to the island.

SF.

We are getting closer.

Others used the nice weather to go sailing.

Alright, here comes the warning.

The harsh weather conditions collect their tributes.

At the landing.

Art exhibition by Ai Weiwei.

Behind scattered glass.

Fighting for their rights at some point in history.

Imagine to crawl through there.

The cell block.

Behind bars.

At the library.

SF view.

The snowy egret colony on Alcatraz - they do make funny noises.

The garden.

The shore.

This was the second tour we made to one of Americas legendary penitentiaries. And it was for sure worth a trip. The views onto SF and the Golden Gate Bridge are breath taking. And the art exhibition gave the place a special vibe. If you think that it is just a visit to a stony island in the bay, it is so much more than that. The rock is full of history. Luckily our big one, read a lot about the place beforehand, so we had our very own tour guide and we enjoyed every bit of it.
As every tourist guide will tell you, if you plan to visit, plan ahead - tickets are sold out way in advance. Even though we visited off season, we had to get tickets 4 weeks in advance.
After we finished our tour and took the ferry back, we were welcomed by two very special people - what a surprise :)!