National Park Travelers Club

During sabbatical last year, I discovered the Passport To Your National Parks program which is administered by Eastern National.

Each Unit of the National Park Service has one or more cancellation stations that look something like this:

While researching online about these stamps, I discovered the National Park Travelers Club, a club that revels in the NPS units of our nation. There were recently featured in this USA Today article. I soon joined this club and have enjoyed the interaction with others who enjoy the parks as much as I do.

We have now visited 47 out of the 394 units (soon to be 395 with the addition of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial later this month). This club also offers awards based on your traveling and stamp collecting over the year. For 2010, we achieved the Silver Master Travelers Award level.

Last month, we visited Lewis and Clark National Historical Park on the Oregon and Washington coast and found a stamp that was "Most Wanted" by the club:

I really enjoy the hobby and we get to see a lot of the cool vistas and historical locations of our country. Karren doesn't care for my obsession collecting the stamps, but she does enjoy visiting the parks. I hope my children grow up loving the Natural Wonders and Historical Treasures of our country, and visits to these parks will help cultivate this pride in our nation.

Hello

Hello friends!

Can you guess what gender I am?

HERE

IS

A

CLUE:

Cecile

A French exchange student, Cecile, arrived at our house on Wednesday.  She will be staying with us until the end of August.  Here birthday was yesterday and we celebrated at Benihana.

While mom is away ....

Last weekend, Karren went to California to visit her friend and see her one year old twin boys get baptized. This left a weekend of me spending time with Sonya. So, what did I decide to do? Go to a National Park, of course. This time, we returned to the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park on the Oregon and Washington coasts.

We visited Fort Clatsop, Fort Columbia State Park, and Cape Disappointment State Park.  Here, Sonya is playing around at Fort Clatsop ....

...... and introducing herself to Sacagawea. 

Sonya also earned her Presidential Level of Junior Ranger.  This park gives out a patch with the award which is much cooler than just one of the plastic gold shields.

We had a lot of fun, but we still would have preferred mom to be home with us.

Quote of the Weekend, "Dad, I need to eat a lot of food so I can be fat like you."  Nice!