Open The Pod Bay Doors, Hal

Our outings lately have been fewer and farther between compared to some past winters. Usually cabin fever would have settled in by now. But for whatever reasons and circumstance, this winter has found us (me) content to just laze under the glow of the all seeing eye of the tv receiver...




...or tend to other domestic pursuits.




Not sure why, but lately it just feels good to kick back after work with the fam, and while the long winter nights away.

Recharge the batteries. Watch the bloggerette grow, strengthen her mind, balance and agility. Conserve resources, save money and energy. We'll attack the coming spring with both barrels. Or so I imagined.

Then Kelly pulled a surprise move on a recent, particularly lazy afternoon -suddenly taking up the cause; deriding our complacency and leading the charge for the outdoors -and whatever adventure awaits us, Out There.

Fine...lead the way.

We packed and bundled and crammed the whole crew into the car, and set out in a generally northways direction. Cruising up through a sleepy Easthampton...




...and then onto the streets of a more commercy Northampton.




We pit-stopped there for a hot coffee...




...but before long Kelly was whipping us up and foward again; now on a quest for more challenging terrain. Calorie burning, yet baby stroller friendly.

We found it a little further up route 9 in the form of a new section of bike trail leading into Look Park.

After a harrowing scramble up a steep embankment near a route 9 parking area, we accessed the new rail trail and followed it into the park.




There wasn't too much greenery to be had that afternoon and even less bird and wildlife, but there was fresh air aplenty. The cold gusts occasionally mixed with the crisp smells of half frozen pine needles and dried leaves crumpling under foot and stroller wheel.










(The breeze also carried faint guitar strains of Nirvana and the Pixies, drifting over ever so gently from the kid's iPod buds, forever jammed into his teenage ears...)




We circled the park and about three quarters of the way around we got to the playground, where the bloggerette got her first taste of flight via swing and slide...




By now the chilly afternoon sun was just about done, and it was time to scoot back to the warm comforts of hearth and home.

It felt good driving home with that fresh breath of life on our red cheeks and thawing fingers that comes from a winter walk. Kudos to Kelly for getting us up and out...we needed it.