Category: travel

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Happy 101st birthday to the National Park Service!

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It’s possible Don and I are National Park Service (NPS) junkies.  We’ve spent a lot of time visiting national parks.

I used to think it was Don’s endearing Clark Griswold-ish dad qualities that landed us summer after summer in a national park.  For example … after Scott’s college graduation in 2015, do you know what we did?  A 4,320 mile road trip to visit six national parks.  Not kidding.  With a teenager and a Millennial in the car.  I still remember the kids and me trying to persuade Don before leaving that maybe you’ve planned too much this time, dear.  But Don persisted, and we did it, and we loved it. Since then I’ve taken several trips on my own (you can draw your own conclusions on that), and now I’ve grown to realize it’s not just Don who loves the parks. We both do.

So let’s take a look at a sampling of park offerings.

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These photographs were taken in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee.  The Smokies are the most visited national park. Last fall wildfires swept through and claimed 14 lives and more than 26 square miles. The good news?  The sites you see above were not affected and the park is still thriving. This is a great place to take your family.

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These photographs were taken at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.  The NPS website describes White Sands as “like no place on earth.” I went with a photography group.  The temperatures can be extreme and it’s easy to get lost.  You can take your family, but if you’re going for photography, expect to hike pretty far in. People and animals leave footprints and trails everywhere.

If I had more time and/or a quicker system to retrieve archived photographs, I’d show you Arlington Cemetery or Ellis Island or the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial to make the point that the NPS not only oversees parks with great natural beauty, but also man-made sites that honor and preserve America’s cultural heritage.  You want to experience something so moving you’ll never forget?  Visit Arlington Cemetery on a day when a horse-drawn carriage brings in a fallen soldier to rest.  Oh the power of quiet, respect, dignity, and grace …

Well, with the NPS celebrating its 101st birthday this week, it’s a good time to review some quick fun facts:

  • Did you know there’s a national park in every state?
  • and if you’re aged 62 or over, the cost of the lifetime senior pass increases from $10 to $80 tomorrow?
  • and 4th graders receive free admittance?
  • and so do current members of the military and their dependents?

So many opportunities!

I hope you can visit one of the parks this year.  I’ll be the first to admit that food and lodging can sometimes be challenging, but it’s only a temporary challenge.  The memories you come home with will last a lifetime.

For more information, please visit https://www.nps.gov.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“Move over, Boulder”

 

… because Greenville, South Carolina is now the top affordable city for nature enthusiasts.  So says Realtor.com Tuesday in an article titled “Move Over, Boulder: 10 Cities Where Outdoor Lovers Can Actually Afford to Live.”

The article notes Falls Park in downtown Greenville and the Swamp Rabbit Trail as Greenville’s “treasures,” and then mentions the Nantahala National Forest and the “oft overlooked” Congaree National Park within a one or two hour drive.  I’m not sure why it didn’t also highlight the Smoky Mountains, but Greenville is certainly replete with options for hikers, bikers, kayakers, paddle boarders, equestrians and fishermen.  We know because our daughter goes to college there.

So, this past weekend when Don and I were down that way for a visit, we stopped in Dupont Forest, just 45 minutes north of Greenville.  It’s where the first Hunger Games movie was filmed.  You can take a Hunger Games tour complete with archery instruction, or just do as we did, hike the trails and enjoy the scenery.  There are six waterfalls, two lakes, and an iconic covered bridge.  We only scratched the surface, but from what we saw, it’s beautiful.

 

So next time you’re looking for outdoor adventure or beautiful scenery, consider Greenville, South Carolina. And as you leave, be sure to stop by a grocery for snacks and fill up your tank with gas. Why? Because there’s no food tax, gas is cheap, and there’s a good chance you’ll want to take … the scenic way home.

Happy travels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Visual Playground aka Chicago

Chicago.

Most people know it as the Windy City. Sports fans walk around the streets in Cubs uniforms still relishing last year’s World Series win. Many in Nashville know Chicago as the closest city to see Hamilton. Politicians and the media seem only to talk about its high crime rate or financial troubles. But for just a few hours on Thursday afternoon, I saw it only as one big and vast visual playground.

Just after lunch my sister (Jody) and I boarded a two hour architectural boat tour. It was very hot — so hot that I remember wishing at the beginning of the tour that the boat could spend more time under the shaded bridges and less time in the bright sunlight. But by 3 pm we were both saying — “wow, that was the best boat tour we’ve ever been on” and “the architecture here really is just amazing.”

We had made dinner plans for 6:30 with a friend from my OGC days in Atlanta, so after a little scurrying around in our hotel room and bits of conversation of what we could squeeze in next, Jody decided she would attend one of the intro sessions of a conference she was attending and I decided to do a quick trip to Millennium Park and the new adjoining Maggie Daley Park.  I had never been to Maggie Daley Park and they certainly weren’t ice skating in July, but there was still quite a lot of eye candy to take in.

Frank Lloyd Wright is credited with saying, “Eventually, I think Chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the world.”

I really can’t agree or disagree with Frank Lloyd Wright’s sentiment, but I do think, based on my whirlwind exploration of Maggie Daley Park on Thursday, someone is trying very hard to preserve Chicago’s heritage of beautiful architecture and endless discovery, and I am thankful for that.

Architecture is art, it inspires, and it beckons us to explore, discover and to look up.

aMaggieDaley

Go Cubs.