When did we stop playing outside?
Of course there are the extreme athletes, but what about the rest of us – those who may dabble in a few sports or the non sporty?
I was at a friend’s birthday party celebration two years ago which was held at a mountain cabin in the Alps. There were about 50 of us in the group, and we had arrived at the party either by using the local ski lift (followed by a 5 minute walk to the cabin) or by hiking. After the party, there was only one way down the mountain – a 20 minute toboggan ride. The guests at the party ranged in age from 7 through 77, and everyone approached this toboggan ride the same way – with enthusiasm and laughter.
On the way down the mountain, we passed various groups of friends hiking up as a typical way to spend a Sunday: families, teenagers, and adults of all ages. They would hike up, have lunch and toboggan down.
Although adult skiers are common in North America, there are so many people who simply stopped playing outside at some point.
This blog is an attempt to illustrate some examples of fun, simple, inexpensive things to do outside.
With some of these ideas you may end up learning something and/or getting some exercise, but that isn’t the original intent, which is to merely have fun.
Have fun – Play Outside.
Rudy
Play Outside Now 
Because I was part of the birthday party in the Alps mentioned – I can only FULLY agree to what has been said!! PLAY OUTSIDE! We just did that for one week now – in the Alps, in the South of Germany – playing with our hot-air balloons! – as an example. Have a look and test your German… on http://www.ballonfestival-oberstdorf.de
What a great blog! This Sunday, 5 of my friends (and children) were at a hill close to my house. The sparkling blue sky, the mild temperature and just enough snow made for perfect conditions to get the sleds to glide down nicely.
It was a great 2 hours and 3 of the five adults (including me) ventured down a few times laughing the whole way down. The funniest was that we kept landing in the bushy area that we kept telling the children to try to avoid…impossible! The slant of the slope was conducive to that path. The other two adults would have loved to come down also but they didn’t get those pesky ski pants on before leaving home and couldn’t participate…I could tell they were itching to do it though! And the best part was the workout walking back up that hill…at least I felt that I had put in a bit of cardio that day and it made it even more worthwhile. Hope this weekends lends itself to doing this again…