As 2022 comes to a close, I am so very grateful for many things! I really appreciate your support for my writing and book and also really appreciate you following this blog. Thank you!
Happy New Year! Cheers to finding your magic in 2023!
On this day 58 years ago, Congress established the Wilderness Act in 1964. Congress wanted to protect undeveloped and wild areas as an enduring resource for the American people. Today, this act protects nearly 112 million acres of wilderness preserving more than 800 wilderness areas in 44 states.
Many benefits exist today from this land conservation including providing habitats for wildlife; clean air; clean drinking water; boosting local economies with tourism and recreation; and providing some really amazing places to escape and appreciate this great land here!
Fun fact: The smallest wilderness area in the National Wilderness Preservation System is the five and half acres Pelican Island Wilderness in Florida.
Enjoy this anniversary and get out in the wilderness today!
Guess who’s turning 106 years old! The National Park Service!
President Woodrow Wilson created the national park service (NPS) back on August 25, 1916.
The act stated that the NPS “is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
Pick a park to visit and celebrate this important birthday of these amazing treasures!
Happy 106th!
Happy 1 year to Turtle Tube: An Erutuf National Park Novel! 🎈🐢📚
It’s been a wonderful year from seeing the printed book in person for the first time to reading sweet reviews to meeting new fans to visiting my book in an actual bookstore and receiving an award! I’m really looking forward to year 2 and also book 2 coming out!
For those of you on Instagram, I am hosting a giveaway to celebrate the one year of publication by giving away 6 signed copies of my book. Head over to my Instagram account to check it out and enter the giveaway which ends on 8/25. Good luck! 🍀
If you haven’t had a chance to review my book, please take a few minutes and just write a sentence or two online for it. Each review makes a huge difference in the algorithms online!
Thank you all for your support!!! 🐢📚❤️
Happy 106th to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park!
On August 1, 1916 the United States Congress adopted a bill to establish a National Park in the Territory of Hawaii. According to the National Park Service, the newly formed Hawaii National Park included the following land areas on Hawaii Island: 1) the Kīlauea Section (35,865 acres); 2) the Mauna Loa Section (17,920 acres); and 3) a strip of land to connect the two aforementioned sections. This Hawaii National Park also included Haleakalā on Maui which became a National Park on August 21, 1961.
In early June this summer, we spent a week on the Big Island, Hawaii, and got to visit the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
It was so cool to see Kilauea! In 2018, the summit of Kilauea collapsed making the caldera sink. Today, you look (from afar) to see the activity in the crater. Here’s a chart from NPS showing the 2018 caldera collapse.
Check out a few photos from our day at this national park. Volcanoes continue to fascinate me!
During the day, you only see smoke coming up.
At night, you can see the glow from the lava inside it. It’s so beautiful. The photo doesn’t really do it justice.
At the south side of the national park, you can see former lava flow from previous eruptions along the Chain of Craters Road.
This national park contains such unique sites, hikes, and drives to enjoy! Highly recommend visiting this national park if you’re on the Big Island in Hawaii!
A couple of weeks ago, I received an e-mail thanking me for my information about national parks virtual tours as it helped out Amanda and Grace for their “Exploring the World from Home” workshop at the Rutland County Library in Vermont.
In their research, Amanda found a couple of great online resources that I wanted to share:
Take a virtual trip and see some amazing architecture throughout the world through by clicking here. I really like how you can scroll to a particular place and click to check it out.
Take a virtual reality trip by clicking here. On this page, you can time travel through virtual reality. For example, you can step onto the Titanic as it looked like when it left Great Britain.
Thank you to Amanda and Grace for sharing these really interesting online resources! Good luck with your workshop!
I’m going to take a virtual tour now to check out Anne Frank’s house! Happy online traveling!
Happy Juneteenth National Independence Day!
Today celebrates the date of June 19, 1865, when enslaved people of African descent located in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedom from the slavery system in the United States.
While the Emancipation Proclamation granted freedom and was signed on January 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln. Texas was the farthest of the Confederate states, and slaveholders there made no attempt to free the enslaved African Americans they held in bondage. President Lincoln’s proclamation was unenforceable without military intervention, which eventually came nearly two and a half years later.
Juneteenth is an important date on the timeline of slavery history in the United States and now a federal holiday just signed into law last year.
Take a moment today and reflect on the importance of this holiday.
Happy Flag Day! This holiday commemorates the date in 1777 when the United States approved the design for its first national flag.
Did you know that the designer of our current flag was a 17-year-old Boy Scout named Robert Heft? What grade do you think he received for this look? A grade of B-minus. His Ohio teacher said the design was unoriginal, but offered to raise it to an A if the design was accepted nationally. So, the boy wrote to his congressman and the rest is history. And yes, he ended up with an A.
Happy Flag Day! 🇺🇸
Happy 120th anniversary to Crater Lake National Park located in Oregon!
About 7,700 years ago, Mount Mazama erupted creating the deepest lake in the United States and the 9th deepest in the world. With a depth of 1,943 feet, Crater Lake is the one of the most beautiful lakes you will ever see. The water’s intense blue color is an indication of its great depth and purity. Surrounded by cliffs, the lake is fed entirely by rain and snow. Scientists consider Crater Lake to be the cleanest and clearest large body of water in the world.
Enjoy a few photos from our last visit there in 2020. As you will see, it was a bit hazy from fires in the area. But, even with the smoke and haze, it’s still a great national park!
If you’re in the area, I highly recommend checking out this national park as it is one of my favorites!
As National Park Week wrapped up yesterday, I thought a lot about our national parks this past week. I thought about all the memories of our visits there.
I also thought about the sPark discovery, creativity, collaborations, innovations, opportunities, preservations, actions, curiosity, and memories. I love the sPark!
I smiled a lot during all these thoughts and memories. National parks bring us great joy in addition to many other benefits. National Park Week provided us with a daily reminder of all the goodness within this great and unique system.
Thank you for coming along with me on this year’s National Park Week.
