Seeing Italy Up Close and Personally We recently returned from a 36-day trip where we spent 21 days riding the trains in Italy to visit:
Then we boarded a ship (the 8-month-old Explorer Journeys Explora 2) at Civitavecchia that took us on a 14-day cruise through the Mediterranean to visit lots of exciting locations to include:
Here’s a map of what our trip looked like:  During our trip we traveled over 2,900 miles - riding the trains in Italy and on the Explora 2 cruise ship. We also hiked over 190 miles - averaging 5 1/2 miles each day. During the first 17 days – before we arrived in Rome or boarded the ship - we walked an average of almost 8 miles a day. We had wonderful and interesting food along the way. But best of all we had good company and got to see so many of the “Classic” Roman and Greek sights up close and in person. It was another "trip of a lifetime". As always, we took thousands of photos of the museums, artwork, cathedrals, cities, monuments, vistas, and nature that we managed to see. – so, we’ll be editing and posting them as soon as our schedule lets us get around to it. Here are a few teaser photos to give you a brief overview of some of the sights we saw until we get around to posting the photos from each location on our Adventures page: (click on any photo to start the slideshow) 
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Getting Outdoors for Your Physical and Mental Health One of the things that we like the most about the “outdoor community” is their willingness to share their knowledge with everyone else that enjoys being out in nature. This week we received an email from Aurora James from DogEtiquette.info about the benefits of getting outside and being active. Aurora graciously asked us to post her thoughts on our HCS website – and since Spring is right around the corner, we thought that she had a great idea. So here you go – Aurora’s thoughts about “Exploring the Great Outdoors: Activities to Overcome Nature-Deficit Disorder”. She’s included lots of links to other websites so there’s a wealth of great information.  In today's world dominated by screens and technology, your children may find themselves increasingly estranged from the natural environment. This shift, identified as nature-deficit disorder by Richard Louv in his influential book "Last Child in the Woods," significantly impacts their physical and mental well-being. By incorporating outdoor activities into daily routines, you not only bridge this gap but also strengthen your family ties and instill a lifelong appreciation for nature in your children. Understanding Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD) Nature-deficit disorder affects children isolated from nature. It leads to sensory decline, attention issues, and health problems. This condition highlights significant behavioral concerns.
Simple Outdoor Activities Introducing children to nature can be as simple as stepping outside. Even basic activities can deeply enhance their health. This has a profound impact on their well-being.
Nature Crafts and Projects Crafting with natural materials is a creative approach. It's an affordable way to connect with the outdoors. This method brings nature closer to home.
Educational Outings Educational outings offer a great opportunity to broaden a child's environmental understanding. They help cultivate a deeper appreciation for nature. These trips also nurture a child's curiosity.
Technological Tools When used correctly, technology can enhance outdoor experiences. It can also stimulate further interest in the natural world. This makes it a valuable tool for exploring nature.
Nature-deficit disorder, while not an official diagnosis, poses real challenges to modern children’s development and well-being. By incorporating regular, enjoyable outdoor activities into their routines, parents can help mitigate these effects. These activities not only promote healthier, happier children but also cultivate a deeper, lasting connection with the natural world. The key is to start simple, stay consistent, and most importantly, have fun together as a family in the great outdoors. If you want to read more from Aurora – please check out DogEtiquette.info. Here’s an Interesting List of Movies to Keep You Occupied During the Current Cold Winter Days (or even on a Beautiful Summer Day) As people that love the outdoors - we also love outdoor movies. This week we received an email from Terra, the Outreach Coordinator from Octane Seating, about a list of “Disaster and Prepping” movies that they pulled together for their customers. Terra thought that we, and our readers, might find their movie list interesting. And she was right; we've seen most of these movies and they have some great viewing ideas.  To quote Terra’s note to us: “Cinema can be educational and thrilling explorations of survival, disaster, and backcountry exploration for those new and experienced in the survival and disaster preparation communities. Our guide, Prepping and Disaster Movies, delves into what prepping and disaster films are, what sub-genres they entail, as well as a list of movies that survival and prepping enthusiasts might enjoy, from cartoons that can be enjoyed with young children, to horror survival, to real-to-life, semi-educational films.”  We read through their article, and agree with what it says: “Prepping and disaster movies combine all the emotional elements which entice audiences: fear, sadness, happiness, relief, and sometimes, even humor. They are among the most epic categories of film and television, and often have the most complex sets and advanced special effects, creating a truly wow-factor experience for people watching them. But, with so many real-life problems out there, why are we so drawn to disconcerting fictional depictions of disasters? Scholars and researchers speculate that society are drawn to construct narratives which revolve around chaos and loss because they help us escape genuine issues, while still having a level of resonance to the characters and plot.  Their list of “Prepping and Disaster” movies includes 24 movies - with 3 from each of the following categories – each with a brief movie summary, list of who stars in it and release date – so that you can easily find it wherever you stream or purchase your movies from:
Their write-up also includes a listing of their "Top 15 Survival & Disaster TV Shows" and their point of view about “What Can Disaster and Survival Movies Teach You About Real-Life Prepping?”  So. if you’re like us and enjoy watching movies about the outdoors when you’re not able to be in the outback, you should definitely check out the article that Terra sent us. (Note; As always, we’re not being paid to say this – we just think that it’s true). You can find the article, and all the other details about this curated movie listing here. https://octaneseating.com/blog/disaster-movies Our 2025 Hiking, Camping, Disaster Preparedness and Shooting Gear Checklists Everybody that's been Hiking, Camping and Shooting for a while has a list of gear that they always take with them on their adventures. For some people their method of keeping track of their gear is to keep it all in one place. Others make a checklist to ensure that they have everything that they need. We do both. Based on our experience the gear that you need for Hiking comes in 10 categories, Camping has 10 categories, Disaster Preparedness has 9 categories and Shooting gear comes in 17 categories:  To make it easier for you we have updated and added downloadable PDFs of the Hiking, Camping, Disaster Preparedness and Shooting gear checklists that we use. The checklists include the types of gear that we think you need in each of these 46 categories.  Our website has all the details on the specific gear that we use (536 items from these 46 categories at last count), the reasons that we selected it and links to Amazon, or other locations, where you can buy the gear. Our gear checklists have 54 Hiking items, 122 Camping items, 123 Disaster Preparedness items and 237 Shooting items. You can find these downloadable PDF checklists on our Hiking, Camping, Disaster Preparedness and Shooting pages. The Colors of Fall This year we had a spectacular Fall here in New England. Because it was drier than normal during the Fall, the colors in the trees really popped and the leaves stayed on the trees longer than usual. Here are a few photos showing some of the spectacular sights that we saw as we hiked around – to include going out to Wachusett Mountain and the Wachusett Reservoir. The day that climbed to the top of Mount Wachusett it was clear enough that you could see the Boston skyline which is over 40 miles away. (click on any photo to start the slideshow) Visiting the Boston Common, Christian Science Plaza, Harvard Art Museums and BU Since we live near Boston the early Fall is a nice time to head into the city to see the sights. The heat and humidity from July and August are gone – as are most of the summer tourists. So, this September we took a few trips into the city to visit the Boston Common, the Christian Science Plaza and Mapparium, and the Harvard Art Museums. Here’s a brief overview of each of these interesting Boston sights. The Boston Common is a public park in the heart of downtown Boston, consisting of 50 acres of land. Founded in 1634, it is the oldest city park in the United States. During the winter of 1775 and 1776, British soldiers installed artillery entrenchments on the Common, and a garrison of 1,700 Redcoats encamped there. On 24 August 1824 Revolutionary War hero Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier Lafayette (the Marquis de Lafayette) celebrated the 50th anniversary of our nation's founding at the Boston Common as part of a 13-month tour of the United States that he took at the invitation of President James Monroe, Although Lafayette had planned to visit only the original 13 colonies, his farewell tour eventually took him to all 24 states. Fun fact: cows were forbidden from grazing on the Common in 1830. Today you can take a Swan Boat ride on the lake, ice skate on the Frog Pond, ride the Carousel, listen to music at the Parkman Bandstand, see the bronze ducks modeled after Robert McCloskey’s famous children's book “Make Way for Ducklings”, play tennis and baseball, or just stroll around and enjoy the grounds and statuary to include:
The Christian Science Plaza is a 13.5-acre site that houses the original Mother Church (built in 1894), the Church Extension (built in 1906), the Christian Science Publishing House, The Mary Baker Eddy Library, a 690 x 100-foot reflecting pool, and the Mapparium. The Mapparium is a three-story stained-glass globe, bisected in the middle by a glass walkway so you can walk inside the globe and see the world in a way that doesn't distort the surface of the Earth. The Mapparium globe shows the world as it was in 1935. So, while the size and position of the continents are correct, the map's political boundaries are long out-of-date. Another interesting phenomenon is that the globe reflects sounds such that while you are standing on the bridge can hear a person from the other end when they whisper. The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985). The main building contains approximately 43,000 square feet dedicated to exhibitions for the ~250,000 objects that the museums possess. The Fogg Museum is renowned for its holdings of Western paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, photographs, prints, and drawings from the Middle Ages to the present. Particular strengths include Italian Renaissance, British Pre-Raphaelite, and French art of the 19th century, as well as 19th- and 20th-century American paintings and drawings. The Busch-Reisinger Museum is the only museum in North America dedicated to the study of art from the German-speaking countries of Central and Northern Europe in all media and in all periods. The museum holds one of the first and largest collections of artifacts related to the Bauhaus design school (1919–1933) which fostered many developments in modernist design, late medieval sculpture and 18th-century art. The Arthur M. Sackler Museum collection holds important collections of ancient Mediterranean and Byzantine artifacts comprised of significant works in all media from Greece, Rome, Egypt, and the Near East to include Greek vases, small bronzes, and coins from throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. The museum also specializes in Asian art, most notably, archaic Chinese jades (the widest collection outside of China) and Japanese surimono, as well as outstanding Chinese bronzes, ceremonial weapons, Buddhist cave-temple sculptures, ceramics from China and Korea, Japanese works on paper, and lacquer boxes. In addition, the museum holds works on paper from Islamic lands and India, including paintings, drawings, calligraphy, and manuscript illustrations, with particular strength in Rajput art, as well as important Islamic ceramics from the 8th through to the 19th century. While we were in the area, we also walked along the Charles River and through Boston University (BU) on one of our visits since it was a beautiful day heading into a clear night. Here are a few photos from our various adventures in Boston: (click on any photo to start the slideshow) 23 Days Following the Path of the Vikings We recently made it home from a 22-day trip that followed the path of the Vikings from Amsterdam to Boston. During our trip we traveled over 7,600 nautical miles (~8,700 miles) and visited the Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Canada (Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia) and Maine before returning to the US in Boston. During our 21-days on the ship we were very fortunate since the North Atlantic seas, which can be rough, were unusually calm. We couldn’t have asked for a better Trans-Atlantic crossing. In addition to all the sailing, we also hiked all over the locations where we made landfall – through all types of country and urban terrain. The sights that we saw were diverse and amazing: whales, seals, porpoises, puffins, Icelandic Horses, icebergs, geothermal geysers, waterfalls, volcanic craters, the rift between the European and North American tectonic plates, rock formations, world renowned and local art, architecture ranging from Cathedrals to fishing towns, Viking ruins and artifacts, brilliant moonlight nights, and spectacular sunsets that occurred after 11:30 PM. We were lucky enough to even get to Nuuk, the Capital of Greenland. We weren't supposed to stop in Nuuk, but the two scheduled Greenland stops (Qaqortoq and Nanortalik) were iced in, so the ship changed plans and headed to Nuuk (a port that the ship had never been to) instead. We even crossed the Arctic Circle (66 1/3 Degrees North Latitude) and celebrated it with the traditional Polar Bear/Blue Nose ceremony. Having seen lots of Viking artifacts in Norway, Iceland, and Greenland, when we got to Newfoundland we completed our Viking activities by going to L'Anse aux Meadows, the first European settlement in the New World, tied to Lief Erickson and dated to somewhere between 990 and 1050 AD. Here's a map of what our overall trip looked like.  During our 23 days of traveling we visited the following major sites:
As always, we took thousands of photos – so we’ll be editing and posting them as soon as our schedule lets us get around to it. Here are a few teaser photos to give you a brief overview of some of the sights we saw until we get around to posting the photos from each location on our Adventures page. (click on any photo to start the slideshow) 10 Days Seeing Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Belton and the Sights In Between To get 2024 started off on the right foot we took a 10-day trip to Texas; a state that we’ve been to many times before – but not in the past few years. Since Texas is so big we tried to plan out a trip that allowed us to spend more time sightseeing and hiking than driving. To accomplish this, we laid out a triangle – Houston to San Antonio to Austin to Belton and then back to Houston. Everything worked out great. We only had to drive 960 miles. Got to visit several friends. The sights were uncrowded. And the January weather cooperated (with cold and snow arriving in Texas the day after we flew back home). Here's a map of what our overall trip looked like.  During our Texas travels we visited the following major sites:
As always, we took lots of photos – here are a few to give you a taste of what we saw. (click on any photo to start the slideshow) Lots of great sights, outdoor activities and friends. Just what you need to make a wonderful trip. The Essential Gear and Knowledge That You Need to Prepare for Mishaps in the OutbackAs we’ve mentioned in previous blogs, one of the main reasons that we started our HCS website back in 2016 was to share the knowledge that we had acquired during our many years of Hiking, Camping and Shooting. So we’re always gratified when someone reaches out to us to say that they found our gear evaluation criteria, product information, blogs, adventure photos, "Useful Apps", and "Other Helpful Information Sources" links to be helpful. In that vein, this week, Marc and his son Tyler (who is in the process of earning his Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge) dropped us a note to say that they found our site to be helpful. And, as with many contacts that we receive, Tyler wanted to “pay it forward” by letting us know about another great online resource that he had found; an article from Advantis Medical on “First Aid and Outdoor Recreation”.  Since we’re always looking for additional information, we checked out the article. The article starts out with 9 paragraphs discussing a few of the most significant First Aid risks that you can face when hiking - at a high level:
But the real payoff of the article is the fact that it has links to 14 other webpages that cover a wide variety of wilderness First Aid topics from a broad set of viewpoints. So it’s a great starting point to jump off from.
For us the topic of First Aid is so important that we have different gear for Hiking and Camping and Disaster Preparedness – since because Camping normally includes getting further from civilization, staying overnight and making meals outdoors, the level of activities and risk increases, and in Disasters there are more extenuating circumstances that require additional supplies. So, if you’re interested in relooking your First Aid gear and knowledge before you head out into the wilderness again you should take a look at some of this material. I know that with these resources Tyler won’t have any problem obtaining his Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge. 21 Days Touring the British IslesWe recently made it home from a 21-day trip to the British Isles. During our trip we drove 2,476 miles on the "wrong side of the road" (at least for Americans) and on small and smaller roads most of the time. It was a great trip – even if the driving and parking was a little challenging in some places……. In addition to the all the driving, we also walked more than 243,000 steps (which translates to over 115 miles) – through all types of both country and urban terrain. Here's a map of what our overall trip looked like.  During our 7 days traveling in Ireland and Northern Ireland we drove almost 750 miles and visited the following major sites:
During our 14 days traveling in Scotland, Wales and England we drove almost 1,750 miles and visited the following major sites:
As always, we took thousands of photos – so we’ll be editing and posting them over the next few weeks as time allows. Here are a few teaser photos to give you a brief overview of some of the sights we saw until we get around to posting the photos from each location on our Adventures page. (click on any photo to start the slideshow) |
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