One of the things that I love about where I grew up is the sheer variety of things that there are to do. It's less than 30 minutes away from the beach, within an hour or so of NYC, and nearby a few cute little towns with restaurants and shopping. Not to mention malls and diners, because it's Jersey. There's also a great county park system.
There's almost 16,000 acres in over 40 properties, including parks, recreation areas, golf courses, and historic sites. The park system also runs a host of programs for people of all ages - I've done hikes with them and day trips to fun sites in Jersey. I've gone kayaking and cross country skiing and on nighttime hikes with s'mores. When I'm down at my dad's, especially during the nice weather, I usually always make a stop at one park - if not numerous parks - during the weekend.
This past weekend was somewhat of a tour of the parks for my sister and myself. Within 36 hours, we spent 6+ hours at three different parks.
First, we went to volunteer training. We recently signed up to help maintain the trails in the parks, so first we had to go through some training to learn the tools and how not to hurt ourselves or anyone else while using them. Training took place in a park that we frequent for running - it's got a great paved loop. This is also where we've cross country skied and learned to shoot a bow and arrow. When we were little, our parents used to take us to community theater at a great little barn on the property.
But this time we discovered a whole new section of the park, and inadvertently learned a lot about the history of the park, which is comprised of parts of three old farms. The three farmhouses have now been converted to park system offices and multi use buildings, but I would be more than happy to live in any of them. We also discovered some wooded trails that look great for a bit more of a rugged run, which we kind of knew existed but never tried to figure out how to get to.
Later that day, we took the dogs to another park. This is a park that I often go to when I want shorter, hillier runs. It's also got a few great sledding hills that we used to go to in the winter months when we were younger. There used to be an awesome playground, complete with a digger and an old school version of one of those log roller things, but it was wood and I guess it wasn't doing so great, so they tore it down a few years back and put up a plastic one, which just isn't the same. There's also a lake to fish in, picnic areas, and big fields to run or lay in. Plus, there's a recreated, working 1890's farm, complete with pigs, sheep, cows, and educational activities.
Bailey loves this park - he walks around the lake, stares down geese and ducks, gets close to the water and then jumps back when his feet get wet, and the makes me run through the open field. Sometimes he likes to go on a longer walk in the woods. This weekend, we took my sister's dog with us to teach her how to be a dog - usually, she freaks out and wants to go home when she gets too far from the car or when she comes up on a parking lot. We figured if Bailey was enjoying himself, she'd just follow. And it worked, for the most part.
On Sunday, the park system was having an outdoor activity fair at a park that I'd never been to before. We wanted to check it out, but we also wanted to get in a run, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone. We got there a bit early and went for a somewhat schizophrenic run through the trails there. Given that we'd never been there and didn't really know the trails, coupled with the fact that they weren't very well marked and we came across a number of large puddles that we couldn't get around and didn't want to run through, we ended up kind of just cobbling a few different routes together to do a 30 minute or so run. Wasn't the best run ever, but was good enough.
After that, we went to check out the outdoor expo. We weren't sure what to expect - we both thought that there would be some info on the park system activities and then maybe we'd have to pay to try a few things out. But no - they had a ton of free activities around a great big lake. So we got some life jackets and went on a paddle boat. When we told the park ranger who helped us on the boat that we had come to the park to run, he laughed and told us that the paddle boat would be a great workout, and it kind of was. It was almost like riding a bicycle with a really low gear or something. And nice scenery.
After the paddle boat, we grabbed some oars and tried out canoeing, which we've both always wanted to try. What I don't understand about canoeing (or row boating - I'm including them in the same category) is why it's used in movies as a romantic activity. Weren't they in a row boat during "Kiss the Girl" in Little Mermaid? It's a decent amount of work to get those things going - and staying - in the right direction. It doesn't seem like a very relaxing date activity. But it was still fun, and much more stable feeling than a kayak.
By that time we had worked up a bit of an appetite, so we grabbed some fresh cut cheese fries (yum! Although those were not free.) and sat in the picnic area for a bit, before heading over to the archery targets. I tried to remember all my archery skills and show them I knew what I was doing. Thankfully, I remembered how to knock the bow and aim and shoot. I was kind of all over the place, but one was close to the bulls eye and none missed the target entirely, so that's a win in my book. After we showed off our Robin Hood skills, it was time to head home. All in all, it was a great way to spend a few hours, and there was much more that we didn't do but could have (fishing, SUP, kayaking, rock wall). I think that there are a few of these expos throughout the summer, and, now that we know what it entails, we're marking the others on our calendars.
So, to recap. In one weekend I dug a hole in a trail, went canoeing, rode a paddle boat, went on a trail run, walked around a lake, ran through a field, and shot a bow and arrow. All for free at local parks. It really can't get much better than that.
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