Anahulu River

On June 24, 2019May 20, 2019 By nationalparkswithtIn HawaiiLeave a comment

Welcome back to National Parks & other public lands with T! If you are seeing this on Twitter or Facebook, please visit the blog to see all of the photos and read the story by clicking the link.

Every place we visited in Hawaii was steeped in history. We spent one morning kayaking (my daughter opted to paddle board) on the Anahulu River via Tsue’s Farm in Haleiwa on the island of Oahu.

The Anahulu River is 7.1 miles long. Anahulu translates to ten days.
It is on the western side of the Koolau Mountain Range and empties into Waialua Bay at Haleiwa. We paddled a mile or so and saw locals catching big crabs along its banks.

Haleiwa (‘home of the frigate bird’)was once the site of an ancient Hawaiian village, then farmland providing food for King Kamehameha’s army, and later, a base for Protestant missionaries. In the late 1800s it was a summer home for Hawaiian monarchs.

After our paddle, we enjoyed a delicious lunch of coconut shrimp, teriyaki chicken and noodles on the banks of the river, accompanied by some of the island’s wild chickens and kittens. Afterwards, we were treated to shave ice from their stand.

Oahu Posts:

Kahanamoku Beach
Fort DeRussy Beach Park
Green World Coffee Farm
The Dole Plantation
Anahulu River
Waimea Falls (coming soon)
Hau’ula Beach Park (coming soon)
Tropical Macadamia Farm (coming soon)
Byodo-In Temple (coming soon)
Polynesian Cultural Center (coming soon)
Aloha Tower (coming soon)
Diamond Head (coming soon)
Iolani Palace (coming soon)
King Kamehameha Statue (coming soon)
Aliʻiōlani Hale (coming soon)
Pearl Harbor (coming soon)

Location: 62-400 Joseph P. Leong Hwy, Haleiwa, Hawaii 96712

Date of my visit: April 11, 2019

Governors Island National Monument: Liggett Hall

On June 22, 2019June 19, 2019 By nationalparkswithtIn New York8 Comments

Welcome back to National Parks & other public lands with T! If you are seeing this on Twitter or Facebook, please visit the blog to see all of the photos and read the story by clicking the link.

Governors Island has over 200 years of history as a military outpost. It began as a colonial militia base in 1755 and defended the harbor entrance to New York City during The War of 1812. During the Civil War, Confederate prisoners were held here. In peacetime, it was a training ground and administrative base for first the US Army and then the Coast Guard.

After exploring Castle Williams, our group explored some of the other historic structures in the park. Liggett Hall was built in 1929 as an army barracks capable of housing an entire regiment. The 16th regiment was stationed there at the time and been living in temporary wooden structures. This was the largest structure the Army built prior to the Pentagon.

Construction of the 400 yard Liggett Hall down the widest part of the island prevented a proposed air-strip from being placed there. LaGuardia airport was instead built out in Queens.

In the building’s archway, we saw a sculpture by Hashimoto called Never Comes Tomorrow. It is meant to represent a time vortex between the historic side of the island and the more recent additions on the other side of the building.

Next door to Liggett Hall is the hospital that served the Army Base. The Smothers Brothers (comedians) were born in that hospital when their father was stationed on the island.

There is also a historic theater, built in 1939 for the island residents. We had theaters like this in Staten Island, too, that were still operational in the 70s and 80s when I grew up there. I remember seeing Mary Poppins and Disney’s Robin Hood in a theater just like this.

Across the way from Liggett Hall is Colonel’s Row. These are six large homes, built in the 1870s for the high-ranking officers when the island became an army base. These homes were originally on the waterfront, but the island was later expanded with landfill from the excavation of the Lexington Avenue subway line. These homes are now used for art shows and non-profit organizations.

To see my other Governors Island posts, please click below:

Battery Maritime Building
Soissons Landing and Castle Williams
Liggett Hall
Fort Jay and The Hills (Coming Soon)

Location: New York Bay

Designation: National Monument

Date designation declared: 1/19/2001

Date of my visit: 9/11/2018

Millennium Park

On June 20, 2019June 19, 2019 By nationalparkswithtIn IllinoisLeave a comment

Welcome back to National Parks & other public lands with T! If you are seeing this on Twitter or Facebook, please visit the blog to see all of the photos and read the story by clicking the link.

Millennium Park in Chicago was intended to help ring in the new millennium. Planning for it began in 1997, but it opened fours years behind schedule in 2004. Budgeted at $150 million, it cost the city and private donors $475 million to build.

Constructed on top of rail yards and parking garages, Millennium park is actually a 25 acre rooftop garden. It is contained within Grant Park and features an outdoor concert space and pedestrian bridge designed by Frank Gehry.

Another popular section of the park is the AT&T Plaza with its Cloud Gate sculpture, by artist Anish Kapoor. It’s three stories of polished steel and fondly known as ‘The Bean.’ Cloud Gate was completed two years after Millennium Park opened.

Location: 201 E Randolph St, Chicago, IL 60602

Designation: City Park

Date designation declared: 7/16/2004

Date of my visit: May 24, 2015

Gateway NRA: Farewell Monkey

On June 19, 2019June 19, 2019 By nationalparkswithtIn New Jersey39 Comments

This post is not so much is not so much about Sandy Hook, which is one of the NPS units that allows dogs at certain times of the year. This is more of a tribute to our dog Monkey, who enjoyed visiting parks with us. She passed away after a sudden and brief illness this week and we are devastated.

In 2011, we rescued Monkey from an overcrowded kill shelter where she’d been held for 4 months without much hope of being adopted before her number was up. We nearly passed her by because her tag said she wasn’t good with children. But as she quietly wagged her tail at us while her neighbors barked, we had a feeling she might be our dog, no matter what the sign said.

And over the course of 8 happy years, we came to realize that she was the one who had adopted us. I am so grateful that we became her forever family.

On Monday night, I stopped by the animal hospital to visit Monkey where she was receiving a transfusion to get her strong enough for surgery. She stood up and wagged her tail at me which I captured in this clip. I hugged her and told her what a good girl she was and asked her to try to get better.

Early the next morning, Monkey took a turn for the worse. The three of us held her and loved her one last time as she crossed the rainbow bridge. I will miss her happy grin, her tireless defense of the perimeter from church people and woodchucks alike, the holes to China she was always digging and the way she looked out for all of us. Rest in peace my sweet, funny girl

Forgive my negligence in visiting your blogs or responding to your comments in a timely manner. I will get back to it soon and meanwhile, our regularly scheduled posts will resume tomorrow.

Grand Canyon National Park: Grandview Point

On June 17, 2019June 14, 2019 By nationalparkswithtIn Arizona17 Comments

Welcome back to National Parks & other public lands with T! If you are seeing this on Twitter or Facebook, please visit the blog to see all of the photos and read the story by clicking the link.

Two hours before sunset on our first evening in the Grand Canyon, we met up with Grand Canyon Jeep Tours & Safaris in Tusayan for the Grand Sunset Tour. Unlike the other tour company we used this trip, this was a well-run operation and we enjoyed this introduction to the park immensely.

Our guide was a local with ties to the Navajo and very knowledgeable about the native flora and fauna. He took us through Kaibab National Forest via the unpaved historic stagecoach roads, pausing whenever someone glimpsed an elk or deer through the trees so we could all see.

Our first stop was the steel Grandview Lookout Tower. This was built in 1936 as a fire watchtower by the Civilian Conservation Corps. We climbed the 80 foot tower to see the view from the top.

We got back into the jeep and continued along the gravel road until it met up with the park road. We got out at Moran Point where we could see the river and Grandview Point and then got back in the jeep to travel to Grandview for the sunset.

The Grandview is the southernmost point on the South Rim and the farthest from the Colorado River. Because of its position, the drop-offs here are less steep with more intervening buttes and ravines than in spots closer to the river. This makes it an ideal place to watch the sunset as it washes over all the nooks and crannies in a colorful display.

There was a hotel built here in 1895 for Grand Canyon tourists, before the construction of El Tovar and other Grand Canyon Village facilities. It only lasted a few years and we saw no remains of it when we were there.

To see my other posts on the Grand Canyon, please click the following links:

Bright Angel
Hermit’s Rest
South Kaibab
Yavapai
Desert View
Grandview
Western Rim Skywalk (Coming Soon)
Western Rim Guano Point (Coming Soon)

Location: Arizona

Designation: National Park

Date designation declared: 1/11/1908

Date of my visit: 8/19/2014

Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine

On June 14, 2019June 3, 2019 By nationalparkswithtIn Maryland4 Comments

Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T! If you are seeing this on Twitter or Facebook, please visit the blog to see all of the photos and read the story by clicking the link. Happy Flag Day to my American friends and family!

Fort McHenry is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it defended Baltimore Harbor against an attack by the British navy. It was first built in 1798 and saw military service up through WWII. First designated a national park in 1925, it was re-designated a “National Monument and Historic Shrine” in 1939.

On the morning following the decisive battle in the War of 1812, the victorious American soldiers raised a large flag over the fort. Seeing the 14-star flag flying in the smoke and aftermath of the battle inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry.” Later set to music, it became the Star Spangled Banner, our national anthem.

It is tradition that when a new flag is designed it first flies over Fort McHenry. The first official 49- and 50-star American flags were flown over the fort and the originals are still there. The Star Spangled Banner flying outside over the fort is a replica of the one that inspired Francis Scott Key.

The fort is in an industrial area on the outskirts of Baltimore. If you are driving there, use the directions from the nps.gov website. GPS will get you lost once you get off the highway. You can also take the ferry from Inner Harbor, but you can only take it back as a return trip (no using the fort’s lot for free parking while visiting the city.) You can see my post on Baltimore National Heritage Area by clicking here.

We visited on a 100 degree Fahrenheit day with young children. Too hot for the kids to do the junior ranger thing, we started with the movie in the air-conditioned visitor center…it’s actually moving as well as informative. It’s short, about ten minutes.

We perused some interesting exhibits in the visitor’s center. Did I mention the air conditioning? And that we were there on the hottest weekend of the summer? The exhibits were cool…literally.

Then we braved the swampy inferno and walked out to the fort to see the cannons and the Star Spangled replica. There were lots of rangers around during our visit, which was great because the kids had questions which the rangers were happy to answer.

Location: 2400 E Fort Ave, Baltimore, MD 21230

Designation: National Monument

Date designation declared: 3/3/1925

Date of my visit: July 17, 2013

The Dole Plantation

On June 12, 2019June 3, 2019 By nationalparkswithtIn Hawaii12 Comments

Welcome back to National Parks & other public lands with T! If you are seeing this on Twitter or Facebook, please visit the blog to see all of the photos and read the story by clicking the link.

The Dole Plantation is a tourist attraction on the island of Oahu. We stopped here long enough to get our free sample of Dole Whip (soft-serve pineapple ice cream) and get a little background on the pineapple industry in Hawaii.

Originally a fruit stand in the 1950s, the Dole Plantation became a full-fledged tourist attraction in 1989, complete with a train ride, maze and tour. We didn’t do any of the more touristy things, so I can’t speak to their value.

The Dole family was involved in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and Sanford Dole was the US territory’s first governor until 1903. Sanford’s cousin James Dole founded the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901. When the US annexed Hawaii, selling produce to the mainland became more profitable…no tariffs.