Quick Notes from a Road Trip West: Family Business

Quick Notes from a Road Trip West: Family Business

I keep trying to think of something to write about Glacier National Park that may not have been said already by someone, somewhere.  But I am sure the picture I posted on Facebook a couple of days ago and the many other pictures I took before and after it would be the best commentary I could offer.  I guess I will simply take note of what seems like a side issue, but is important to all of our visits to parks and monuments preserved for us and shared with us by the Federal government.

I think Ken Burns called our national parks our government's best idea, and while I can't say that for sure, I am sure they are a darned good idea by our government. From this consumer's experience they are well-run and appropriately shared with us and will hundreds of thousands of visitors from overseas. I can't imagine what they would be like if they'd been left to private enterprise and entrepreneurship. They are beautiful, mostly clearly presented, and offer nearly everyone of nearly all physical abilities a chance to experience them.  They employ highly-dedicated staffs, supplemented by equally-dedicated volunteers. I know not everyone is happy with everything they do, but achieving that would be impossible. Their mission is too big to expect perfection.

Our parks even take global warming/climate change seriously, because they see it happening and they see what it is doing. It would be good for a number of the members of congress to spend some time at the national parks for which they are responsible, although I fear what they might try to do to alter their message about our climate if they knew what was being said. Maybe this is one area of public life where we're better off if they stay locked inside the beltway.

We are now in Spokane WA with our daughter and son-in-law and two granddaughters. The older of them celebrated her 5th birthday in a city park with a bunch of her (and her parents') best friends, and for the last half-hour her 2-year-old sister has been engaged in a fairly predictable end-of-a-big-day meltdown.  But it sounds as if a bath and the girls' patient parents have settled them into sleep mood, and soon all will be quiet so we adults can relax with appropriate drinks after hosting a big party in the 95-degree heat of the day.

In a couple of days we turn around and head back east, seeing Yellowstone en route. Can anything top what we've seen already. Maybe not, but I don't think it will matter.