NEWS BLIPS
First Family To Visit Each U.S. National Park and Unit Enters Guinness World Record Book
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through USA Today's website.
The Maitland family visits their 418th U.S. National Park and does so while making it into the Guinness Book of World Records. After 8 years of traveling to each national park and unit in the US, the family is now at Kalaupapa National Historical Park on the island of Molokai. They are the first family to go to each and every one of the national parks, including national battlefield sites, national memorials, national scenic trails and national seashores. Although they have seven children, Jim and Cheri Maitland and their 16-year old daughter Jamison, and 14-year-old son Gerald embarked on the mission after watching the documentary “America’s Best Idea” by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan.
According to the USA Today article, Jim and Cheri Maitland are semi-retired. They also have taken in two foreign exchange students who spent 10 months last year and this year traveling with them. They’ve been homeschooling the children to allow for all the trips. The family travels modestly, sleeping in the van most of the time. They even drove to Alaska, traversing 11,000 miles in six weeks. “We thought Alaska was going to be hard,” Cheri Maitland says. "It turned out easier than anticipated. Every trip we learn something. Know before you go. That’s the most important thing. Map where you’re going to go.”
Of the 418 parks, 59 are formally designated U.S. National Parks. The rest are units. Jim Maitland says he’s enjoyed the smaller units as much as the big national parks. “The smaller units, the reason we fell in love with them is they’re all about this country, how the USA was created, the good, the bad, the ugly,” he says. The family could not settle on their favorite national park, but nevertheless the feat is spectacular and should be honored as so.
View the full article on their story and pictures at USA Today.
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