Park Units 56, 57, 58: San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, Rosie the Riveter, and John Muir National Historic Site

7/21/15. On day 2 of our road trip we started exploring the national park sites in the San Francisco Bay area. We drove into San Francisco and parked at Fort Mason, which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. We walked around the grounds and finally figured out the way to go up, over and down the hill to the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park.

We spent some time in the wonderful visitors center learning about the history of the area and lots of information about maritime processes and life. This site also has a group of historic ships which you can board, and amazing views of Alcatraz and the San Francisco Bay.

We spent some time at the Ghirardelli Square which is across the street, then we walked back to Fort Mason. Many of the old military buildings have been redesigned as non-profit performance spaces and small business locations. We ate lunch there at "Greens," an amazing vegetarian restaurant with incredible views of the bay.

After lunch we drove across the bay to the Rosie the Riveter WWII Homefront National Historic Park. According to the National Park Website, you can "explore and honor the efforts and sacrifices of American civilians on the World War II home front.  Find out how they lived, worked and got along. Many faces, many stories, many truths weave a complex tapestry of myths and realities from this time of opportunity and loss."

We were lucky enough to hear a lecture by 95-year old Betty Reid Soskin who spoke about life as a Black woman during that time period. She worked as a clerk for the shipyards during the way and today she gave us a moving and fascinating perspective of the racial issues the arose as so many diverse people worked together toward their goal of ending the war.

We finished our visit here sooner than expected so we headed south to the John Muir National Historic Park. John Muir, of course, if the father of the national park movement and this site is where John Muir's home was. He was actually a very wealthy man from selling fruit from his acres of land. This wealth allowed him the privilege of writing and traveling so much. His house was typical of the time period, but we got to go to all 3 floors, including a bell tower above the roof. We enjoyed trying to identify the fruit trees and we learned quite a few we didn't know! We weren't surprised to find that he also planted a few Sequoia trees on his land. As always, they were impressive!

In order to avoid the traffic getting through the city, we stopped for dinner in Berkely. After exploring the town a bit, we settled on a pizza place.

By the time we left, the traffic was gone and we were treated to a lovely sunset over the bay on the ride back.