6/9/13: I bought Zoe and Silas sun hats at Old Navy two years and they really never wore them until this year (well, Zoe wears hers). I bought myself a sun hat in the men's section at LL Bean last week. Somehow, purchased two years apart, we are twinkies in our blue sun hats.
Perfect hats for hiking in the woods.
I was again reminded today that I like the IDEA of hiking in the woods more than I like the woods themselves. Just like I love stores like REI and LL Bean with all the outdoor gear, but I'm not really a big camper (yet!) and I have a fairly small window of enjoyment when it comes to spending extended periods of time outside. I love the outdoors, I just don't like the annoying things that come with the outdoors - bugs, sunburns, and sweating to name a few. As I've gotten older, however, I have become more tolerant of the things that nature bring, in part because I care less about how I look and I have become about as practical as they come. I've also come to hate people and I desperately seek solace and refuge on the weekends. And nature outings are a great family bonding activity (right, Derek?). The pros outweigh the cons, so I keep going back (to Hale Reservation, specifically).
Since we have become frequent visitors to Hale we are eager to explore different parts of the reservation. Today we headed to the Butterfly Orchard in search of a pond so small it doesn't have a name on the map. The map is all we're going on for these explorations, so it's sort of like rolling the dice.
We pulled into an empty parking lot which is a great thing in my book (see previous comment about humans).
We headed toward the butterfly orchard (which had very few butterflies today - we were happy to finally spot one!), which was surrounded by a large meadow.
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| It's black, in the center |
Hiking with kids is all about trial and error. We headed down one path, and I could feel my anxiety level creeping up as I could see that the path was grown over and not well traveled. After Derek stepped down on ground that felt like wetlands, we turned around headed back to find a different path.
S&Z didn't even notice because there were so many things to explore along the way! Grasshoppers, bees, dragonflies, and lots and lots of ants. Watching their curiosity in full force is one of the things that keeps me exploring with them.
Zoe is more adventurous than Silas on these types of outings, and she keeps up with Derek pretty easily. Silas, on the other hand, is pretty cautious (per usual) and he doesn't want to be too far away from any of us. At one point we got a little ahead of him and he stopped in the middle of the meadow, waved his arm in the air and started yelling "I'm over here! I'm over here!". This was his way of asking me to come and hold his hand.
We got back on our way on a new trail - although this one wasn't too easy either. Mental note: future hikes in the deep woods requires long pants and a stash of bug spray in the backpack!
We finally made it to the pond, but unfortunately there wasn't a good "landing" spot to really stop and enjoy. A big rock ended up doing the trick! There were tons of frogs near this pond, so it was really cool to listen to the sounds of bullfrogs while we walked.
The picnic tables near the meadow were surrounded by overgrown grass, so we headed over to the picnic tables at one of our favorite spots near the fishing beach.
When I asked the kids what their favorite part of today was, Silas said "the bees and butterflies", and Zoe said "the picnic!".
And that's why I keep coming back.
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