Destination Mare Island, Vallejo
Tour Mare Island, explore the Mare Island Museum, and visit the Spirit Ship
This is part of a series of family-oriented day trip outings around the San Francisco Bay Area I look forward to enjoying with my kids once social distancing and shelter in place isn’t the norm any longer.
Photo by Laurel and Michael Evans on Unsplash
Social Isolation — Day 44
Today, I have done nothing.
I’ve felt so stressed, jumping from one activity to another throughout our shelter in place, that I really have had little downtime during our shelter in place. The weather is terrific, warm without being hot, slightly breezy. I’ve spent most of the day reading with my youngest, sometimes on our own, others I’ve been reading to her.
All these jokes about finishing Netflix, and spending time making a wardrobe of face masks, I haven’t had the time. And while it is good to be busy, today was rejuvenating. I’m looking forward to making more time to read.
Destination: Mare Island
Tour Mare Island
Explore The Mare Island Museum
Visit The Spirit Ship
I should start today’s adventure by saying I haven’t visited Mare Island, but it’s been on my to-visit list for ages.
Tour Mare Island
By Eugene Zelenko — Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16015333
This site has a long naval history. Mare Island was the first US Navy base on the west coast, founded in 1854, and the Spanish first docked here in 1775. Mare Island represents U.S. efforts to extend its naval power into the Pacific Ocean, and as the Panama Canal wouldn’t open until the summer of 1914, making a trip from the east coast to the west coast by ship a long voyage around the tip of South America. The first U.S. flagged warship was built here in 1859 and the first west coast drydock started construction in 1872.
During WWII Mare Island came into its prime turning out scores of submarines and new destroyer escorts, also repairing warships damaged in battle.
Mare Island Naval Shipyard was closed in 1996 and conveyed to the city of Vallejo in 2002 for redevelopment, which will probably happen at some point. I’m looking forward to seeing it before things transform here.
Explore The Mare Island Museum
By Eugene Zelenko — Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16015101
This seems to be a smaller museum with some interesting installations about the history of the island, and they have some options walking tours around the area to see more of the historic buildings around.
Visit The Spirit Ship
Stationed on the southern end of Mare Island overlooking San Pablo bay where it joins the Sacramento and Napa rivers, the Spirit Ship is a sculpture dedicated to the workers of Mare Island Naval Shipyard and marks the closing of the shipyard in 1996.
It seems like a peaceful walk along the shoreline you can enjoy the view and spend some time sitting on a bench watching the birds.
Cody Tolmasoff is an author and publisher for Adventuring.in. He is a recovering programmer and a San Francisco native, raising two daughters, and regularly finding new adventures around the SF Bay Area. This article is an excerpt from an upcoming book, 52 San Francisco Bay Area Weekend Adventures, Day Trips With Your Kids!
Find him on Twitter @codyo, and read his most recent title Adventures in Getting Out on Amazon, filled with advice on successfully getting your family out for day trip adventures.
Originally published on Medium on 26 April 2020