GLACIER NATIONAL PARK/JASPER/BANF/LAKE LOUISE

An extended family trip for my grandfather's birthday took us to Glacier National Park, Jasper, Banf, and Lake Louise in the early 90's. Our party of 16 plus included aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, a great uncle, grandparents, and parents. It is unusual to find a family this size on a trip together for any length of time, but more unusual to find a family this size who gets along so well over an almost fourteen day duration. Camping at Glacier National Park included a drive up the famous "Going to the Sun Road" taking visitors through beautiful scenery of mountains, waterfalls, and wildflowers. Hikes to mountain lakes allowed us to take in the breathless views of the towers of mountains for which this park is visited by millions every year. Wildflowers were spectacular and offered a colorful blanket of yellows, oranges, pinks, and purples against the white coats of the many goats that wander the mountain sides. Chalets built in the 1800's, early 1900's were a reminder of the history that permeates this wilderness area between Canada and the U.S. After our time at Glacier our travels took us up into Canada to Jasper, Banf, and Lake Louise where magnificent waterfalls showed off the ability of nature to carve and create masterpieces displaying God's power and beauty. Horseback rides, glacier climbing, and wading in mountain water provided extra activities for both kids and adults alike. Many beautiful and captivating areas exist in our country, however, I'm not sure that any other place can rival this section of North America, unless it is Alaska.

TROPICAL REVERIE - HAWAII

Waking up to warm and baumy mornings overlooking the Pacific Ocean, showing forth its spectacularly blue color as I stand on the deck of the house at which we stayed my senior year in high school revives a yearning to return to the island of Maui. Flowers adorning the island in bright colors of all variety, palm trees, coconut trees, banana trees, and lush green vegetation create a natural garden from one end of the island to the other. Wandering through hotels of exquisite charm with exotic birds, swimming pools, chandeliers, and private beaches awakens a person to a world that exists in picture books or paintings. Sugar plantations offer tours of a continued industry, and treks to mountain rivers provide cool refreshment from the heat felt on the beaches under the blistering sun. Another world exists under the sea with brilliant colored coral and a variety of fish opened to exploration either through snorkeling, deep sea diving, or glass bottomed boats. Spectacular sunsets leave one breathless with the sun, a big orange or red ball, hanging in the sky almost as if it is being let down slowly by an imaginary string from the heavens coloring the clouds and the horizon as it says goodnight to the island. The passion fruit drink forever will be a favorite of mine. Drinking this iced cold fruit mixture on a hot, baumy, day on the island, brings together all that Maui has to offer. This is Hawaii, the island of Maui.

Please visit the slideshow to the right hand side of the page for a voyage to the island of Maui, 1998. Enjoy.

ALASKA - LAND OF THE WILD FRONTIER

Mountains and lakes were my backyard. Snow and ice found us on snow machines, sledding off of hillsides onto frozen lakes, ice skating, or taking moonlight walks as the snow crunched beneath our boots. Northern lights lit up the skies. Winds howled like a lonely wolf blowing us down the roads if we would open up our coats and use them as sails. The cold would bite the nose and sting the cheeks but would not prevent us from having the time of our lives. Hikes to the tops of mountains to see the sunset and sunrise in a matter of five minutes or less was glorious on the longest day of the year. Protecting ourselves from the size of mosquitos that only Alaska could grow became second nature, especially in May and June during the snowmelt. Sunsets of brilliant colors in summer and pastels in winter left a person breathless as their beauty was magnified by the mountains that towered into the heavens, and the lakes shining the reflections of colors God painted in the skies. Encounters with moose were not uncommon and you might surprse a bear while picking the largest, juciest, and best tasting blueberries during the month of August. To this day blueberries happen to be my favorite berry in the whole world. I can still taste the sweetness of the mouthful of berries warmed by the sun that we would eat by the handfulls. This was Alaska, the land in which I lived for twelve years.

Below is an excerpt from "A Reader's Companion to Alaska" written by John Muir on one of his expeditions to Glacier Bay in 1879. Glacier Bay is part of the Inside Passage that so many have come to love.

"In the evening, after witnessing the unveiling of the majestic peaks and glaciers and their baptism in the down-pouring sunbeams, it seemed inconceivable that nature could have anything finer to show us. Nevertheless, compared with what was to come the next morning, all that was as nothing. The calm dawn gave no promise of anything uncommon. Its most impressive features were the frosty clearness of the sky and a deep, brooding stillness made all the more striking by the thunder of the newborn bergs. The sunrise we did not see at all, for we were beneath the shadows of the fiord cliffs; but in the midst of our studies, while the Indians were getting ready to sail, we were startled by the sudden appearance of a red light burning with a strange unearthly splendor on the topmost peak of the Fairweather Mountains. Instead of vanishing as suddenly as it had appeared, it spread and spread until the whole range down to the level of the glaciers was filled with the celestial fire. In color it was at first a vivid crimson, with a thick, furred appearance, as fine as the alpenglow, yet indescribably rich and deep - not in the least like a garment or mere external flush or bloom through which one might expect to see the rocks or snow, but every mountain apparently was glowing from th heart like molten metal fresh from a furnace. Beneath the frosty shadows of the fiord we stood hushed and awe-stricken, gazing at the holy vision; and had we seen the heavens opened and God made manifest, our attention could not have been more tremendously strained. When the highest peak began to burn, it did not seem to be steeped in sunshine, however glorious, but rather as if it had been thrust into the body of the sun itself. Then the supernal fire slowly descended, with a sharp line of demarkation separating it from the cold, shaded region beneath; peak after peak, with their spires and ridges and cascading glaciers, caught the heavenly glow, until all the mighty host stood transfigured, hushed, and thoughtful, as if awaiting the coming of the Lord. The white, rayless light of morning, seen when I was alone amid the peaks of the California Sierra, had always seemed to me the most telling of all the terrestrail manifestations of God. But here the mountains themselves were made divine, and declared His glory in terms still more impressive. How long we gazed I never knew. The glorious vision passed away in a gradual, fading change through a thousand tones of color to pale yellow and white, and then the work of the ice-world went on again in everyday beauty. The green waters of the fiord were filled with sun-spangles; the fleet of icebergs set forth on their voyages with the upspringing breeze; and on the innumerable mirrors and prisms of these bergs, and on those of the shattered crystal walls of the glaciers, common white light and rainbow light began to burn, while the mountains shone in their frosty jewelry, and loomed again in the thin azure in serene terrestrial majesty. We turned and sailed away, joining the outgoing bergs, while "Gloria in excelsis" still seemed to be sounding over all the white landscape, and our burning hearts were ready for any fate, feeling that, whatever the future might have in store, the treasures we had gained this glorious morning would enrich our lives forever."

MY NATIONAL PARKS

Denali National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Glacier National Park
Mt. Rushmore
Niagra Falls
Haleakala National Park
Acadia National Park
Crater Lake National Park
Cuyahoga National Park
Badlands
Mount Rainier National Park
Grand Teton National Park

PLACES OUT OF THE UNITED STATES

MEXICO
CANADA
British Columbia
Alberta
Ontario
Quebec

MY STATES

Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kanasa, Oklahoma, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachussets, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Washington D.C., Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida

PLACES I HAVE LIVED

PENNSYLVANIA
Newcastle

ALASKA
90 miles north of Anchorage
Palmer, Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska

OREGON
Oregon City
Tualatin
Donald

WASHINGON
Moses Lake