I was able to have lunch with three other members of our outstanding fifth grade team from 2007! It just so happened that Evelyn Frantz and Beth Douglas were both living and working in CA. Jane Owen and her husband Terry met us out on the road a couple weeks back and we were all traveling together. We all had lunch and had a great time catching up. It was fantastic to be together.
A few days later we rode the train into San Francisco with Jane and Terry. They hung out and explored the pier while we took a tour of Alcatraz. It was a fantastic tour, well worth the cost! We took a water taxi over to the island. It's a national park so of course, we had to GET A BADGE!!!!
The boys claim this was their very favorite tour. I have to agree, it was very intense, and the format was fantastic. Upon arriving in the prison each person is given a headset with an audio tour.
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| Isn't he special??? |
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| This is one of the dummy heads they made for the escape! Creepy!!! |
While there we were able to see an art installation by artist Ai Weiwei who is a Chinese artist and activist. His work speaks to the time he spent imprisoned and focuses on freedom of expression. The pieces were amazing, clearly but the way they utilized legos to create the pictures of prisoners of conscious was genius. At the end we were able to send postcards to prisoners of consciousness from around the world. It was a fantastic learning experience for the whole family and had a huge impact on us.
