My wife, daughter and I recently returned from a month’s vacation — we headed West with our minivan and 1988 pop-up camper. On the trip, we visited my family in three states, followed the Lewis and Clark Trail to the Oregon coast, saw the great redwoods in Northern California and finished up in San Francisco. In all, we drove 7,500 miles over 21 states and two Canadian provinces. I’d do it all again in a heartbeat (maybe not tomorrow)!

From top: Our daughter explores a recreation of Fort Manuel in Kenel, S.D. It was where Sakakawea lived after working as a guide on Lewis and Clark’s exploration of the Missouri River and the West; Sitting Bull’s burial site in Fort Yates, N.D., is surrounded by sandbags as the rising Missouri River goes over its banks. Uniforms hang in the entryway to a recreation of the Custer House at Fort Abraham Lincoln in Mandan, N.D. The post is where the Custer’s 7th Cavalry was stationed before leaving for Little Big Horn; Hot dogs roast on a campfire started with one match by my uncle during our visit in White Bird, Idaho; A young visitor enters the Camera Obscura overlooking the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco — built in 1946, the eight-inch lens at the top of the building is fixed at f8; A Golden Gate Ferry worker reads his newspaper as a container ship passes the Larkspur Ferry in San Francisco Bay; As his two dogs rest, a street performer tunes his guitar near Union Square in San Francisco; Our daughter lets the waves of the Pacific Ocean wash over her at Gold Bluffs Beach at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park near Orick, Calif.

This evening, I stopped by the Tunbridge Public Library to take pictures of the children involved in the summer reading program. Ben Wolfe not only read a story about beach-combing to the kids, but he also had a water-related demonstration to show them afterwards. It quickly degenerated into a game of “Soak Ben.” He’s such a good sport!

To celebrate my wife’s upcoming 50th birthday, we were treated by my in-laws to a great Fourth of July in Boston. A Red Sox game in the hot sun at Fenway Park was followed by delicious seafood and then we watched the city’s big fireworks display from their apartment building (minus the crowd of 800,000 down by the river).

From top, fireworks on the Charles River could be seen blocks away from an apartment building on Massachusetts Avenue; a souvenir stand outside of Fenway Park shows jerseys of the team’s stars — except for designated hitter David Ortiz, all of the players are out with injuries (Ortiz’ ego might have been injured in the game against Baltimore because he didn’t get a hit). First baseman Kevin Youkilis rounds third base after hitting a ninth-inning home run over the Green Monster, the Red Sox only score of the game in the 6-1 loss; his attendance at the game recognized on the big screen, legendary Red Sox pitcher (and Vermonter) Bill “Spaceman” Lee left after the game in a minivan that was parked on Yawkey Way amongst the players’ Mercedes and Land Rovers; before heading home, a fan grabs a picture of the new sculpture “The Teammates” that shows Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Ted Williams from the Red Sox’ 1946 season.

I enjoyed wandering around with my camera during my hometown’s Memorial Day activities — it’s one of the best small-town experiences I know of. And it was great to see so many familiar faces! My daughter and I also stopped by our neighbor’s farm for a fundraiser for NOFA-VT’s Farmshare program.

From top: Band member Rudy Ruddell tunes up his harmonica for Haywire’s performance at Tunbridge Hill Farm; Children try to get the attention of the Tunbridge Volunteer Fire Department as they throw candy during the parade; One pug had a good view of the tractors, hot rods, children and oxen parading down Route 110; Amy Bogardus tries to direct her Guernsey ox, Cash, during a game of Cow Plop Bingo at the fairgrounds.

On May Day, my sister paid to fly me to Washington D.C. to document the arrival of 100 Iowa veterans — including her father-in-law, Allan Wehrspann — to see the National World War II Memorial. They were part of a national program called the Honor Flight, which raises money to send veterans to the nation’s capital to see the memorial, completed in 2004. Over the three hours I was there, I saw Honor Flight groups from Alabama, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New England, New York, and Washington. The Iowa veterans also saw other monuments and had a quick tour of the city before returning home to Fort Dodge, Iowa, on the same day.

From top: When he got off the bus at the National World War II Memorial in Washington D.C., Allan Wehrspann of Ottosen, Iowa, was surprised to see his daughter Mary, who had flown in from St. Paul, Minn., with her two sons and daughter-in-law. Wehrspann’s two sons were guardians on the flight; completed in 2004, the memorial honors the 16 million veterans of the United States who served in the war; four-thousand stars at the memorial symbolize the 400,000 who died in the war; a female Mallard bathes in the reflecting pool that flows into the memorial — in the background is the Lincoln Memorial, where a national church service was held in the morning; Wehrspann, left, and two other veterans are reflected in the mural wall at the Korean War Veterans Memorial, which opened in 1995.