Exploration – Beyond Walking

Making walks fun for stubborn little kids

Why little? Because I have no experience incentivizing walks for big kids. I’ll revisit that in a few years.

In the meantime, I find myself trying to come up with creative ways to convince our five-year-old that yes, it is a good idea to go for a walk. It’s not that she has any problem with the outdoors, or dislikes walks as a rule. But when she only wants to swing, or draw with chalk, or doesn’t want to go out in the cold, or just needs a little boost to get going, sometimes I’ve got to think outside the box. (And yes, of course we let her swing and draw with chalk and all those other things. But walks are good for grown-ups, too!)

Difficulties with (my) little kids tend to occur very early in the walk (okay, basically just getting out the door) and sometime later during the last third or so. When the two-year-old was in a backpack carrier, the negotiations were limited to only one child, which helped. But now both kids are a bit big for that. So, here are some of the tricks that I have had success with.

Green Spaces for Gray Days

*The Orchid Room at the Rawlings Conservatory, in Baltimore*, *offers a colorful break from winter weather.*

By the time February rolls around, I’m craving warmth and greenery. Right now we’re lacking both the brightness of sun upon snow (no snow, intermittent sun) and the bright colors of trees and plants. It’s an easy time to feel a little “blah.” And so, a couple of years ago, I realized one way to find respite without going far from home is to seek out local conservatories. Awash in humidity, full of life, growth, water features, color, texture, they are mid-winter’s eye candy. Now that we have two young children in tow, conservatories offer a bonus in that they provide a space that is both inviting for adults and welcoming for children, who can explore freely and also speak at their regular volume.

This past weekend we spent part of a morning at the Rawlings Conservatory in Baltimore, our second visit. The first, one year ago, was on a sunny day, which made the experience feel a bit warmer despite the colder temperatures. Although the past week has been on the milder side for early February, it has also been just cloudy and gray enough to warrant an enjoyable hour in a green space.

Hikes Just around the Corner

And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye
clear. What we need is here.
– from Wendell Berry’s “The Wild Geese”

It’s funny how sometimes you can go for years living in a place before you learn certain things about it. I lived for a year in a town in Maryland, wishing for a good breakfast place. Might I add that once you move out of the metro New York area, trying to find a bagel or pizza place that satisfies cravings for either of those can feel impossible. Imagine my surprise, then, to learn after moving to another town that the first had the best bagels around.

Short, popular hikes: Worth it?

Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, June 2018.

Anyone visiting a new park or hiking area will no doubt stumble upon reviews of that locale’s most popular short hikes early in their research. These hikes typically promise big views in exchange for minimal to moderate effort, but they are likely to guarantee big crowds.

My tendency is to want to avoid these areas in my planning, and I spend a good amount of time looking for other hikes that are a bit more off the beaten path. While I don’t think my strategy is a bad one in general, especially if one of the goals of a hike is to get away from crowds, I have to admit I’ve been proven wrong often enough to rethink this as a primary strategy.

Two out-and-back hikes that I initially planned to avoid but ended up taking, after recommendations from others? Delicate Arch, in Arches National Park, and Hidden Lake Overlook, in Glacier National Park.