Fall Getaway!

We can't believe it's been 18 months since we were last at Sea Ranch.

This time we rented a home on the bluffs.

This picture is from the bluff trail looking up to the home...

...this is what you can see from the trail by the home...

Dan walked down there early one morning and got this photo:

In addition to enjoying being near the ocean we have also been doing other relaxing things like puzzles, playing games, and reading.

I even have done a little Fall crocheting:

Now we are ready for General Conference...after BYU hopefully wins tomorrow night!

Warms My Heart!

We love when family comes over!

No one can read Dr. Seuss like Grandpa!

Joshua sat by me at dinner.  He had a full plate with some of everything that was served.  He turned to me and said: It all looks so good, I can't decide what to eat first!

Hannah had fun texting with Courtney!

 MaryAnn is a Primary teacher.  Today was Teacher Council meeting.  The presidency told the kids that today was one of the days when the teachers had to go to their special class to learn how to be awesome teachers.  A boy from MaryAnn's class raised his hand (or maybe just called out?); My teacher is already awesome!

David's 7th Birthday!

David wanted to celebrate his 7th birthday at our house with his family.  And he had some specific things he wanted to do!

It was a hot day and he wanted to play in the water!

That's him running to jump in the pool:

He had fun with his brothers and sisters!

Jacob:

Hannah:

Joshua:

(Not sure why the serious look but he was happy to have me take his picture!)

Lily:

Pizza for dinner!

Opening presents!

Bingo for ice cream cones!

And he specifically requested a double scoop!

Playing with his new R2D2 Star Wars Bop It:

I know I had fun and I hope he did too!

Happy Birthday, National Park Service!

Over the years I have loved visiting National Parks!  What a great treasure for our country.  I have never been disappointed during any of my visits.  Every one I have ever visited was absolutely amazing in its own unique way!

On August 25, 1916 Congress created the National Park Service to oversee America's beloved places.

We were fortunate to be in Pennsylvania in a National Historical Park on August 25, 2016 for the big celebration!  There were decorations, cupcakes and birthday wishes to express:

Here's the message I left:

I think it's time for a quiz:

always a fun way to learn!
Don't worry.  There are not 100 questions!
(Answers near the end)

1. How many National Park units are there?
(See question #2 before answering)

2. How many of those are actually National "Parks?"

3. What is the most visited park?

4. What was the world's first National Park?

(Easy question but do you know the year it was created?)

5. The largest organism in the world lives in America's national parks, which one is it?

6. Which National Park is home to the longest cave system in the world? Oregon Cave, Wind Cave (South Dakota) or 

Mammoth Cave (Kentucky)?

7. Which 152 ft copper gift from the French is one of America's most iconic images and a National Park?  

8. Which National Park has the deepest lake in the U.S.? 

9. Which National Park includes the largest wilderness area east of the Mississippi River?  

10. Which is the largest National Park?

11.  Which state does not have a National Park or National Monument?

12. Which is the largest National Park south of Alaska at approx. 3.4 million acres?
(Hint: It is also considered the driest and hottest
location in North America)

13. What National Park has a 73-mile long wilderness coast?

BONUS QUESTION: Which is the hardest site to visit?
(You'll have to read the article at the end of this post to find out the answer to this one!)

1. 413!  The National Park System’s 400 plus units cover more than 83 million acres and include sites ranging from the homes of historic figures to Civil War battlefields, from Alaska’s gigantic parks, to Ford’s Theater National Historic Site, commemorating where President Lincoln was assassinated. In addition to national parks, the park system includes national monuments, seashores, recreation areas, historic sites, military parks, battlefields, and other designated units.

2. 59 National "Parks"

3. Great Smoky Mountains National Park! With over 9 million visitors a year, it is visited more than twice as much as the Grand Canyon-- the second most visited park.  Yosemite is number three.

4.Yellowstone!  Created by an act of Congress in 1872

5. The Sequoia Tree is the largest organism in the world!

6. Mammoth Cave is the longest known cave system in the world with more than 350 miles of passageways, all some 400 feet underground!

7. The Statue of Libery National Monument!

8. Crater Lake in Oregon is one of 10 deepest in the world at 1,943 feet!

9. Everglades National Park is considered a swamp, but it was once a river 50 miles wide and six inches deep. It consists of 1.5 million acres of wetland.

10. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska has an area of over 8.3 million acres and is larger than each of the nine smallest states. By the way, the smallest National Park is Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas coming in at about 5,500 acres.

11. Only one state in the country is not lucky enough to currently have either a National Park or National Monument. It is actually the country's first state, Delaware.

12. Death Valley! It receives less than two inches of rainfall per year, while temperatures can soar as high as 134°F. The valley is 282 feet below sea level, thus making it the lowest point on the continent. Despite the dryness and heat, Death Valley has over a thousand varieties of plants.

13. Olympic National Park in Washington State.

*****************************
If you've stuck with me this long, it means you are a fan of National Parks as well.  You will enjoy reading this article as much as I did!
This was printed in the Chicago Tribune on August 25, 2016:
(Remember,you will find the answer to the Bonus Question in the article!)

The National Park Service, which turns 100 years old Thursday, oversees 413 parks, monuments, battlefields, lakeshores and other "units."

Scott Stieglitz is determined to visit every one of them.

At age 40, the South Elgin man said he's already more than halfway there.

"Some people may call it an obsession," said Stieglitz, a software developer who keeps a spreadsheet tally of his travels and has a passport booklet full of ink stamps documenting the dates of his visits. "I'm kind of nerdy when it comes to this stuff."

Stieglitz was introduced to the national parks passport program in his 20s during a trip to Yosemite with his now-wife, Stacey.

"We both bought a passport, and it was off to the races," he said.

Stieglitz has plenty of company in his bid to bag all of the NPS sites. He's one of nearly 2,000 members of the National Park Travelers Club (www.parkstamps.org), a collection of folks best described as superfans of the national park system. The club, which just wrapped up its annual meeting at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, awards members with bronze, silver, gold and platinum status, based on the number of NPS sites they've visited. It operates on the honor system.

"As of today, we have 43 known people that have visited every unit of the U.S. national park system — 10 of those finished this year," said club secretary Craig Bailey of Limon, Colo., noting that the NPS centennial has been an incentive for people to reach their goal in 2016. "One man is planning on finishing (Thursday) in Washington, D.C.

"There are possibly others out there, but we don't think many," added Bailey, whose personal tally is 274 and counting. "Most that are really trying to visit every unit of the national park system find our club."

The elite group of platinum members includes a couple of Illinois natives, Bruce and Letty Johnson. They raised their children — one of whom is 1988 U.S. Olympic swimmer Susan M. Johnson — in Naperville. The 75-year-old grandparents now call Gibraltar, Mich., home.

"Both of us have visited the parks all our lives and just loved them," Letty Johnson said. "They're the best thing about this country."

The Johnsons' passion for the parks kicked into high gear after they retired in 2001.

"In 2008, we became what they call platinum," Johnson said. "We'd been to 391, and that was all of them at that point. They keep adding more, so we're still keeping up."

Their to-do list got longer as recently as Wednesday, when President Barack Obama created a new national monument, Katahdin Woods and Waters, in Maine.

With 413 units spread across every state — as well as American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands — it's no small feat to drop in on every one. Accessing some of the more remote sites can be a logistical headache, not to mention a pricey endeavor.

Most people have to hire bush pilots to get to Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve in southwest Alaska's Aleutian mountains, and they often have to hang around the outskirts for days, waiting for a break in the weather.

"Probably 100 people a year make it in," Johnson said. "We got lucky."

Arguably the hardest site to visit lies just outside of Phoenix: Hohokam Pima National Monument, honoring the archaeological site of an ancient Hohokam village called Snaketown. It's owned by the Gila River Indian Reservation, which doesn't allow public access to the site.

The Johnsons got in by way of a serendipitous dinner at a Tucson restaurant in 2008, when they were chatting with the chef about their dream of visiting every NPS site.

"We told him about the one that's not open to the public, and he said, 'I might be able to help you with that,'" Johnson recalled. "He knew the daughter of a tribal elder. We met with him, passed muster and got in. It was a moving experience."

While the Johnsons grew up going to many of the country's 59 national parks, that wasn't the case for Stieglitz.

"I tell people I was national park-deprived as a child; the only national park units I went to as a kid were in Washington, D.C.," said the father of two. His children, Sophie, 5, and Sammy, 3, already have dozens of stamps in their respective national parks passports.

The blue, spiral-bound "Passport to Your National Parks" booklets have been around since 1986. They're sold at national park bookstores and are available online for $9.95 at www.eparks.com.

"All of our vacations are pretty much planned on where the NPS sites are," Stieglitz said. That included his honeymoon in Hawaii, where they visited all the units the Aloha State had to offer — at the time.

"They've since added one, so we'll have to go back," he said.

Stieglitz said he'd been to 245 NPS sites as of Wednesday. He hopes to surpass 250 by the end of the summer.

"The big one on the bucket list that I still haven't been to is Yellowstone, the granddaddy of them all," he said.

"I don't know when I'm going to finish this quest," he said, "but I'm still young enough where I think it will happen."

Valley Forge!

I really wanted to visit Valley Forge.  I saw that it was about 20 miles from Philadelphia.  I assumed there might be tour buses that left Philadelphia and took you to Valley Forge with commentary all along the way.  And so I searched online but could find nothing.  It was surprising to me as there are numerous tours in other cities to similar sites.  I came across one person's blog that said the best way to get to Valley Forge without a car was to take a city bus.  That sounded daunting to me in a major city navigating a municipal bus system.   But I really wanted to go and so we found the bus schedule. We had to coordinate with the actual tours in Valley Forge; they only have 3 per day.  Long story short, we found a bus line that would get us there before the 1:00 tour and there was only one time in the late afternoon that the city bus picked up from Valley Forge to take back to Philadelphia.  At the help counter they warned us that they have had some problems with the buses and so told us the number to call if we got stranded.  Yikes!  

  I am so glad we went! The bus worked great and was comfortable and pleasant and very affordable.

We were sure glad to see this after about an hour!

 Valley Forge is a National Historical Park. In 1976, the state of Pennsylvania gave the park as a gift to our nation for the Bicentennial.

The 10-mile trolley tour was amazing because of our tour guide.  He was so knowlegeable and patriotic.  One of the best guides we've ever had!

First stop is the huts: Representations of where the men lived through the winter of 1777-1778.  The British were living it up in Philadelphia and Washington picked this spot about a day's march from Philadelphia where his troops could train and recoup. 

Congress was not able to adequately support the war effort and the lack of food, clothing and equipment reached its worst at Valley Forge.  Disease killed nearly 2,000 people or 1/6.

The United States National Memorial Arch was erected to commemorate the arrival of General George Washington and his Continental Army into Valley Forge.  It was dedicated in 1917 during WWI in part to honor France who helped us during the Revolutionary War and now we were helping them.

We also stopped at Washington's Headquarters.  He did not commandeer this house from its owners but offered to pay rent which he did.

A representation of what the downstairs planning room might have looked like:

The only thing in the house that is from the time when Washington lived here was this stair bannister.  They encouraged us to touch it.  

So I guess I held onto the same bannister that George Washington held on to...and probably a million other people!

In February 1778, Washington welcomed to camp, thanks to Benjamin Franklin, Baron Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian officer who put Continental troops through a new training regimen. (The first picture on this post is of Von Steuben with the troops). He was considered a military genius.  This is a statue of him looking out on to the fields where he was instrumental in instructing and unifying the men from 13 different colonies.  The men emerged from Valley Forge stronger, more disciplined and more determined than ever to defeat the British.

The main takeaway we got from our visit to Valley Forge:  The Revolutionary War lasted through 8 winters but "the Valley Forge encampment proved to be a turning point in the Revolutionary War, testing the mettle of George Washington and his troops and paving the way for their ultimate victory in the war for American independence."

Huzzah! 

(An 18th century exclamation of joy, applause, and appreciation)
And another Huzzah! for this patriot.

Considerate travel companion, photographer extraordinaire, history buff,  and figure-outer of city bus lines!

Philadelphia Temple!

When we were trying to decide where to go on our little trip, seeing that the new Philadelpia Temple was having their Open House put that destination over the edge for me!  It's right in the downtown at Logan Square.  We saw the temple on our very first bus tour! 

One of our tour guides who was Jewish told about the Open House and how to get tickets and said that he was very excited to take the tour on Friday.

Photo of a photo in the Visitor's Center.  That's a major thoroughfare to the left of the temple.

Afterwards we each received this 5 X 7 card
with the temple on the front:

We took this picture as we were about to enter the temple 

at about 7:30 p.m.

There are photos of the interior online.  I especially like the entry area: the design, the colors and of course the painting of the Founding Fathers.  This is just one section; it was actually a large area.

I thought the baptistry was especially beautiful as well:

After the tour we tried to get some more photos.  It's a large temple.

There is a rooftop garden on top of the Visitor's Center
 and Dan got this shot from there.

I tried to capture how the temple is part of the downtown of a large metropolitan city:

Time to bid farewell to this beautful House of the Lord!

We thought this was interesting.  Take a look at the very first picture. This is a close up taken from the temple looking towards a new meetinghouse that was just built and where we started the tour.  Behind that is a building the Church is constructing which will be a 32-story residential tower that will include retail space as well.

I have been thinking about the Philadelphia Temple since I read this article in the July 2014 Ensign: Heavenly Help for Our Mortal Journey by Dean M. Davies.

Here is the excerpt that touched me:

(It's worth your time!)

Before being called to the Presiding Bishopric, I had the blessing of helping to identify and acquire sites for temples. In 2008, President Monson announced the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple. After the First Presidency gave permission to search for a temple site, we identified a number of possible locations. Two properties across the street from each other emerged as highly desirable. We evaluated the properties and made an offer. To my surprise, the owner of the first property accepted our offer without negotiation.

When I met with the owner, he said he had owned the property for almost 25 years and could have developed it several times. He added that he had always felt that the property had a “higher and better purpose.”

Shortly thereafter, however, the city of Philadelphia, through a city-controlled agency, filed an action to stop the Church purchase. We did everything we could to remove the claim but were unsuccessful.

We had felt good about the property and that it was the right place for the temple. So, as a last resort, we determined to meet with the mayor. The Church temple architect and I flew to Philadelphia, and before the scheduled meeting, we met with local legal counsel, an Area Seventy, and two local Church members.

One of the members was Vai Sikahema, a well-known local celebrity who had played football at Brigham Young University and then played professional football for the Philadelphia Eagles. After retiring from football, he became a sports announcer on a local television station. In our pre-meeting we knelt in prayer to seek the Lord’s blessing on our efforts.

At our meeting with the mayor, it soon became clear that he was set against the project. His staff had assured him that this property was better suited for a commercial office building or a hotel that would generate jobs and tax revenue. We would need to look for another site.

I asked him if the architect could show a drawing or two of how the temple might look. As the architect began to stand, Brother Sikahema said, “Mr. Mayor, may I say something?” The mayor knew Brother Sikahema and said, “Of course.”

Brother Sikahema humbly said, “Many years ago when I was a young boy in Tonga, my father, mother, brothers, sisters, and I sold our home, sold fruit and vegetables, sold everything we could to raise enough money to travel to Hamilton, New Zealand, to be sealed as an eternal family in the temple. You need this temple. This temple will bless your city. It will bless the people.”

He sat down, and the Church architect then showed the mayor a few drawings. As he sat down, a city councilman who was not a member of the Church stood.

“Mr. Mayor,” he said, “I have spoken with the leaders in the community and the neighbors of this property. We want this temple. We need this temple. It will bless our city. It will bless our community. It will bless our people.”

The Spirit had come into the meeting. We were all touched. The mayor’s heart was changed. The temple would go forward on the site selected. At the end of the meeting, to my surprise, the mayor asked if I would offer a prayer.

The Lord knows the end from the beginning. He knew almost 40 years before then that Vai Sikahema would need to share his faith and testimony to help advance His work."

Historic Philadelphia!

Philadelphia is considered the birthplace of the United States of America.  It was the site where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were both debated and signed.  It was also the nation's capital for ten years. 

In 1751 the Pennsylvania Assembly ordered a 2,000 pound bell from London to hang in the bell tower of the State House--now called Independence Hall.  It was in celebration of the 50th anniversary of William Penn's charter which granted religious freedom and political self-governement to the colony.

A bible verse was place on the bell: Leviticus 25:10  "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." 

The city of Philadelphia purchased the old State House with its bell from the state in 1818.  Today, the Liberty Bell is an internationally recognized symbol of freedom.

We loved seeing it in person.  That's an amazing shot that Dan got above as there were lots of people around.

(I love having my own blog photographer!)

Some views of Independence Hall:

It was in this Assembly Room that the Second Continental Congress debated and signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776.  Eleven years later in 1787, delegates met to discuss, draft and sign the Constitution of the United States.

This is the actual chair that George Washington used for nearly three months of the Federal Convention's continuous sessions. 

It is called the Rising Sun Armchair.  

Here is the detail symbolic of the new nation.

We also toured Congress Hall next door.  Several men who would become President served here including Adams, Madison, Monroe, Jackson and W. H. Harrison!

From 1790 to 1800 the House met on the ground floor (lower house),

and the Senate met upstairs (upper house).

Another day we walked over and toured the Graff House now known as Declaration House. Thirty-three year old Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in three weeks while lodging on the 2nd floor of the house.

Representation of the room where he worked:

How could he write it so fast?  Must have been some late nights.  As our tour guide pointed out, perhaps having this across the street might have helped?!!!

Philadelphia's most famous citizen and his friend:

Benjamin Franklin organized America’s first public postal service. As the first postmaster general of the United States, he appeared on America’s first postage stamp.  Franklin’s Post Office is still open for business:

Franklin’s print shop was employed for government printing, books, newspapers, and broadsides (posters). Franklin even used his print shop to publish his own book, Poor Richard’s Almanac, one of America’s first bestsellers. Some of his classic one-liners that have become part of American life are: “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise;” 

Franklin’s contributions to Philadelphia include the first free library, the first fire company, the American Philosophical Society, the University of Pennsylvania, the post office, as well as the use of paper money and the bestseller Poor Richard’s Almanac. His contributions to science include the first swimming flippers, bifocals, the Franklin stove, and of course the lightning rod.  Franklin’s contributions to government include the signing of the Declaration of Independence, leadership in the Constitutional Convention, and service in the congress of Pennsylvania and as America’s ambassador to France during the Revolutionary War.
We visited the Franklin Museum which was really interesting!
Here are some portraits of Franklin through the years:

After visiting the museum, one of my first reactions was: 

He was such a character!

Final stop: The Betsy Ross House

Betsy Ross was a widow working as a seamstress who, according to a strongly held tradition, sewed our first stars and stripes at the request of General Washington.

I thought this was interesting: If she did sew the flag, she worked on it up in her bedroom, not in her sewing room downstairs.  She could have been arrested for treason.

So much to see and learn in Philadelphia about our country's history.  So glad we bought this puzzle to help us remember all the sites!