Year End Summary
States/Territories Visited: NJ, NY, PA, DE, VA, MD, AZ, NC, SC, FL, LA, CO, KY, AR, WA & US Virgin Islands
Countries: USA, Canada, Dominican Republic, St Kitts, Dominica, British Virgin Islands (Tortola)
Key Cities: NYC, Philadelphia, Tucson, Phoenix, Scranton, Little Rock, Bowling Green, New Orleans, Denver, Victoria, Ottawa, Miami, Charleston
Art Towns – Cooperstown, Charleston, Hot Springs, Coral Gables, Charlotte Amalie
Parks: Mammoth Cave NP, Hot Springs NP, Wright Brothers Nat Memorial, Fort Raleigh NHS, Tumacacori NHP, Paterson Great Falls NHP, Saguaro NP, Coronado Nat Mem, Valley Forge NHP, Hopewell Furnace NHS, Steamtown NHS, Abraham Lincoln Birthplace NHP, Lincoln Boyhood Home Nat Mem, Fort Sumter NM, Little Rock Central High School NHS, Wolf Trap NP for the Performing Arts, Great Falls Park, Shenandoah NP, Montezuma Castle NM and Canadian National Park 1000 Isles, Dominican Republic National Parks Sanoa Island and the Caves; The Baths, British Virgin Islands; Morne Trois Pitons NP, Dominica
Concerts: Hall & Oats, Trombone Shorty, Santana, William Shatner, Tony Bennett, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson (THE Beach Boy), Elle King, Bryan Adams, Chic, Duran Duran, Ricky Martin, Kristin Chenoweth, NSO and New Kids on the Block plus a lots of amazing Broadway shows (Allegiance, Finding Neverland, Waitress, She Loves Me, Beautiful, American in Paris, Fully Committed, Disaster, Bright Star, On Your Feet, The Illusionists, Sweet Charity [off Bway] and Holiday Inn ), tours Bridges Of Madison County, Maks & Val Dance, Grinch Stole Christmas and regional shows Freaky Friday. (I love live music and theatre)
Aquariums: Virginia Marine Science Center, South Carolina
Ghost Tours: Ottawa, New Orleans
Iconic or Plain Ole’ Amazing Sites: Central Park in the snow storm, Philly Flower Show, Canadian Capital, Little Rock HS, Bathhouse Row, Parliament in Victoria, Pineapple Fountain of Charleston, Grand Ave in Mammoth Caves, Coors Tour in Golden, Baseball Hall of Fame, Columbus Museum in Santo Domingo, The Baths in Virgin Gorda, the Caribbean Reef
2016 was a full year. It was a year filled with beauty, wonder and adventure, beginning with a crazy snowbound trip in NYC in the epic snowstorm and ending in the Caribbean visiting a few new islands.
This year
marked the 100th birthday of the national park service, and everyone
knows how passionate I am about visiting (and protecting) these amazing
places. I made a point of getting to
some new national parks, as well as revisiting a few favorites along the
way. And with them, I made it to lots of
other types of park units – monuments, historic sites, memorials and more. With all my visits to national park elements,
you would think I would be almost done, but I am not even close. There is a lot to see out there, and visiting
these places helps me connect to our environment just a tiny bit more. I went out to cave country this year to visit
Mammoth Caves in Kentucky - we hiked by
lamp light, we saw cave critters evolved to live in a lightless environment,
and imagined rooms filled with gypsum flowers.
I revisited Saguaro National Park in Tucson Arizona to catch a sunset
over these iconic cactus before I took off to hike to the Mexican border at
Coronado National Memorial, visited a mission at Tumacacori and walked around an
ancient Native American dwelling carved into the mountainside in Montezuma
Castle. John and I traveled to Arkansas to
honor civil rights history at Little Rock Central High School and partake in a
bit of history by taking a traditional bath at historic Bathhouse Row in Hot
Springs National Park (I also got in an amazing hike to see the beautiful
folded mountains). I took many weekend
trips, some solo some not, to explore area park sites – we rode an historic
steam engine in Scranton, PA, at the Steamtown National Historic Site, we learned
about theories for Croatian at Fort Raleigh and listened in awe to the stories
of first flight at Wright Brothers, both in North Carolina; I learned about
colonial iron forging at Hopewell Furnace; visited Hamilton’s designer city at
Paterson Falls; and more…
This year finally marked the year I made
it to things that have been on my list for what seems like ages– Charleston, SC
& its pineapple fountain!
Cooperstown & the Baseball Hall of Fame. John and I made these trips to celebrate our birthdays…
on one, we hit the beach and burned our feet before a monstrous storm rolled
in, we toured via foot, bike, boat and horse and buggy to see a Southern gem
and soak in the history, and on the other, we wandered an amazing museum on
baseball and another on cars, and took time to enjoy a beautiful lake before an
amazing storm rolled in practically each day.
YEP, my weather luck is still rolling!