After a couple of weeks of enjoying the local area searching for geocaches highlighting our days, we needed another adventure. Thankfully, it came on a four day weekend, so we enjoyed our Labor Day weekend in San Francisco!
We woke up early so we could make our way to the Rosie the Riveter Memorial. Many might remember seeing this hard working woman flexing her muscles on a poster...now on your Fb feed. Actually, she represents the hard work of women to help in the war effort. I am sad to say that I am not sure women even today are truly appreciated. The memorial is not kept clean and we had a hard time reading the memorial signs due to goose scat and sand covering a lot of the area.
When we arrived at the visitor center we were surrounded by women park rangers who were glad to see the children and share the story. However, we soon found out a special program was taking place so they kind of rushed us along. Zaira was able to take a break and have a snack with Rosie and we completed another junior ranger booklet to earn our badges before moving to the next park.
This next stop would actually take us to two national parks. We arrived at the John Muir National Historic Site and were able to walk around a famous tree grove and visit his home. Don't know who John Muir is? Well...if it were not for him, we might not have national parks today! He met with Theodore Roosevelt over 100 years ago to present the need for protecting our natural resources.
He also has a special place in our hearts as we know he was a lover of trees. On his ranch he planted many different types of trees. There is still evidence of these trees along side the area that was once his peach grove. We were able to see redwood, quince (We brought one home to try...found they are quite tart and better to cook before eating.), olive, live oak, pear, fig (ripe and ready to eat), and more. A great place to tour and reminded me of our forestry days.
We actually came here to take a tour of Port Chicago National Monument. I little known spot here in California that was the location of a tragic event during World War II. This location continues to be an active military facility that prepares and distributes munitions for the military. However, back in the early days this place was where many of the African American men came to serve our country. They were to assemble munitions and load them on train cars to be distributed to the war ships going out to fight in the Pacific battles. The demand for these munitions was so great that labor was intense and often dangerous. Adding to this already volatile situation, there was also the explosive division of race. The African American men who were working so hard to help defend our country were not treated fairly and pushed to their limits. This led to the harsh conditions that would allow for errors in judgment for all those involved. An explosion of epic degree as the men loaded munitions on a ship...killing 320 men...220 African Americans among the casualties.
Even though this was an unbelievable situation, the men remaining were expected to clean up the bodies and wreckage. Then return to 'normal' production in less than a month. This tragedy continued to grow worse, as the men left behind refused to work in the harsh conditioned established. They mutinied and reaped the havoc of this decision. They were forced to either return to their jobs or be held for treason. Fifty men chose to face charges of treason and were sent to jail for the remainder of the war. The others chose to go back to work but were also punished severely.
This was a tragedy in many ways but the worst is how the men were treated as they tried to serve our country during war. It would not be until recent years that this was brought to the forefront. Even still..today only a few even know about the tragedy and only a small number come to visit this site (less than 500 annually). We were blessed to be one of those few and now pray for the military who continue to put themselves in harm's way (past and present). Our ranger guide (Ranger Stephanie) was such a great representative for the fallen military and the circumstances that lead to the tragedy. She grew up in this area and shared her own experience and understanding in relation to the situation. I really think she did a great job of keeping us objective while explaining the facts. This was a terrible time in our history; however, we also need to look at the overall dynamics and try to be fair to all those involved. And of course it is always easier to look back and wonder why, but not so easy to live through the experience.
We then returned to John Muir and walked through the trees again. The children earned their junior ranger badges for the John Muir NHS (not one available for Port Chicago although there were trading cards associated with the civil rights issues). As we were leaving for our hotel, one of the park rangers asked if we were interested in a night program. The children were excited to stay as there would be marshmallows to roast. We did some geocaching in the area and had dinner before making our return.
It was such a great program! So glad we made the extra effort to stay! There were to pits set up with camp fires. The rangers led us in songs and told stories related to John Muir. It was a lot of fun and then we roasted the marshmallows. We could not thank the rangers enough for all the events of the day! Not only Ranger Stephanie but also Ranger Nate and Ranger Jim, made us feel like we were at a neighborhood party back home! Thank you so much!
We arrived at our hotel that night ready for sleep. A great feeling of accomplishment as we closed our eyes for the night!
The next day we had time to do a little more geocaching. This took us to a fun location in downtown San Francisco. We also found ourselves driving through Chinatown and Japantown.
We were able to return to our favorite church in San Francisco (Star of the Sea). Such a great experience once again. The priest remembered us from the last visit (Is this a good thing or a bad? Praying it is a good thing...he did have a smile on his face.). He asked if we would be coming every week. Michael said we would try to come once a month. Little Miss shared our saint dolls with him and he was very excited. He asked Michael if I had a blog about my saintly pegs. SO...now I have a new blog to share (
Saintly Pegs)! I look forward to sharing with him on our next visit.
We then made our way to the Fort Point NHS. I will be honest...I did not research this park very well. It was a pleasant surprise to see the line of defense for the bay from the 1800s. This fort was very interesting and full of many cannons and exhibits associated with the era it was in use.
We had a little more time before leaving the Bay area for home. We thought it would be easy to cross the Golden Gate Bridge to the Marin Headlands NP. However, we ended up in terrible traffic...10 miles ended up taking us an hour. We did not let this deter our plans and we persevered in our journey.
Again to our surprise we ended up at the defense for the bay during the 1900s! There was also a lighthouse at the end of the trails and we were happy to make our way to this location. We worked on our junior ranger booklets as we walked the trails. We were so glad to discover the wildlife of the area as well as learning about the difference 100 years can make in defense.
We spent a lot longer on this adventure then planned but had a great time in the process. We arrived home just in time to put the children to bed and follow right behind them.
We still had a day left in our weekend...yay for four day weekends...to rest before we started our first day of school! We spent it lazing around the house! Perfect for a day to remind us of our labors!
