Take It Easy

The penultimate day of our drive back home to California put us back into familiar territory, for the most part. We've driven this stretch of I-40 before, except for the section between Grants, NM and Sanders, AZ, when we took a slight detour to visit El Malpais National Monument and El Morro National Monument in 2016.

385 miles, 6.5 hours

Trail of Tears

Three units in the southeastern part of Colorado were on today's itinerary. In prototypical Saiki-delic fashion, we gobbled down a quick breakfast in the hotel and were on the road by 7:15AM. We arrived in Eads, CO around 9:00AM, just as the ranger was raising the flag and opening up the Visitor and Education Center for Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.

360 miles, 6 hours

Stuck in the Middle with You

When we road trip, we are usually sleeping in a different place each night. Throw in exhaustion from the previous day's activities on top of disorientation from only being semi-conscious, and it's almost guaranteed that I will narrowly miss bashing my face into a wall as I try to find my way to the bathroom in the dark without my glasses. Today I woke up in the middle of the night especially confused, thinking that we were home because the winds were howling outside just like the Santa Anas in Southern California. 

And they were still gusting at about 30 mph(!) this morning at Fort Larned National Historic Site when we arrived around 8:30AM. After getting our obligatory pic of the entrance sign, we drove in to the parking lot and walked about a quarter-mile to the visitor center. 

Hang on!

Animal Kingdom

The last time I attended this scientific conference in person was four years ago in Atlanta. Due to the pandemic, the next three were virtual. However, this year we are back to "normal" along with thousands of other attendees in Orlando. 

My colleagues and I flew in yesterday, but instead of going with them to check into our hotel next to the convention center, I rented a car and headed about 45 minutes east to Titusville. I was a little nervous about driving and staying overnight solo, but when chasing national park units, you gotta do what you gotta do...

Memories Deceive Me

I used to scrapbook, as the cabinet full of supplies and tools still in my house would attest. Maybe one day I'll go back to it and catch up on the projects I've been meaning to complete. But at least I can stay reasonably up-to-date on this blog. Even if no one outside of our family ever reads it, I'll keep posting entries because I enjoy writing about our travels. It's important to me to have a record of what we saw and what we did because I'm sure that I won't remember the details as clearly later on. 

Case in point: Our first stop today was Deception Pass. R asked if we had come here during our trip to Washington in 1996 because it seemed familiar. 

I said, "Nope."

Bzzzzzt! Wrong answer. 🤦🏻‍♀️

May 1996

Hawaiʻi Five-0

Our last day on Oʻahu.

To check out of the condo, we just entered a code in the keyless entry to let them know that we were leaving - totally contactless! We would definitely stay here again!

Then we drove over to Diamond Head Market and picked up some goodies from the bakery.  Clockwise from the top left:  Diamond Head torte (peanut butter cheesecake, chocolate pudding, bananas, Oreo crust), chocolate ganache cake, blueberry cheesecake scone, and lemon crunch cake. Although we are all about the food, dessert for breakfast is a little much, even for us. So they all went straight into a cooler bag for later enjoyment.

Kohala Coast

In planning our trip to Hawaii, our friends recommended that we download the Shaka Guide app for the Big Island. It is an audio tour guide that uses your phone's GPS to automatically play the segment that corresponds to where you are, complete with turn-by-turn directions, suggestions for places to stop, and even music for traveling in between points of interest. There were five tours covering different parts of the island, so we bought the whole bundle for $9.99. 

Our destination this morning was Pololū Valley on the northern tip of the island. The drive along Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway was gorgeous! The Kohala Coast tour audio kicked in once we passed by the resorts at Waikoloa. The tour narration was really interesting, and the app worked well (offline, so no cellular data needed) - totally worth the price paid!

City of Refuge

After our paddling (mis)adventure, it took awhile for my seasickness to subside. So as I waited to get my land legs back, the guys loaded our stuff into the car. Then we left Nāpōʻopoʻo and continued south to Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau NHP.

☑ Park #153 for me, #151 for R, and #148 for the boys

Aloha!

Planning a family vacation seems to get a little trickier every year, mainly due to us all having increasingly crazy schedules. Last summer M was on his cross-country DCI tour, missing out on a family reunion. This year our spring break road trip was shorter than usual because I had to attend a scientific conference in Atlanta. And as for this summer, M took a physics lab at UCLA, which ran from June 24 - July 31, and J will check in for his senior year of high school on August 13. That left us with...

What Time Is It?

Staying up late to hang out with our friends probably wasn't the smartest move for R and me, considering that the plan was to be on the road by 7:30AM PDT this morning. Why so early? Because that's how we roll every day, vacation or not!

Melting Points

By the numbers...

• 3057 miles
• 8 states
• 15 new NPS units
• 38 NPS passport stamps
• 19 NPS Centennial stamps
• 2 state capitals
• 6 smushed pennies
• 4 cans of spray paint

Land of Fire

Another recently designated unit was our first stop this morning. Valles Caldera National Preserve was added to the National Park Service in October 2015. Because most activities are in the backcountry (hiking, biking, horseback riding, etc.) and only 35 vehicle permits are available each day in the summer, I hadn't planned on spending much time here.

 

Pueblos and Project Y

Today's route: 140 miles

We didn't have to drive very far today, but it was probably the least efficient route that we will take this entire trip. It kills me to backtrack, but we didn't have enough time to visit Pecos National Historical Park on our way up to Santa Fe yesterday.

Flint and Spray Paint

This morning we were up early again and on the road to our first destination, Lake Meredith National Recreation Area. The park offers ranger-guided kayak tours on Monday mornings, so M was disappointed that we were visiting there a day too late. (He really enjoyed the one we did in Whiskeytown NRA in 2014.)

I had made reservations for a 10:00AM ranger-led tour at nearby Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, so the extent of our visit to Lake Meredith consisted of stopping by the visitor center (for my passport stamps) and then heading over to see the lake. From the boat launch, it was very apparent how much the water level has dropped.

Sooners or Later

Today's route: 415 miles

We hit the road early this morning because we had a 180-mile drive to Oklahoma City and even more ground to cover after that. Our first stop was the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, and it was well-worth the time and cost of admission ($15/adult). The museum does an excellent job presenting the story of the Oklahoma City bombing, the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history.

Arkansas Travelers

We left George Washington Carver NM around 10:30AM, and headed south down I-49 to Arkansas and our next stop, Pea Ridge National Military Park. We grabbed lunch on our way through town and headed straight out to the park.

Pea Ridge was the "battle that saved Missouri for the Union." Fought on March 7-8, 1862, it involved some of the same commanding officers who had faced off at Wilson's Creek, such as Maj. Gen. Sterling Price (pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard), Confederate Brig. Gen. Ben McCulloch, and the Union second-in-command Brig. Gen. Franz Sigel. 

On a Mission

When I was mapping out our itinerary for this trip, the schedule for today was flexible. We could either:

• Visit the remnants of two frontier-era Army outposts, Fort Selden and Fort Craig, as well as a site along the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail, the Royal Road of the Interior Lands, which stretched from Santa Fe, NM down to Mexico City. 

Or...

• Visit one more NPS unit, Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

Because my family humors me (and they have my completist tendencies, too!), we chose the latter.

Rooms with a View

It was a bit chilly this morning when we headed up into the mountains on NM-90 towards Silver City. We crossed over the Continental Divide (twice) on our way to Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. 

OCD Madness

Throughout 2016, the National Park Service is celebrating is 100th year. In honor of this milestone anniversary, Eastern National has issued a commemorative centennial stamp to nearly all of the 410 units in the NPS. Our current tally of units visited as a family is 115. So while we didn't check off any new units today, it was a successful day of stamp collecting for me!

Mounds and Memorials

Boys: What are we doing today?

Me: First stop is a few minutes away, just on the other side of the Mississippi River... Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. It's a World Heritage Site, too!

Boys: Mounds?! *groan* 

Such negativity! I assured them that this place was much more interesting than our first encounter with mound builders at Effigy Mounds National Monument in 2011 (read that blog post here). That episode is not-so-fondly remembered as our worst national park visit EVER. We hiked uphill in hot, humid weather and battled blood-sucking mosquitoes to see grass-covered bumps which didn't look like much of anything from ground level.  

OK, so maybe their groaning this morning was justified...