2023 has arrived, and even though the gray clouds remind me of Washington winter more than the dazzling snowscapes I envisioned, it's off to a pretty good start in the Clare household. We had a lovely Christmas break with many visits from family and friends, and my kids and I found a snow drift large… Continue reading Exploring the Oshkosh Public Museum (and a Small Piece of the National WWII Museum)
Our travel route- roughly. 🙂 Map image courtesy Wikimedia commons: links here. I added the red arrow. Five people. One minivan. 2,300(ish) miles. It had been three years since my children had seen their Wisconsin relatives. Two since they'd had a visit from the Minnesota side of the family. They had cousins they'd never met,… Continue reading Road Trip!!! From Washington to Wisconsin
One view of Merriman Falls, located on the south shore of Lake Quinault Spring has reached the Pacific Northwest. The year-round shadows of Washington's evergreens are interspersed with fresh spouting leaves of maples and clusters of blooming rhododendron. The cold drizzle has started to turn to...well, warmer drizzle. It's time to venture outdoors! After searching… Continue reading Exploring the Quinault Rainforest
Hello Readers, Writers, and Nature Lovers! Summer is winding to a close, and taking with it chances to explore the outdoors before school begins again. The Clare family decided to seize the sunshine last week and explore one of my favorite places in Washington—Mt. Rainier National Park. This isn't the first visit to Rainer that… Continue reading Marvelous Mountains and Marmots
In the bustle of this time of year, I might have missed the fact that today's date is a significant one, but as I signed on this morning, GP Cox's post in remembrance of Pearl Harbor came up. On this, the 78th anniversary of the day that the Second World War came to American soil, I… Continue reading Exploring Pearl Harbor: The USS Arizona Memorial
Near the end of summer, two of the smaller Clares and I found ourselves wandering around Bainbridge Island, WA. Bainbridge Island is both a city and an island, resting in Puget Sound across from Seattle and only connected to Kitsap Peninsula (an offshoot of the larger Olympic Peninsula) by a two-lane bridge. It's filled with… Continue reading Visiting the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial
Local wisdom says that residents of the Pacific Northwest should expect gray, rainy weather up through the fourth of July- then summer sunshine will officially begin. This year hasn't worked that way. Summer visited a couple of months early when I was expecting drizzle, and then (maybe embarrassed by the mistake) it hid itself away… Continue reading Exploring Hurricane Ridge
The memorial to the USS Arizona is the most well-known and easily accessible in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. However, it isn't the only one. The attacks on December 7, 1941 which launched the United States into Word War 2 did a great deal of damage and made complete losses of three battleships: the USS Arizona, the USS Utah and… Continue reading Exploring Pearl Harbor: The USS Utah and USS Oklahoma Memorials
A few weeks ago, my husband met me as I wearily hauled my school bags through the door. "About the Utah trip- we're going to have to postpone it." I sighed. We've been planning on a trip to explore the national parks in Utah for nearly ten years. Life keeps interfering with home repairs, family… Continue reading Exploring Pearl Harbor: The USS Arizona Memorial
thenaptimeauthor.wordpress.com 