Plans for healthy growth
*Oops for letting this sit in the "drafts" folder for a few weeks*
Last fall, I took my oldest daughter camping in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. We hiked and camped and had an outstanding time, and she remarked that we should do that trip every year. At the time, I totally agreed. Recently, however, two things have changed my mind. First, I've reflected on the fact that she is now 11, and I don't have too many years left before she'd rather be hanging out at the mall with her friends, so I need to keep her interested. More importantly, I happened to started watching the PBS series, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" (Victoria gets the credit for bringing it to my attention Monday night. I would have missed it without the 4 hour time difference, too). After 6 hours so far, with no commercials, I am enraptured. Ken Burns has truly outdone himself with this series.
More importantly, I'm convinced that I need to take my kids to as many different national parks as I can within practical limits (I think there are 58 now). I did a heck of a lot of camping as a kid, and we always tried to go different places. It was awesome. Deep-down I know that I could take my kids camping anywhere and we'd have fun, but if I have to travel 4000 miles to take the oldest out, we might as well go for the best diversity and scenery the country has to offer. I have some awesome friends in D.C. that want me to come out there, but that's a tough sell when I put it up against, say, backpacking in Yellowstone. *sigh* I have some tough choices to make. Fortunately: a. My daughter is old enough to give me a real opinion of where she'd like to go; b. Any decision we make will be a great experience for her.
Last fall, I took my oldest daughter camping in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. We hiked and camped and had an outstanding time, and she remarked that we should do that trip every year. At the time, I totally agreed. Recently, however, two things have changed my mind. First, I've reflected on the fact that she is now 11, and I don't have too many years left before she'd rather be hanging out at the mall with her friends, so I need to keep her interested. More importantly, I happened to started watching the PBS series, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" (Victoria gets the credit for bringing it to my attention Monday night. I would have missed it without the 4 hour time difference, too). After 6 hours so far, with no commercials, I am enraptured. Ken Burns has truly outdone himself with this series.
More importantly, I'm convinced that I need to take my kids to as many different national parks as I can within practical limits (I think there are 58 now). I did a heck of a lot of camping as a kid, and we always tried to go different places. It was awesome. Deep-down I know that I could take my kids camping anywhere and we'd have fun, but if I have to travel 4000 miles to take the oldest out, we might as well go for the best diversity and scenery the country has to offer. I have some awesome friends in D.C. that want me to come out there, but that's a tough sell when I put it up against, say, backpacking in Yellowstone. *sigh* I have some tough choices to make. Fortunately: a. My daughter is old enough to give me a real opinion of where she'd like to go; b. Any decision we make will be a great experience for her.
posted by RebTurtle at
12:05 AM
4 Comments:
My former boss got his daughter hooked on visiting every National Park in the nation. Every holiday or vacation time, they'd go to a different park. He then bought a huge map of the US, and placed every "Young Ranger" patch that his daughter got at each of the parks. I think it's some type of program. Let me know if you want me to ask him for more information.
If you're heading to DC, let me know, I can show you around some of the parks in our vicinity.
By
Adoptive Parents of Three, At
October 30, 2009 at 4:32 AM
Sounds cool. I've been meaning to get her a big map for a long time. The kind you can "color in" the states you've been to. Now that she's older, maybe I should be thinking of something more detailed like that and use pins or stickers or something to mark locations instead of just areas.
By
RebTurtle, At
October 31, 2009 at 11:16 PM
So go down to the USS Arizona and pick up one of the volunteers in Parks maps (it has all the locations of the National Parks across the US). Get the cutie a marker to check off the ones she's been to.... Oh yeah and it's the Jr. Ranger program- I once did that with the YCC crew ;-) There are even Park Ranger dolls you can order (http://www.eparks.com/store/product/68897/Park-Ranger-Doll/). Have fun with the cutie wherever you end up :-)
By
Victoria S, At
November 16, 2009 at 7:01 PM
Loved Yellowstone. And Yosemite is just around the corner so it's possible you two could make a pit stop in Reno on your way... ahem.
Actually, I really want to see more of the parks too. I should get on that.
By
Ginamonster, At
December 7, 2009 at 7:55 PM
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