Patriotic Tourism

Making Moves Fun!

It was easy to move when the kids were small. Of course if you would've asked me back then I'd have said nothing of the sort. But now that I have a few moves from each phase in our family life up till now under my belt I have a new perspective.

When the kids were little, all we had to do was pack up our things, load the kiddos in the car, and animatedly explain our new adventure to them on the way to our destination. This worked like a charm up until a couple years ago. As the kids get older they tend to branch out more resulting in deeper community and school involvement, deeper connections with friends, and a general sense of belonging. Although they do understand why we must move, it is harder for them to sever the ties that bind them to this place they have learned to call home. We are due to relocate again next February. The kids know this and are apprehensive. They enjoy their school, neighborhood, and friends. They feel like they belong here.

To combat some of the negative feelings associated with moving we always try to make the move fun. This gives us all something to look forward to in regards to moving again. One way we have found to do this is by becoming patriotic tourists. Well before our departure date we scour the atlas and nps.gov for National Parks along our route. There are close to 400 National Parks in this great country of ours. So, we are sure to find one or three to visit wherever we may be going. Lucky for us the National Park Service gives free annual passes to active duty military personnel and their dependents. Years ago we bought a National Park Passport book from one of the visitor centers. Each National park has one or more stamps that we can add to our Passport book for free.

We may spend all day or just an hour or two at each park and they always have something fun for the kids (and grown ups) to do. Recently, while driving home from a week-long vacation we made a pit stop at Canaveral National Seashore. We took an hour or two to explore and play. By the time we left we had made twelve gopher tortoise sightings, two manatee sightings, and had one extra stamp in our Passport Book.

In 2009 we made the long drive across the northern part of the United States from Washington State to Connecticut. In Montana we learned about one of the Native Americans' last armed efforts at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. We then shot down to South Dakota where we discovered that it took fourteen years to carve four of our former presidents faces into a massive granite cliff at Mt. Rushmore. After a night stay in Keystone, SD, we trekked the rest of the way through South Dakota and ended the night in Minneapolis. The next day was spent at The Mall of America, which was our one non-National Park thrill. Along the rest of the route we visited Cuyahoga Valley NP and Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial in Ohio. And we had a beach day at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. By the time we reached our new home we had racked up at least five more stamps in our passport book along with countless memories and invaluable new knowledge.

While I occasionally endure the “Aaaawwwww, not ANOTHER National Park” gripe from the younger crowd, they ALWAYS end up being engaged and having fun. Most of the parks offer Junior Ranger programs at no cost, which are designed to to get kids involved and thinking. The kids love getting stamps and collecting the official National Park brochures. (You know, the ones with the black band across the top.) We currently have 141 stamps in our book and over 90 brochures. I guess you could say we are National Park junkies. We have barely scratched the surface!