The National Park Sites We Visited

We visited several National Park sites on our trip, and I did my best to combine them into one short clip of photos. It was a challenge :-)



 Hopewell Furnace was one of the largest producers of iron, and specifically the iron face plates of furnaces in the late 1700s. It is a beautiful, farm-like place. There were also really neat old stone fire places, kind of like stone wall mazes that A and R were running through. It was cool and very quaint.


 This photo was taken at the Eisenhower Farm, near Gettysburg. The mat she's sitting on says First Lady. I had no idea how important this farm was during Eisenhower's presidency in terms of being a meeting place for world leaders and also being a place of refuge for Eisenhower during the Cold War. One of the meetings that took place at the farm was credited with the beginning of eased tensions between leaders during the Cold War. It's also the only National Park Historical Site where children who visit can earn a Jr. Secret Service badge. A very cool place.


 This picture was taken at Harpers Ferry where we walked across this bridge from West Virginia into Maryland. When Thomas Jefferson visited this spot in 1793 he said, "The passage of the Patowmac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature." I think he was right.


 While doing her Jr. Ranger guide book at Harpers Ferry, Alyssa was so excited to discover a secret trap door in the floorboards of one of the buildings we stopped in...


 And this is her "doing that which I know I shouldn't" face.


 




















The Jr. Ranger program is probably our girls' favorite part about visiting National Park sites. In most National Parks there is a series of activities that range from worksheets to seeing living history demonstrations, to asking questions of the rangers {etc}, that the children are able to complete in order to earn a badge. Here at Harpers Ferry, there were 3 different levels to complete depending on the child's age and how much time you want to spend on it. Our girls were so excited when they earned all 3 badges, they thought they were only going to get one badge for the highest level completed, but when they were given all 3 (Rebekah only completed the first level and a good part of the second, so she only got 2 badges) they were so pleased. At the end of the slide show you can see how happy they were taking the "Jr. Ranger Oath."

I highly recommend any of the Jr. Ranger programs at any park in the country. We've done several and they have never disappointed. It's such a great way for the kids to experience the significance of the park/site. Many parks are currently redoing their programs and making them more specific, hence the 3 different levels at Harpers Ferry. All very fun and worthwhile family activities ~ I learn a lot myself every time we work on one of the booklets with the girls!