Vacations Blog

Summer plans to visit my mother in-law allowed us our first ever visit to the lovely southern state of Tennessee.

Never having been to Tennessee I was sort of excited about the idea of visiting a new state. The boy did his 5^th grade state report on Tennessee so we got to read a lot about the Civil War, the Chickasaw, and Choctaw Indian tribes, the Predators, the Grizzlies and the Titans (the boy was sorely disappointed to learn that Tennessee does not have a pro baseball team), Elvis Presley, Davy Crockett and Billy Ray Cyrus. But nowhere in our research did we come across anything about …The Lost Sea.

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Jerome Arizona, pic by Open Sky Media

Jerome, Arizona, also known as “America’s Most Vertical City” and “Largest Ghost Town in America”, was founded in 1876. The town sits at an elevation of 5,200 feet, at the top of Cleopatra Peak. It rests above the largest copper mine in Arizona, which at its peak produced over three million pounds of copper per month. The mine closed in 1953, and most of the population (15,000 at its highest) left the area. However, about a hundred inhabitants remained, determined to see a renaissance of their beloved town’s popularity. Interest in this “ghost town” gradually grew – in 1967 Jerome was designated a National Historic District by the federal government. Today and it now supports a thriving artist and tourist destination, and is home to about 450 permanent residents.
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The scoreboard at Wrigley Field

Personally, I’m not an avid baseball fan. I like the game pretty well, but not well enough to follow any particular team, even my local Diamondbacks (though I sure was proud when they won the World Series several years back). I like going to the games and watching them live – I like to crowd-watch and nosh on ballpark hot dogs and eight dollar cups of beer. Watching games on TV is just, well, kind of boring to me. The beer’s cheaper, though.

I wrote in my last blog post that I recently visited my friend Heather in Northwestern Indiana. Now, Heather is verging on OBSESSED, she’s such a Cubs fan. She watches any game she doesn’t go to on TV, while simultaneously listening to the game on the radio to get every angle. She goes to as many of their games as she can; even – GASP – driving all the way to Milwaukee to watch the Brewers at home against the visiting Cubs. She risked life and limb on that little jaunt – there’s quite a rivalry going on between the teams. I don’t pretend to understand all the why’s and wherefore’s and history behind said rivalry. There’s something about a curse and a goat and… I got lost after that.

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How can you not love St. Vincent & the Grenadines?  I have all of their albums.

Fort Charlotte is an old military structure on the beautiful island of St. Vincent.  Also, beaches.

Photo courtesy of Fanny Honea

Charleston, South Carolina

Although I live in Florida now, I was born and raised in the Midwest.  I never considered myself a “northerner” or a “yankee” or anything referencing Civil War history.

Until I spent a weekend in Charleston, South Carolina.

First let me say that Charleston is a beautiful place to visit.  I have a soft spot in my heart for old, beautiful architecture and Charleston is teeming with amazing buildings that date back to the earliest days of our country.

And the people of Charlestons are gentile and polite and oozing Southern Hospitality.  Even if they do make you eat southern food that you later regret.

But they are also Southerners.  And I was reminded of that fact over and over again during my weekend in Charleston.

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American Flag over the observation deck of the ESB

This photo was taken on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, a must see destination on any vacation to New York City.

Geothermal paradise of Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone is the crown jewel of our National Park System.  It was the first of its kind, and remains the most unique and diverse wilderness experience that you will find in this country.

It’s also an extremely cool place for kids.

But with almost 3500 square miles of lakes, geysers, canyons, and hot springs, there’s too much to see in one short stay.  So, after three visits to Yellowstone, and consultation with my own children, I have compiled the following list of park sights and activities that will make your family trip an especially memorable one.

Ten Cool Things For Kids (and Grown-Ups) in Yellowstone National Park

1.  Dragon’s Mouth Spring

Dragon's Mouth Spring

How can you resist telling your kids that a dragon lives in a cave near a mud volcano?  It doesn’t take much imagination to think that this cavern, with its growls and thumps, and spitting steam, might just hold a real dragon.

2.  Fishing Cone

Fishing Cone Geyser at Yellowstone Lake

It’s probably just a tall tale, but the story goes that the early trappers and explorers would catch fish in Yellowstone Lake, swing them directly into the Fishing Cone geyser just off shore, and have a meal of boiled fish in just minutes.  “Hook and cook,” they called it.  Like the dragon cave, another cool sight that will fire up the imagination.

3.  Old Faithful Inn

Old Faithful Inn

What kid won’t love the largest log hotel in the world?  Just walk inside the 100-year-old Inn’s lobby, with its four stories of lodgepole pine balconies and 500-ton stone fireplace, and your kids might just want to sit for awhile.  Preferably in one of the many handmade wood rocking chairs.  Better yet, stay in one of the Inn’s rooms.  Prices are reasonable, and the food in the dining room is first-class.

4.  Fountain Paint Pots

Fountain Paint Pots

This is what I remember best from my own childhood memories of Yellowstone.  The short half-mile trail is the perfect primer for the various thermal features you’ll see throughout the park.  It’s a little bit of everything, with numerous geysers, bubbling mud pots, hot springs, and steaming fumaroles.  With all that activity in a small space, it’s kind of watching a three-ring circus.

Buffalo Warning

5.  Dangerous Animals

Your kids might not be impressed by the thousands of bison that roam all over the park until they see the signs warning that these animals weigh up to 2000 pounds, run over 30mph, and think nothing of skewering a camera-toting tourist on the end of its horns.  They can be extremely dangerous.  Same goes for the grizzly bears, wolves, moose, elk, and badgers.  But worry mostly about the bison (sometimes called buffalo), because they will be all around you.

6.  Junior Ranger Program

The Junior Ranger program at Yellowstone is one of the coolest of all the National Parks.  It gets the kids involved in all sorts of activities involving wildlife, ecology, geology, hiking, and education.  If they complete the program, kids get an official Junior Ranger patch.  Best of all, they learn something while having fun.

7.  Stagecoach Rides

From Roosevelt Lodge in the northern part of Yellowstone, you can take a trip to the past with a rattling, bumpy ride on an old west stagecoach, just as visitors did back at the turn of the century.  The ride lasts an hour and is quite reasonably priced at $8 for kids, $10 for adults.  A nice way to soak up the scenery.

8.  Upper Geyser Basin

Geyser watching

You want geysers?  This is where you’ll have your fill of them, as the basin contains over 150 geysers.  That’s the highest concentration of geysers in the world.  Walking through this alien landscape makes you feel like the Earth’s crust could burst open in a cataclysmic hydrothermal explosion at any moment, totally ruining your dinner reservations at the nearby Old Faithful Inn Dining Room later that night.  But seriously, this is the best place for you and your kids to see geysers going off right and left.  Many of them, such as Castle Geyser, Grand Geyser, and Riverside Geyser are highly predictable, so you can figure when and where you need to be for the show.

9.  Grand Prismatic Spring

Grand Prismatic Spring

Not everything in Yellowstone bubbles, growls, and erupts.  Grand Prismatic Spring is simply a gigantic pool of steaming water.  In fact, it’s the largest hot springs in the United States.  You have to see it for the beautiful colors, from deep blue to orange to green to red, produced by different species of bacteria living in the water.  It makes for an interesting biology lesson for everyone.

10.  Old Faithful

Old Faithful Geyser

You know this would be on the list.  How could it not be?  It’s the most popular feature in Yellowstone, and is the park’s defining symbol.  The area around Old Faithful is crowded, commercial, and noisy, but it’s still very cool.  The geyser usually erupts on a predictable schedule, roughly every 90 minutes.  Up to 8,000 gallons of scalding hot water shoots upwards of 185 feet while busloads of tourists “ooh” and “ahh.”  On our last visit to the park, my kids and I made a game of running to watch Old Faithful go off.  Staying in the nearby Inn made that easy for us, and we ended up viewing eight eruptions during our weekend at Yellowstone.

Photos courtesy of the National Park Service

I lived in Maine for the first nineteen years of my life, and it’s the place that I still call “home”. The deserts of Arizona are lovely, to be sure, but Maine is where my heart is. During my annual or bi-annual trips back east, I never fail to stop at my favorite place on the entire planet, the Portland Head Light.

As you can see, the place is so darned picturesque that even rank amateur photographers (read: me) can take postcard-perfect pictures.

The Head Light is located in the town of Cape Elizabeth, a mere bridge-crossing from Portland’s Old Port Waterfront District. Entrance to the complex, which includes Fort Williams Park, is free, and admission to the park’s museum (open from Memorial Day to Labor Day) is $2.00 for adults and $1.00 for children. The complex and park itself are open year-round.

Bring a picnic lunch (I suggest a local favorite, an Italian sandwich from one of the nearby Amato’s), and spend a lovely afternoon exploring Fort Williams, the green park grounds, the rocky shoreline, and the tidal pools.

I long for home, but for now I’m just going to have to content myself with pictures. Oh, and word to the wise, watch out for these guys – they’re bold and they’ll steal your lunch right out of your hands!