We Might Not Be Back: Muir Woods & Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park

The next day we rented another car because our check out time was about 12 hours before our flight out that evening. We set off for Muir Woods, which as with every park we’d been to was packed. We got our 6th junior ranger book. This one was the most challenging and definitely not age appropriate for either of our kids. Nonetheless we finished! The girls were a little tired and not adequately appreciating the beauty of the redwoods so we threw in the towel and headed to Richmond, which is north of Oakland, to the Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park. This was our last badge of the trip and possibly my favorite place. We once again by chance arrived someplace at just the right time. At Yellowstone we’d been told there was a ranger here who’d actually been a rosie. The woman he was referring to was about to give a talk. I wish I’d been one of those annoying people who asks for pictures because I hope to remind the girls of this when they are older. This woman was living history and EVERYONE should hear her speak. She is almost 93 years old. She did in fact work in Richmond during WWII at a segregated facility. Her great grandmother had been a slave. Hearing her perspective was so amazing. I can’t really put into words how powerful it was to listen to this woman. After this we ate our last meal in the Bay Area. Then we about had a panic attack when we were stuck for close to a half hour in traffic just to get on the bridge back to San Francisco. Luckily even with traffic we made our flight and our crazy trip came to an end.