Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Why be a national park when you can be a national lakeshore? No, I mean that. Anyway, here's the amazing things I saw from a boat!

Use the people in those kayaks (yes, that's what they are!) for scale.

Mammoth Cave National Park

I went to a national park MONTHS AGO. I'm getting to it now because life is busy, you know? Anyway, before I got to Mammoth Cave, had to stop in a small town for a sandwich and a slice of pie.

Our Park Ranger was a wonderful guide who warned us several times that if we entered unprepared, we would die. An elderly gentelman ignored the warning, and then put us all at risk. Watch out for your old folks, people. 

 Look, caves don't photograph well. Go to one yourself if you want to see what it's all about. Cool? Cool.

When I go out of town without my son, I take a toy he's favoring at that moment and photograph it with stuff I see. Here's his lego man on the visitor center sign. 

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

I'm on one of those National Park quests in my life, and while circumstances have prevented any more trips for the moment due to how insanely busy I am, I stole away to Cuyahoga Valley a few weeks ago for the day. Situated between Akron and Cleveland, this is a national park Ohio-style. It doesn't take long and isn't the most amazing, but if you love history the way I do, it has some learning experiences along the trails. There's also a train and multiple minor waterfalls.

If you're on a National Park quest, or enjoy history, I recommend you stop in and learn about trains and boats. The hiking trails I traversed were rather low-level, and had I three extra hours, I would have taken the train round-trip.

Washington State - Olympic National Park

This past March, my wife and I left our baby at home for the first time ever, and went to Olympic National Park. Why? Because that's who we are meant to be! Seriously. Atlas isn't ready for national parks just yet, but we needed one, and so West we went.

This park is huge and has many parts, and we had very little time. So, we decided to see EVERYTHING IN A DAY AND A HALF. Here's how that went.

California, Part 5 - Muir Woods

My wife found Muir Woods. When we were heading for California with the family, and she knew she'd be staying an extra week for work, a picture of redwoods popped into her head, and our fate was sealed. Seeing the woods was our main goal -- nothing else about the time spent in the Bay area mattered. We disregarded San Francisco -- yes, we went there, but that comes later, because our whole stay was centered around seeing amazing trees and nature. Muir Woods.

We stayed nearby in Muir Beach, in a cottage that was absolutely perfect. Here's the view from our deck that morning when I woke up.

Muir Woods gets crowded fast, but when you're already north of the bridge and down the road from it when you wake up, you can beat the crowd. We barely dealt with anyone during our three hours in the monument. Instead, we just spent time with this:

Wife for scale.

Thank goodness for John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt. This was the most impressive, significant, powerful place we visited. If you've ever put it on a list of things to do in life, then move it to the top.