Quarantine Adventures: National Park Virtual Visits

A few years ago Heather got me hooked on visiting National Parks and collecting stamps. I have collected quite a few stamps over the last four or years. I try to hit one or two on every vacation. The hubby isn't always thrilled with this latest obsession.

Once everything started to shut down due to COVID, National Parks shut their gates too. Heather stumbled across Virtual National Park visits where you can get a virtual stamp and/or Junior Ranger badge. Of course she passed the link on to me.

Every week, the website adds several new parks to visit.

Some of the visits are videos with rangers showing you the park.

Some of the visits are Google 360 maps that you can navigate through the rooms of various houses. These tours give me a headache because of the movement going through the park. I also tend to get stuck in dead ends with them.

Some are more involved than others with multiple videos, tours, and reading.

Some are way better than others. I definitely prefer videos to other types of visits.

It is definitely fun to find new parks that I want to visit in person or others that I can move to the bottom of to visit list.

Now we are both obsessed with staying on top of the stamps. Heather is pasting her stamps in her passport. Because my passport is much smaller and doesn't have room for all these stamps, I just stick them in the front pocket of my passport. Maybe one day, I will buy a separate passport for these virtual tours.

I challenge you to go visit a National Park while quarantined. If you are a teacher and still in school, take your class on a virtual field trip.

Quarantine Adventures: A Jam Session with Luke Coombs

I am not a big fan of listening to music. I will have the radio on the car when I'm by myself and listen to tunes while I run/walk. However, I rarely go to concerts, download songs, or watch music videos. However, when I saw that Luke Coombs was doing a Livestream on Y100's Facebook page.

I am not a big fan of new country. I prefer the country from the 90's and early 2000's when there was a fiddle in the band. Today's country is a lot more pop than toe tapping, boot scooting down home country.

Being stuck inside for the last month, I was excited to hear some live music. I tuned into the Livestream.

At first there was some technical difficulties with the sound. We couldn't hear him. Eventually they got it figured out.

Luke played his new song "Six Feet Apart". That song is the perfect pandemic song. I might actually have to go download it.

The livestream only lasted about 15 or 20 minutes but it was a break in the mundane. It was a good show. He actually puts on a good acoustic set. Not all musicians can do an acoustic set well.

Now I have to go find some more concerts to listen to while stuck inside besides our weekly Opry dates.

Quarantine Adventures -- Hiking at High Cliff

Since it was nice out and the state parks were free, I convinced the hubby to go to High Cliff for a walk. The hubby isn't a big one for nature or hiking. I could go hiking or walking in nature any time. It is always nice to go outside. I've not been out to High Cliff in over a year or two. It's literally 10-15 minutes away.. probably closer than the Trestle Bridge in Mensaha.

High Cliff was pretty full when we got there in the early afternoon. I knew better than to initially park down by the lime kilns because the parking lot is small and the trails could be muddy. We headed to the upper trails. The were some parking spots available.

Yes, it was crowded but social distancing wasn't that much of a problem. People moved over to let you pass on the trail. Some people wore masks but not many.

We had a nice mile or so walk. We walked about a half mile based on the mile marker and then turned around and came back to our car. That was about all the hubby could handle.

After walking the upper trial, I decided we should go see the lime kilns. That lot was almost full and we were able to snag one of the last spots.

The lime kilns weren't too busy. Everyone walked by to get to the trail.

It was a nice afternoon. Hopefully we can enjoy the trails again.

Note: The state parks were closed later in the week because of over-crowding and vandalism. They will re-open a month later and only if people have passes.

Quarantine Adventures -- Pat McCurdy Live From His Living Room

Going to Carroll in the late '90s and early '00s, it was almost a rite of passage to no longer be a Pat Virgin and attend your first Pat McCurdy show in the Ballroom or Main Lawn on Welcome Back weekend or the Campus Center Parking Lot during Spring Fling. I danced my share of Sex and Beer and Knock Things Over during my 3.5 years.

I would occasionally see him live in Concert over the next 20 years or so. But I can't remember the last time I saw a whole show of his. After the Beer Run, we tried to stick around for it but ended up staying for a little bit.

It is hard to describe to Pat. According to Facebook, he is described as "Pop sing-along, with a proper dosage of musical diversity and just the right touch of comedy." He's big on college campuses and bars. It's almost a cult like following. You either like him and his almost raunchy style or you don't. I fall into the like him category.

When he announced he was doing a Quarantine Show from his living room live on Facebook, I figured I might as well tune in. It was the same old Pat even though Pipe Jim and gang wasn't there because we were Staying Home with Mom and Dad.

There were almost all my favorites including the ones I knew the silly dance to... Knock Things Over, Screw You, and of course Sex and Beer. There were some new ones that I've not heard. It was a great show but it's no fun dancing to Sex and Beer by yourself in your bedroom.

The best part was a few of my sisters and me texting back and forth... reliving our college days. It brought back more memories.

He said he'd keep doing these shows as long as we are quarantined so maybe you can get your Pat fix too.

Stay tuned for me Quarantine Adventures in the coming days and weeks. We all need some amusement in our lives. I can't promise to deliver but if I might be able to cure your boredom for 5 minutes.

837. Take a ballet class

I happened to see that Ballet Nova Ballet Studio in the DC was offering free online ballet classes the first week we were staying at home due to COVID-19. I always wanted to take a ballet class. I am not that graceful or rhythmic to actually be a ballerina not to mention these thunder-thighs. I figured this was my chance. As Stacy said, I would be whole lot less self conscious.

I've done the New York Ballet Workout video off and on for years... and I mean very sparingly off and on. I'd go months (years) without doing and rarely get through the whole thing due to lack of coordination. So to do it on Facebook Live could be interesting to say the least.

With the hubby home, there is limited space in our apartment for me to work out without disturbing him. So I set up in the kitchen. A bit odd but I figured it was the biggest open space we had.

I survived. It was quite difficult to follow. One ballerina would demonstrate the move to another ballerina. Then that ballerina would proceed to do with move or sequence with us along with the music. They really weren't any instructions. You really had to pay attention.

It might have been slightly easier if I didn't take the Advanced Beginning Ballet class. I figured I know the basic positions from my workout video and could handle it. Yeah not so much. It was a lot harder than the work out video.

I am glad I attempted the ballet class and didn't give up. Maybe I should have taken the over 50 class. I might have been able to handle that. Maybe I will try to find another online beginning class online to take during this pandemic. Until then I will work on my plies.