The Dutch and their bikes

This is a photo from in front of Amsterdam's Central Station. The Dutch use bikes as an efficient way of getting around instead of driving everywhere like Americans do.

#57 Joshua Tree NP

Joshua Tree National Park preserves more than just the tree of the same name, is also encompasses two types of deserts, a higher elevation one and a lower elevation one. The park itself has suffered a large degree of envirmonmental damage and reduction of the once captivating mountains views as a direct result of the pollution which leaks through the San Bernardino Valley and into the park. The above feature is called Skeleton Rock.

See more picture of Joshua Tree NP, including the park's namesake, here.

#56 Mojave National Preserve

Mojave National Preserve is located a between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and preserves volcanic formations, mountains, dunes and caverns. It is an incredibly diverse place which has large difference in rainfall and elevation in the park's differing ecosystems.
See more pictures of the sparsely settled area here.

#55 Lake Mead NRA

This is a picture of The Hoover Dam, which is located in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The dam has helped create the park's two major Resivior, Lake Mead and Lake Mojave, both of which a popular for their hiking, boating and watersports options. Taking a tour of the Dam is a popular day trip from Las Vegas.
The rest of my collection of Lake Mead NRA photos are here.

#54 Organ Pipe Cactus NM

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument celebrates the life and landscape of the Sonoran Desert. Here, in this desert wilderness of plants and animals and dramatic mountains and plains scenery, you can drive a lonely road, hike a back country trail, camp beneath a clear desert sky, or just soak in the warmth and beauty of the Southwest. The Monument exhibits an extraordinary collection of plants of the Sonoran Desert, including the organ pipe cactus, a large cactus rarely found in the United States. There are also many creatures that have been able to adapt themselves to extreme temperatures, intense sunlight and little rainfall.
The above memorial is dedicated to Park Ranger Kris Eggle, who was shot and killed by a Mexican Drug Smuggler in 2002 in a US Border Patrol Operation. The visitor center has been named in his honor.
See more pictures from OPCNM Here.

#53 Tumacacori NHP

This park south of Tucson, Arizona protects the ruins of three Franciscan Mission Communities, dating back to the early 1700s. The building pictures above is the only mission builing of the three that survives today.
See more pictures from Tumacacori here.

My First Class

This is a picture of my first class, 6th grade at Immanuel Lutheran in Houston Texas in 1995. I really enjoyed this smart, fun and energetic group of kids. I have recently had the opportunity to reconnect with many of them through Facebook and MySpace. Seeing them all grown up makes me feel really old!

Fluffy and the Disco Train

This is Fluffy in my pop-up, a 1977 Jayco, which was given to me by my friend Keath's parents, and named the Disco Train by my friend Tone. This picture is from out first camping trip in it, April of 2005.

#52 Saguaro NP

Saguaro National Park has two districts, the Rincon Mountain District, located East of Tucson, Arizona, and the Tucson Mountain District located West of the city. Both parts have great scenic drives which explore the world of this famously iconic cactus of the American Southwest and Mexico. The park is home to at least five other types of cactus, as well as a wide range of animals and birds.

See more pictures from my visit on a baking May day in 2003 here.
Rincon Mountain District
Tucson Mountain District

#51 Coronado NM

“As a result of this expedition, what has been truly characterized by historians as one of the greatest land expeditions the world has known, a new civilization was established in the great American Southwest” reported the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 1939. “To commemorate permanently the explorations of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado…would be of great value in advancing the relationship of the United States and Mexico upon a friendly basis of cultural understanding,” stated E. K. Burlew, Acting Secretary of the Interior in 1940. It would “stress the history and problems of the two countries and would encourage cooperation for the advancement of their common interests.”
The site was first designated “Coronado International Memorial” in 1941 in the hope that a comparable adjoining area would be established in Mexico. Despite interest by the government of Mexico, the Mexican memorial was never created; therefore, Coronado National Memorial was established by Harry S. Truman in 1952.

See more pictures here.

#50 Chiricahia NM

Chiricahua National Monument is located in Southeastern Arizona. It preserves the remains of the Turkey Creek Caldera eruption of 27 million years ago. The close to 2,000 feet of ash and pumice has hardened into rhyolite tuffs, which have eroded into the columns which are the most unique feature of the park. Also preserved is the Fairaway Ranch, a 19th century homestead owned by Swedish immigrants.

See the rest of my pictures here.

Proud to be an American

I have never been more proud to be an American than I am today.

#49 Fort Bowie NM

Fort Bowie commemorates in its 1000 acres, the story of the bitter conflict between the Chiricahua Apaches and the United States military. For more than 30 years Fort Bowie and Apache Pass were the focal point of military operations eventually culminating in the surrender of Geronimo in 1886 and the banishment of the Chiricahuas to Florida and Alabama. It was the site of the Bascom Affair, a wagon train massacre, and the battle of Apache Pass, where a large force of Chiricahua Apaches under Mangus Colorados and Cochise fought the California Volunteers. The remains of Fort Bowie today are carefully preserved, the adobe walls of various post buildings and the ruins of a Butterfield Stage Station. It stands as a lasting monument to the bravery and endurance of U.S. soldiers in paving the way for westward settlement and the taming of the western frontier. It also serves to give us an understanding of the "clash of cultures," one a young emerging nation in pursuit of its "manifest destiny," the other a valiant hunter/gatherer society fighting to preserve its existence. Apache resistance was finally crushed at Fort Bowie, and the result was the end of the Indian wars in the United States.

Fort Bowie is one of the most unique parks in the NPS in that it's main site is not one that you can drive right up to. The parking lot is a mile and a half away from the site. While the walk is not strenuous, it is still through a stretch of the Southern Arizona desert, which can be quite inhospitable, especially during the summer months. I started my hike around 73o AM, so it wasn't too bad.

See more pictures of this fascinating park here.

#48 Glia Cliff Dweillings NM

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument offers a glimpse of the homes and lives of the people of the Mogollon culture who lived in the Gila Wilderness from the 1280s through the early 1300s. The surroundings probably look today very much like they did when the cliff dwellings were inhabited. It is surrounded by the Gila National Forest and lies at the edge of the Gila Wilderness, the nation's first designated wilderness area. This designation means that the wilderness character of the area will not be altered by the intrusion of roads or other evidence of human presence. The drive to the monument is a winding road into one of the most remote areas in the lower 48 States.

See more pictures of Gila Cliff Dwellings NM here.

Ron & Lena Enstrom

These are my friends Ron and Lena Enstrom at my wedding. Ron and I worked together for close to ten years at Domino's in Oak Park, Illinois. We also spent a week in Europe together in 1998.

Dad & I in Boston

Just about every place I go I take an "idiot" photo. That's where I hold the camera out and take a picture of myself with the site in the background. Many of these end up having weird of hilarious facial expressions. This picture is the only idiot photo I have ever taken where someone is in it with me. This is from the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston last September.

See the whole collection of idiot photos from that trip here.

#47 White Sands NM

White Sands National Monument is located in Southern New Mexico. The area is in the mountain-ringed Tularosa Basin valley area and comprises the southern part of a 275mi field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals. Gypsum sand does not heat up from the sun, so a popular activity is children and adults alike to walk up and the dunes even in the hottest months of the summer. I remember this park, as well as Carlsbad Caverns, being two of my favorite parks when we visited the west in the summer of 1982. This picture is from my May 2003 visit.

See more pictures from the 2003 visit here.

#46 Guadalupe Mountains NP

Guadalupe Mountains National Park is located in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas and contains Guadalupe Paek, the highest point in Texas at 8,749 feet. It also contains El Capitan, long used as a landmark by people traveling along the old route later followed by the Butterfield Overland Mail Stagecoach line. Visitors can see the ruins of an old stagecoach station near the Pine Springs Visitor Center. Camping is available nearby at the Pine Springs Campground. The restored Frijole Ranch House is now a small museum of local ranching history and is the trailhead for Smith Spring. The park covers 135 square miles and is considered a hiker's mecca.

See more of my Pics here.

#45 Carlsbad Caverns NP

Carlsbad Caverns is an amazing National Park. It is one of over 300 limestone caves dating back over 250 million years. Not only are the rock formations remarkable, but the sight of thousands of bats leaving the caves at dusk is also a spectacular sight.
Jim White, a cowboy who first explored the caves in 1898, gets the most credit for discovering the caves, but there is indications of native american presence from 12,000 years ago and spanish explorers are known to have visited during the 1500's.
Unlike most limestone caves the Carlsbad Caverns were carved out of the rock by sulfuric acid, which has produced awe-inspiring caves such as the Big Room, Doll's Theater and the Queen's chamber.
The picture above is of the formation known as the Lion's Tail.

Caves are hard to photograph. See the rest of my attemps to capture this amazing park on film here.

#44 Oklahoma City NM

The Oklahoma City National Memorial is the largest memorial of its kind in the United States. It honors the victims, survivors, rescuers, and all who were changed by the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19th, 1995. The memorial is located in downtown Oklahoma City on the former site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building which was destroyed in the 1995 bombing. The National Memorial Museum and the Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism are the two components which are housed in the old Journal Record Building on the north side of the memorial grounds.

This is one of the most powerful memorials I have ever been to. The museum next door is gripping and heart breaking. The exhibits incluse a room where the families of survivors have left a small rememberence of their loved one in a individual glass case. In another room there is a audio recording of the events of that morning from the courthouse across the street.

See more pictures from the Oklahoma City National Memorial here.

#43 Fort Smith NHS

Fort Smith National Historic Site is located along the Arkansas River in the downtown area of the modern city of Fort Smith, Arkansas. It preserves the remains of two 19th Century forts, both of which played and important part in the regulation if Indian affairs. The fort was also an important stop on the Trail of Tears.

See more of my pictures from Fort Smith NHS here.

Gibraltar

This is a picture of me in Gibraltar, a tiny British enclave attached to Southern Spain. I visited here in 1999 with my parents on out tour of Spain and Portugal. It was quite a surprise going from all the Spanish food we'd been eating to the British Pub Grub style fare we had in Gibraltar. The Pillars of Hercules legend featured in the signs in from the ancient Greeks, who used the phrase to describe the two promontories that mark the Straits of Gibraltar. The Rock of Gibraltar is the northern pillar, the southern pillar is disputed, either being in the Spanish enclave of Cueta, or Northeastern Morocco.

See more pictures from our memorable tour of Gibraltar here.

Grandma & Grandpa

This is a picture of my Grandparents from their nursing home in 2005 about three months before they passed. My whole family misses them, but I am happy they are still together.

#42 Pea Ridge NB

Pea Ridge National Military park is located in Northwest Arkansas in May of 1862. Like Wilson's Creek, fought a year before, the battle was a Union victory and important is keeping Missouri as part of the Union. The above photo is of The Elkhorn Tavern, which was at the intersection of the area's two main roads and where the battle broke out. I should note that this is one of the parks where I found the Rangers especially helpful.

See more pictures here.

#41 George Washington Carver NM

This site preserves the site of the boyhood home of Civil Rights Pioneer George Washington Carver, as well as the home of his father, Moses Carver, and the Carver family cemetery. His boyhood home consists of rolling hills, woodlands, and prairies. The park has a 3/4 mile nature trail, museum, and an interactive exhibit area for students. This cultural sites includes the 1881 Historic Moses Carver house and the cemetery. It was the first national monument dedicated to an African-American and first to a non-President.

See more pictures of the Monument here.

#40 Wilson's Creek NB

Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, located just Southwest of Springfield, Missouri, preserves the site of the first major engagement West of the Mississippi River. The resulting Confederate defeat enabled the Union to keep Missouri. The picture above is of the Ray House, which is a reconstruction of a local residence that was converted to a Confederate Hospital on August 10th, 1861, the day of the famous battle.

Follow this link for more of my Wilson's Creek NB photos.

#39 Jefferson National Expansion Memorial

JNEM is located along the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. It sits a top the excellent Museum of Westward Expansion and commemorates the nearby departure spot if the Lewis & Clark expedition. Visitors can take an elevator to the top of the arch. I did not do this on the day this picture was taken in 2004, it was a Saturday and the lines were enormous. I had done it as a teenager when I visited with my parents on one of our trips out west.

See more pictures of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial here.

#38 Fort Frederica NM

Fort Frederica National Monument is located on St. Simons Island on the South Georgia coast. It was built by James Ogelthorpe between 1736 and 1748. It's purpose was to protect the British settlement of Georgia from the Spanish, who had settled just to the south in Florida. There were two failed attemps by the Spanish to take the fort in 1742. I visited this site in January of 2004, with my friend Keath, while on our way to Florida to visit my parents.

Here is a link to the rest of my Fort Frederica NM Pictures.

Husband & Wife

Awww.... Look at the happy couple!

See more wedding recessional pictures here.

Senior Picture

This is one of my senior pictures from high school in 1990, when I was 17.

#37 Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP

Black Canyon of the Gunnison is one of America's newest National Parks, preserving an amazing stretch of canyon east of Montrose, Colorado.

Happy 2009!

This is a picture from New Years' Eve 2008, with our friends Keath and Khris.