I’m usually a BIG fan of the fact that we live in NJ. But right now, we are still in COVID lockdown, and I am NOT happy about that. We promised at the beginning of this shitshow that our family would make our own fun. We reverted to simple things that we’ve always depended on for family fun – outdoor outings, movie nights (outdoors as well), walking, hiking, the beach, archery and even fishing.

I need and want to log a certain amount of miles of walking per week and I encourage all of my cast members to get out in nature as well. I will drag as many of them out as I can as I pursue the entries in this book, which I have owned for about 25 years.

There are some notes in the margins about completed hikes and which kids I had in tow when I did them. I’d love to have this book really marked up as a souvenir of good times!

This week, Dennis, Sean and I drove to Loantaka Brook Reservation and it was a new spot for us. It was also new for us that we were a lowly threesome. Sean chatted incessantly enjoying both the neatly paved path and his only-child-ness.

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This 3.5 mile trip was really enjoyable, flat and paved. You could do it with a stroller and older folks. We do not recommend the route in the book that included Loantaka Way – it was a much busier road than we anticipated. You could simply go out and back.

Soon we will be shuffling through leaves and maybe even trudging through snow.

We will put one foot in front of the other both literally and figuratively.