In my family, instead of fighting winter, we try to embrace it. We get out there and make the most of the season. This year, all winter long I’ll share ideas for short winter field trips to make the snow and cold a little more fun. My hope is we’ll convert a few of you as you read about our winter outings.
Look Up
Every once in a while during the bitter cold nights of winter, the skies are clear and the moon and stars are just striking. Last week my son and I headed out to make a routine trip to Target. I crashed into him as he stopped abruptly just outside the door. He was staring at the sky. I looked up to see what caught his attention. It was like popping in a new pair of contacts. The stars were clearer and brighter than I’d ever seen them before. It was also colder than cold. Definitely below zero.
We backed in the warmth of the entryway and shut the door. I opened our Mobile Observatory app on my phone. We forgot all about Target as we looked at the app to see what we would see when we went back outside. Then we switched functions so we could point the phone at the night sky for more help while stargazing. We put our gloves back on, braced ourselves and stepped outside again, our heads titled back, looking at the stars and moon.
The whole experience lasted only about ten minutes and then we were back on our way to Target. But for those ten minutes we lost ourselves in the stars and it didn’t matter whether it was winter or summer; it was gorgeous outside.
Join us in embracing winter
Embrace winter this year…or at least follow along with us this winter from the comfort of your computer screen. Need ideas to get started? Click through for Six Great Winter Outings in Northeast Wisconsin or any of the previous Embrace Winter ideas:
Embrace Winter: Hit the Beach!
Embrace Winter: Christmas Lights
We’ve also been enjoying the beautiful night sky with the clear skies we’ve been having.
Will have to do better at dressing warmly since we don’t manage to stay out very long.
Ironic posting. I was sitting on my couch Saturday night and looked out at the sky about 6:50 pm. And I saw two stars in the sky, one was so bright and the other was just barely visible. But they were right next to each other. The brightest one was twinkling that I actually took a picture of it. It was really beautiful and I will look up more in the winter.
Sounds perfect!
The sky is so clear in the winter. Star gazing is a great thing to take advantage of in the winter. Thanks for sharing this great idea!
It’s so easy to forget about the fun, ‘little’ things in the winter, isn’t it?