Feb 24, 2013 (Sunday)
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| John Muir National Historic Site |
After breakfast at the house, we headed to the John Muir
National Historic Site in Martinez. We opted to watch the twenty minute film
about John Muir prior to visiting the home on the site. For those who might not
know who John Muir was here is some basic information: he was born in Scotland
(1838) and migrated to Wisconsin as a child (1849), he created a lot of
inventions (1860), damages an eye in a factory accident (1867) and then decided
to immerse himself in nature (1868). Once heavily involved with nature he campaigns
for Yosemite to become a National Park and begins writing magazine articles.
Muir helped found Sierra Club (1892) and was elected as its first president. Muir
is probably America’s most famous naturalist and conservationist - basically he
is the Father of the National Park Service. His writing convinced the U.S.
government to protect places that he held dear to his heart.
The John Muir site is free to visit. The home is quite large
and is well furnished with period pieces. The only absolutely original item in
the home is his desk. A guide is available inside the home to answer any
questions that you might have. There are trails on the property that are available
to walk. Also, on this site is an Adobe, which is part of the Anza Trail. The Anza Trail runs from Mexico to the San
Francisco area.
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| Red Oak Victory Shit at Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front |
After lunch with family, we headed to the Rosie the
Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park. This NPS site has not
been open for very long and there are many parts of the park site are not yet
open to the public. The visitor center
has nice displays and a few different videos available for viewing. We watched
two videos that were both 15 minutes long.
The visitor center has a self-guided auto tour pamphlet that tells where
all the different sites are. We were not very impressed with the actual memorial;
it was just a bunch of metal with some photos attached to it. The ship yard and
the SS Red Oak Victory ship are quite impressive. The ship was closed by the
time we reached the site, so we will have to return to check the inside out.
Hopefully, other parts of the site will be opened by then too! The park ranger at this site told me about a
really cool program that the NPS is a part of – NPS Trading Cards! The program
is geared towards children to interact with park staff. It is said that the
trading card program is more successful that the Junior Ranger programs. Adults
also like to participate in the program. Currently there are 87 parks
participating in the program. You earn the trading cards by completing
activities – like watching a video or reading a display.
We
headed back to Napa for dinner at The Thomas.
The Thomas has only been open for a few months, and Mike’s brother just
happens to work there. We tried a ton of
appetizers and desserts, and of course we had a main course as well. My favorite appetizer was probably the duck
on flatbread; the
grilled chorizo was pretty good also. I had the Thomas burger and fries as my
main course, the burger was good but the fries were not as impressive as the
ones I had while in NYC. My favorite dessert was the warm monkey bread.
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