Enter a gift shop in a national park and your senses are overwhelmed with memorabilia for sale that years down the road will, hopefully, remind you of your vacation. What do you look for?
There are hats to collect, T-shirts, and hiking stick medallions. Then, too, there are even scrapbook supplies, puzzles, guidebooks, field journals, coffee cups, and framed photographs by photographers who, most often, are better shooters than we are. Some gift shops offer commemorative wool blankets, jewelry, and beer glasses.
Do any of these items interest you? Do you focus on one aspect of park memorabilia -- hats or the hiking stick medallions, perhaps -- to track your national park visits?
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Comments
I used to do t-shirts -- one of these days I need to make a National Park T-shirt quilt because I've got enough to cover a king-sized bed, I think.
And I do refrigerator magnets. I've got them from 28 different national parks and monuments (in addition to many other places I've visited).
This last trip to Yellowstone a couple of weeks ago I came home with a mug and a 2011 calendar [g].
Must haves: the park brochure from the VC, patches, postcards, and passport stamps, CD's of regional music (bluegrass and hammer dulcimer from Great Smoky Mountains, whaling songs from New Bedford, etc.), baseball caps from the "Big" parks (Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, Everglades, Mt. Rainier, etc.), and usually one of the KC Publications "Behind the Scenery" books on the park. Also, books by local authors, or at least pertaining to the area, although a couple of years ago I stretched that a bit to buy what turned out to be an excellent book called "The Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges" by....well I can't think of the authors' names at the moment :)
And then the same type of stuff Laran mentions above in that first line (kidding too).
Patches and brochures. I keep the brochures in a file box. Unfortunately some units (such as Constitution Gardens) appear not to have such publications.
I love Barky's comment! My family has a few small concessions in the Parks (in New Mexico) and we work hard to carry handmade items by local artists - often Native Americans. Jewelry, pots, weavings... It really does have a positive impact on the local economy! We have some stuff made in China - because there's a demand and many items (spoons, anyone?) are not made anywhere in the US. Buying local is great! It allows us to keep buying from individual artisans.
Photographs, stories, and memories.
The Passport system is great but I've collected each Park's brochure for many years. Unfortunately, I can't find a convenient way to display/store them so they are easy to see and review.