United States

Remembered Journey for an Arizona Christmas

At Christmas time many people travel to visit loved ones and friends. Some make the same Christmas journey every year. Others only travel occasionally. Today most people who travel any great distance do so by plane, but that hasn’t always been true. When I was a kid, flying was still somewhat of a novelty and certainly considered expensive. If we went anywhere, we traveled by car. At one time my mom’s parents moved to Glendale, Arizona outside of Phoenix to…

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Memphis and Nashville, Hot Spots of American Musical History

In 2013 we decided to spend my spring break in Tennessee. While we spent a few days in Chattanooga, I want to focus on the two music cities of Tennessee, Nashville and Memphis. Each has a real place in music history yet are quite unique and different. Which should you visit? Well let’s look at some of the differences, and you can decide for yourself. Nothing says country music like Nashville. However Nashville is not just about country music as…

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National Park Service: More Than Just Parks

When people consider where to travel within the United States, National Parks often rise to the top of the list. However, to limit one’s options to just the 62 designated National Parks is to miss out on many other opportunities across the United States. The National Park Service oversees 423 units or parks along with some 150 areas. In previous posts I have noted the National Historical Parks as well as the National Monuments which other government agencies sometimes oversee.…

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Through Anacortes and La Conner, the Long Way Home

After four days exploring Whidbey Island, it was time to go home. However, we didn’t want to just drive straight home. This was an opportunity to spend a little more time exploring some of the towns in this region. We would take the long way home. If you remember, we took the ferry coming over to Whidbey Island. For our return trip we would go around the north end to catch the freeway going south. People leave Whidbey Island when…

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Forts and Nature converge in North Whidbey Island

Friday turned out to be a beautiful day on Whidbey Island. It was a great day for hiking which is what we spent most of the day doing. After getting ready in the morning, we headed back down to Fort Ebey State Park. While yesterday we spent time there on the beach, today we would spend most of our time in the woods. Fort Ebey was built in 1942 to help protect the Puget Sound region. Its purpose was to…

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Exploring the Unique Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve

Last week I mentioned that the central part of Whidbey Island was part of Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve. This is truly a unique situation in terms of the National Park System. 85% of the land within this reserve is privately owned. Nevertheless the national, state, county, and city of Coupeville have worked together to make this a place where the historical, cultural and geographic uniqueness of the region is preserved. Visitors won’t necessarily know they are in a national…

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From a Park, a Garden, and a Farm to Coupeville

The weather forecast for Wednesday had predicted gloomy weather, but much to our surprise we woke up to mostly clear skies and a sunny outlook. After eating breakfast at our hotel, we were readyfor the day. We would travel back south, but be in more of the central part of the island ending up in Coupeville. Our first destination was South Whidbey State Park. While this park is on the water’s edge, the focus of the park is more hiking…

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