We had a few days between Grandpa's funeral in Illinois and our planned trip to Florida, so we decided to make it a leisurely three-day drive and include a stop at Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park. Dad decided that leisurely meant he could take time for a car wash after church before we left the hotel that morning and we only got to the park around 3:30pm, so we didn't end up with much time to explore past the visitor center.
Exhibit in Visitor Center
Pottery Exhibit in Visitor Center
Earth Lodge
Inside Earth Lodge
Inside Earth Lodge
Inside Earth Lodge
See full list of Ranger Dan's National Parks Visited here.
As we arrived in Tucson, we decided to visit the Rincon Mountain district of Saguaro National Park as we did not want to end up at the hotel too early to get a room. We ended up visiting the Visitor Center and driving the loop. There is an accessible trail that we might have done if we had not discovered Mik's wheelchair had two flat tires when we got there because Dad had decided to go off roading for some photos at the last stop at a rest area and the wheels got filled with burrs (by the way, wheelchair repair places are useless if you want a fix in less than a month, but thankfully it only took two bike shops next door to each other to find the right size tubes and get his wheels fixed and we got a patch kit that Dad had to use a few days later due to a missed burr on one tire).
As Nora is about to start the Civil War unit in 4th Grade Social Studies, we decided to take a field trip to Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park.
Fort Sumter Visitor Center
We started our visit at the Fort Sumter Visitor Center in downtown Charleston. Here Nora did the Fort Sumter Junior Ranger program as we explored the Visitor Center. We also walked around Liberty Square.
Fort Moultrie Visitor Center
Next we headed over to Sullivan's Island to the Fort Moultrie Visitor Center. We had a picnic lunch before exploring Fort Moultrie, which included Nora doing the Junior Ranger program, watching the orientation film, and walking around Fort Moultrie.
Charleston Light
Before heading home we briefly stopped to check out the Charleston Light.
See full list of Ranger Dan's National Parks Visited here.
On my walk around the Tidal Basin, I ended up spending some extra time at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial because the bookstore opened later than I thought and I wanted the National Park stamps from there. To kill time, I did a sketch.
As I had a late afternoon flight home, I spent the morning walking around the Tidal Basin and National Mall collecting a few of the National Park stamps I did not have or at least had not gotten in a few years. I mainly wanted to visit the US Park Police Horse Stables as I had never been other than we had saw it when we were walking the Mall the previous weekend after it had closed for the day. I also visited the Japanese Pagoda and Floral Library part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks.
Japanese Pagoda
Japanese Pagoda w/ Thomas Jefferson Memorial in background
United States Park Police Horse Stables and Education Center
Horse at the Park Police Horse Stables and Education Center
On our walk back to the hotel on the National Mall from the Lincoln Memorial, I noticed the JFK Hockey Fields sign, which neither Dad or I had never seen before.
We started our day at the National Museum of the American Indian. While it was a long walk to the other end of the National Mall, the Lincoln Memorial was a good ending point for the day as Lincoln is Nora's favorite president. She even enjoyed reading the Gettysburg Address and 2nd Inaugural.
This day we were mostly focused on getting Nora stamps in her National Passport book, which I got her the day before when we went to the top of the Washington Monument (was too focused on showing her the different landmarks and forgot to take any Ranger Dan photos then). Since we wanted to make sure we got to the Lincoln Memorial before the stores closes, we just crossed the street and got on the block as the President's Park to take a photo with the White House rather than go up closer.
Dad and I enjoyed the East Potomac Miniature Golf course back in 2018 before we started tracking our mini golf adventures. I have been wanting to visit again since we started doing our Mini Golf Adventures and now was the perfect time with it being recently reopening after being closed for a restoration project.
We tried to play the course a few days ago, but it had rained too hard early that morning that parts of the course (mainly the paths) had too much standing water that the course was closed. It rained most of the next day and overnight, but by late morning it had become sunny and we decided to head over to see if the course was dried out enough to play. Luckily, it was as this was our last chance to play this trip.
As East Potomac Park is part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, I brought along Ranger Dan.
East Potomac's Miniature Golf Course National Register of Historic Places Sign
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