A winter paradise: Florida's Gulf Islands National Seashore

The National Park Service News service features Gulf Islands National Seashore in its latest release.

The park is welcoming visitors again after being threatened by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

This is the best time to visit as the hot, humid weather between June and September softens to a comfortable warmth.

National Park Service Ranger-led tours include barrier islands, local birds, and the forts found at Gulf Islands that represent colonization by the Spanish, and events from the Civil War and World War II.

The park also boasts sugar-white beaches, marshes full of wildlife, and hiking and biking trails winding through saw tooth palmettos and live oaks. Snorkeling also opens up a world of marine life in the Gulf's blue-green waters.

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Clinton home birthplace added to National Parks holdings

If you're like many RVers who have a National Park Service "passport" book, you'll soon have a new stamp to acquire: After the turn of the year, the Service takes over the childhood home of President Bill Clinton. The modest home in Hope, Arkansas will hold the formal title, President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site.

The Clinton Birthplace, at 117 S. Hervey Street. in Hope, Arkansas, is a 2 ½ story American four-square home. The President's grandparents owned the home from 1938 until the mid-1950s. The future president called it home from his birth until he was age 4, but the place centered in his life for as long as his grandparents owned the home.

While the Park Service will take over official operations of the new National Historic Site in January, a formal dedication will happen sometime in Spring.

Photos: Clinton home, clintonbirthplace.org; Clinton at age 4, photographs of the White House Photograph Office (Clinton Administration