Jean Lafitte

The Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve is comprised of six parks. Each park is really worth a visit as they are all unique and showcase treasures of southern Louisiana. Truly each one could stand on its own as a park. We only visited four of the six parks, but we have a ton to share about our experiences.

National Park Service website: http://www.nps.gov/jela/

Chalmette Battlefield
We visited Chalmette Battlefield first; this was not our favorite in the group, but it still had a lot of information.… Continue reading

Jean Lafitte Jean Lafitte

Little River Canyon

With the weekend quickly approaching and our new desire to visit parks and acquire passport stamps, Damon and I opened up our Explorer Edition Passport book and started making plans for a day trip.  Given multiple choices within driving distance, we reviewed our options and decided upon Little River Canyon.

Damon and I were not anticipating the beauty that we saw in Fort Payne that day.  We were driving along on a main road (a somewhat relative term given this is not a big city), and did not expect to… Continue reading

Little River Canyon Little River Canyon

Haleakala

My wife and I spent our honeymoon in Hawaii, visiting the  islands of Oahu and Maui.  Friends had told us that while in Maui, we would be making a mistake if we did not visit Haleakala.  They were definitely correct!  At this time, we had no clue about the National Park Stamp program.  In fact, despite living near a few of them,  my wife and I had really never given the National Park system much thought.

Once we made it up to the summit, I was looking around the bookstore… Continue reading

Haleakala Haleakala

Baby’s First Passport Stamp

Posted July 30, 2010 by Janet

While visiting family in Michigan, we took a day trip and drove down to Put-in-Bay to visit Perry’s International Peace Memorial.  My brother, sister-in-law, and 15-month old niece accompanied us.  In support of our National Park adventures, my brother bought my niece a passport book.  While eparks publishes a special book geared towards elementary-aged children, it does not have any room for stamping.  We all wanted Anna to stamp, and therefore, she has a “big girl” book.  Check out the pictures to see just how much she enjoyed her… Continue reading

Perry’s International Peace Memorial

Posted July 30, 2010 by Damon

Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial was selected as the Midwest 2010 Featured Stamp.  We had a theory that the featured stamps each year received special unique stamps, such as the one with a picture on it that we received last year in Haleakala when it was featured.  My wife was somewhat excited to see what this park’s picture would be. Unfortunately, this theory proved to be incorrect.

In any regard, since we were in the Detroit area visiting family, we decided to take a day trip down… Continue reading

MotorCities National Heritage Area

Posted July 25, 2010 by Janet

In searching the web a few months ago, we learned about National Heritage Areas.   According to nps.gov, National Heritage Area is not actually units of the National Park Service.  Heritage Areas are not owned or managed by the National Park Service and the NPS’s involvement is always advisory in nature. In our opinion so far, these seem to be hit-and-miss locations of interest and the employees at the two we have visited have not been very familiar with the National Park passport stamp system.  As such, our stamp… Continue reading

National Parks Travelers Club

Posted July 10, 2010 by Damon

As we have been getting more and more into our new found hobby, I stumbled upon the National Parks Travelers Club. The Club is a non-profit club whose mission is promoting park visitation and providing fellowship and recognition for everyone interested in visiting the parks.

Seeing as we are hooked, we decided to join. We have only been members for a few days and are very impressed with the quality and magnitude of information the small membership fee ($10.00) brings. Being a Google Earth Pro trainer, I was… Continue reading

New Orleans Jazz

Posted June 26, 2010 by Damon

The New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park is a fairly new park established in 1994. The site is only a few blocks from the Jean Lafitte National Park headquarter, in the middle of the French Quarter. On our visit we had the pleasure of experiencing Jazz music first hand. Their was a live Jazz Band. The location is very small, and in a very nondescript building, only a small sign on the outside. The French Quarter location does have not have 7 day a week operating hours like most… Continue reading

Jean Lafitte

Posted June 24, 2010 by Damon

The Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve is comprised of six parks. Each park is really worth a visit as they are all unique and showcase treasures of southern Louisiana. Truly each one could stand on its own as a park. We only visited four of the six parks, but we have a ton to share about our experiences.

National Park Service website: http://www.nps.gov/jela/

Chalmette Battlefield
We visited Chalmette Battlefield first; this was not our favorite in the group, but it still had a lot of information.… Continue reading

Gulf Islands

Posted June 24, 2010 by Janet

We stopped in at this National Park on a trip to visit some of my husband’s family in southern Louisiana.  His sister and mom were with us and we had a destination to reach by dinner, so we did not spend quite as much time as we might have otherwise.  Boat trips can be arranged from the Davis Bayou Area, where the Visitor Center is located, to the barrier islands.  Visitors are able to camp, swim, and fish on most of the islands.  Those interested in camping must request a… Continue reading

Andersonville

Posted June 5, 2010 by Janet

After an exciting day in Plains, GA that lasted longer than expected, we did not have as much time in Andersonville as we had originally hoped.  Without a doubt, however, our experience at the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site was well worth the delay!

In talking about the National Park System with friends in Georgia, many mentioned visiting Andersonville in the past.  Not only does this park commemorate the Union Soldiers once held captive on these grounds in Camp Sumter, but it also serves as a memorial to… Continue reading

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