From Theme Parks to National Parks: How a Little Passport Changed Our Family Vacations
Growing up in New Hampshire , I never realized there were places so historically or naturally significant that our federal government would protect and financially support them for everyone to enjoy.
It wasn’t until I had my own daughters that I discovered the National Park System. The first park I brought them to was Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts. We watched a great film that explained the significance of the site, and then, while browsing the gift shop, I spotted something that changed my life: a small passport book.
This book listed the national parks by region, with blank spaces waiting for date stamps from each visit. My daughters were about4 and 8 years old at the time. Like many families, we had already done the big-ticket kid trips: Disney World, San Diego Zoo, and so on. They were fun but often expensive and not always that meaningful.
But this little passport book offered something different: a way to build vacations around places of history, nature and discovery. Even better, so many of these sites were free to visit.
From that day forward, our family vacations shifted. Instead of starting with theme parks or commercial attractions, we began with the National Parks Passport and asked: Where can we explore next?
Read More From Nancy
Minute Man National Park – Massachusetts
On numerous acres stretches Minute Man National Historical Park. As a Massachusetts resident, we have visited this park several times. The park encompasses approximately 1,000 acres across the towns of Lexington, Lincoln, and Concord, preserving the landscape of April 19, 1775. This date was the opening day of the American Revolution. It was established as a National […]
Frederick Douglas National Historic Site – Washington DC
When we travel for business, we always hope to explore something nearby, whether it be the nature of something historic. There is something grounding about stepping outside the seminar room and into the story of a place. We look for something special, something that belongs uniquely to that area. Frederick Douglas’ home was one of those […]
Pea Ridge National Military Park – Arkansas
Many of our National Historic Sites preserve the landscapes of America’s military past, especially Civil War battlefields. So many of these places are found in Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas, but Pea Ridge stands as one of the important Civil War sites in the West. Here a pivotal chapter of the conflict is found in the […]
