For many years we have looked forward to our annual road trip when we go off to explore National Parks and other sites. There are so many things close to home that we have not visited. I want to change that.

Two weeks ago we met up with my son and DIL at Rosie/World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond. This huge building is the Ford Assembly Plant , which switched to assembling combat vehicles during the war. Now other businesses use the building.

The Visitor Center is a smaller building where there are exhibits and you can watch a few films about the war years.

There is so much information shared in the signs around the visitor center that I had a hard time taking it all in.

I had never thought about the impact the war had on bringing women into the workforce and creating services that we all expect now, including healthcare plans and child day care centers. The whole exhibit was very enlightening.

I couldn’t pass up a sign about wool.

This is a small museum, but there are some life-size statues that are very well done.

You have to drive to get to some of the other sites that are considered part of this National Park.

The Red Oak Victory is moored at Shipyard #3. It is open Sundays for tours and I’d like to go back.

Next to it is a crane known as the Whirly Crane as it could rotate 360 degrees. I found this info online:

The use of Whirley Cranes was a major innovation in the mass production of ships. The cranes made it possible to turn huge ship structural pieces around and over during the pre-assembly process so that novice welders could complete relatively simple welding seams parallel to the ground. The cranes were also used in groups – as many as four cranes working together -- to move large pre-assembled parts of a ship into place in the basins so the ship could be fitted together, generally by welding. The result was a previously unimagined rate of production. A total of 747 ships were produced in the Kaiser shipyards in Richmond from 1942-1945.

I noticed what looked like a nest on the crane. There was someone leaving the fenced off area around the ship and I asked if he worked there. He said he was checking the nest-cam. This is an osprey nest and there are two cameras maintained (I think) by people from the Audubon Society. This link has the camera links and more info. There is a pair named Richmond and Rosie and Rosie is expected back to the nest in early March.

I want to return to this National Historic Park and visit some of the other sites that are marked on the maps.