Throwback Thursday Series
Some places stay with you long after the vacation is over.
A Visit in 1983
In 1983, I visited Alcatraz for the first time during a childhood trip to San Francisco. I remember crossing the bay on a small ferry, watching the island grow larger as we approached. Alcatraz seemed enormous and mysterious—a place I knew more from stories than history.
I took this photograph from the water, capturing the buildings rising above the shoreline. At the time, it was simply another vacation picture. I certainly wasn’t thinking about how much I would treasure it more than four decades later.
Visiting Again in 2025
Then came 2025.
I found myself sailing past Alcatraz again, but this time the experience couldn’t have been more different.
Instead of standing on a small ferry headed toward the island, I was aboard a massive cruise ship sailing through San Francisco Bay. And instead of approaching the same shoreline I’d photographed as a child, I was seeing Alcatraz from the other side of the island.
There was something wonderfully unexpected about seeing it again.
The island was immediately familiar, yet my perspective had completely changed—both literally and figuratively.
As a child, I was down near the water, looking up at Alcatraz from a little ferry and wondering what waited for us on the island.
As an adult, I was high above the water on the deck of a cruise ship, looking across at a place filled with memories.
For a few moments, the years between those two trips seemed to disappear.
The 1983 photograph suddenly wasn’t just an old snapshot anymore. I could remember the anticipation of that ferry ride, exploring Alcatraz and experiencing a place that felt unlike anywhere I had ever been.
And now I’m intrigued by another possibility.
What if I went back one more time?
I’d love to board the ferry again, bring this photograph with me and deliberately try to recreate the view I captured in 1983. Same island. Same buildings. Same San Francisco Bay.
But a very different photographer behind the camera.
Sometimes returning to a place isn’t about seeing something new.
Sometimes it’s about discovering just how much you have changed.
Do you have a childhood vacation destination you’ve returned to as an adult? Did it feel the same—or did seeing it from a different perspective completely change it?
For more Throwback Thursday posts, check out these blogs:
A Look Inside Tsukiji Fish Market Before It Closed
Ueno Zoo Then and Now: My First International Trip
