How To Adventure In Your Home Town
Are you a wanderlust, dreamily looking at the next coolest town to visit? Do you often see pictures or places on Instagram and think, “wow, they have the coolest coffee shops, the cutest creameries, and the best views”? I have to admit, I’m guilty as charged when it comes to the wanderlust. Places on the other side of the world seem so much cooler than my hometown. Adventure in my home town? Doesn’t sound the most attractive.
BUT, you may be surprised to find out that your home town or small city has some gold nuggets of it’s own. Have you explored your own home town like a guest would? Do you know the best places to go, the secret-sauce restaurants, and the unique places that are considered hidden gems? This post is going to show you how to adventure in your home town and have a blast doing it. And hey, you might fall a little more in love with where you live.
1. Visit All Parks and Playgrounds
Each park has something unique to offer. For example, maybe it’s a walking trail, a duck pond, a cool-featured-slide, or a climbing wall for kids. Some may be big, that require driving around to cover all the ground, and some are small, where you can walk the distance with no problem at all.
Check out all the parks and playgrounds in your area so you don’t miss any. Plan dates to visit them all, and invite friends to join you for the excursion. Ask your kids which ones they enjoyed the most, and make note of those for future play dates and explorations.
2. Check out Ice Cream Shops.
We ALL Scream for ice cream, right? I don’t know that I’ve ever met a person who doesn’t like ice cream! Something about ice cream shops gives us that sweet, giddy happy feeling. Because ice cream is obviously a sweet treat, you may want to reserve these outings for a time of celebration or reward.
Visit the different creameries near your hometown and tastes the sweetness and creaminess of all their delicious flavors. Ask your kids which place they enjoyed the most, and of course what their favorite flavor is.
3. Know Town History and Teach Your Kids
Was your town one of the first that the pilgrims settled in? Is it known for having the best popcorn in the world? Do you have the oldest school house in the country? Or maybe your town produces the largest hotdogs in the world? Regardless of your town’s “fame,” and record breaking or not, your town has a story to tell, just like all places.
So find the unique pieces that tell the story of your town’s history, and show your kids how to find interest in ‘historical information’ in a junior way. If they learn to appreciate the history and back stories of your own town, they will be more interested as they visit and explore new places.
4. Search Out Different Activities
Every place has unique things to offer. And yes, the size of your town depends on the amount of things there are, but I’m sure you have some fun things to do in your town or city. Lancaster County (where I was born and raised) has tons of different activities for kids, both inside and outdoors, that gives a lot of variety for them to learn.
For example, country barns that provide hayrides, animal displays, and fruit picking. Or hands-on museums, petting zoos, horse rides, and more. If your kids are older, they may start appreciating tours of how things are made or operate. An example would be tours of a potato chip factory or ice cream operations. Likewise, even checking out your local firehouse and EMT stations are wonderful experiences for your curious children. No adventure is too small. Get creative and make an adventure out of unique experiences.
5. Explore Outdoor Landscapes
Certainly this is one of my favorites, because you can never have too much of the outdoors in my opinion. What does your area have to offer you? Lakes, ponds, streams, rivers, beaches, or marshes? Any larger source of water provides you an opportunity to canoe, kayak, raft, or stand up paddle board. On land, do you have trails to hike, nature reserves, rocks to climb, caves to explore, wildlife to view, or insects to examine?
If the weather changes, you can get another whole perspective. Rain in the outdoors gives a new light to everything. Watching the rain hit the water is mesmerizing and seeing droplets on the leaves and plants is beautiful. Obviously pouring down rain is not ideal for a kids activity, but I challenge you – if the weather is decent with only light rain or shortly after a rain – consider going outside with your kids for a different kind of ‘fun’, wet adventure.
6. Make A Scavenger Hunt
There are no limits to scavenger hunts! You can make them as simple as needed for the toddlers, or as advanced as desired for the middle schoolers. Have prizes at the end to make it rewarding if you want, but don’t stress yourself out about making it happen.
Scavenger hunts can happen at a park, on a trail, in the grocery store, or around your own backyard. Make it exciting for the kids by pretending that they are pilgrims or pirates or cowboys, looking for the treasure. If you’re feeling really creative – give them costumes or props to give the full effect.
7. Fun INSIDE activities for rainy days
Exploring in the rain can be really fun, but sometimes we just need to call it quits with kids when it’s too much. Fun can happen inside, when the weather is bad outside. Learning this while traveling is really important, so might as well learn to do it well at home!
I love to visit libraries, and I want my kids to have that same love for books, learning, and exploring inside of pages. Rainy days are great for library days. So, pick out books that excite them and get them engaged. Often libraries will have play areas for really young ones to keep them occupied while you read to your older children.
Other indoor activities can be as simple as a fun house playground at McDonalds or Chic Fil A. Treat yourself or the kids to something, and then let them burn out energy at the playground. Museums, bounce houses, and gyms are other venues where you can get creative with your kids and help them adventure in your home town.
Conclusion:
The lure of Pinterest-worthy, picture-perfect towns can keep us from thinking that our own hometowns have nothing to offer, but that’s usually not the case. Your home stomping grounds do have something to offer, and now you’ve learned how to adventure in your hometown. Even if you know of the popular things to do in your town, do you know all of the secret spots and locals-only places?
I bet there is more to discover and explore in your own hometown. Start adventuring with your kids and show them all your town has to offer, both the places you knew about before, and the things you are discovering with them. Adventure together and build memories that will last a lifetime.
Get out, Go Adventure [in your home town].