Three Cheers for our National Parks

It must be summer. I say that because we are finally in the 90's for an extended time and we will be close to triple digits this weekend. Hope you're enjoying this, Ry. Summer is finally here!

And that makes me think of vacations. Of course, the fact that some of my favorite people are in Hawaii right now (and I'm not!) also makes me think of vacations. Many of my favorite vacations have been at National Parks.

By current count I think there are 58 officially sanctioned National Parks in the United States of America. Also, by current count, I have been lucky enough to visit 24 of them. I have even visited 12 of them a number of times. I've been to Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Yosemite at least 8 or 9 times each in my obviously ancient lifetime. I've been to the Grand Canyon, Sequoia, Bryce Canyon and Zion 5 or 6 times each. I'm not sure if that makes them my favorites or just that they were places my family wanted to go to often while I was growing up. And I'm not tired of them yet.

Double checking the list, I find that Carla and I have visited 12 national parks together in our nearly 17 years of marriage. And, we have been to 3 of Canada's National Parks 4 times each in our married life. We have been very blessed! We've really used those frequent flyer miles, haven't we!

We've camped at Bryce Canyon a couple of times and at the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We swam and snorkeled in Virgin Islands National Park. We have stood on ice several hundred feet thick on a glacier in Canada. Twice. We've seen deer, elk, moose, caribou, bison, wolf, coyote, fox, mountain goat, mountain sheep, Dall sheep, squirrel, chipmonk, and rabbit, as well as eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, geese, ducks and a variety of other birds and small game. We have fed wild bears (supervised) and held a sting ray. And we've been very close to 3 different kinds of whales. What an adventure we've had!

And my love for the outdoors has hardly diminished. One of my lifetime goals is to visit all 58 National Parks and several more of Canada's, as long as I can go with my sweetie. I may have to live to be 100 to do it but I'm gonna give it my best. I'll probably also have to be a millionaire to afford the gas. So, I may have to see most of it by motorcycle. Anybody want to come along?