Andi's Blog: It's always better to be outside

Saturday, January 02, 2016

It's always better to be outside

My love for the outdoors started at the Indiana Dunes when my parents took me to the beach as a toddler. According to my mom, I was afraid of the water that summer and she worried about having an "indoor" daughter. She didn't have to worry for long.

I felt so grown up the day my dad told me I was big enough to walk from Wilson's shelter all the way to the lake and back. On other occasions, I caught turtles in the swamp by Wilson's shelter and named them all Christopher. That was a weird quirk. A few years later, my parents threw me a camping birthday party with all my friends at the state park. What an adventure that was. Especially for my parents. I first cross country skied on skis rented at, guess where, Wilson's shelter. And when a new visitor's center opened nearby I learned I have the wing span of a Canadian goose, while my dad has the wing span of a great blue heron. I learned tree ID, bird ID, bought an animal track book, lost it, found it and continued studying tracks in the snow. There was sledding, daily trips to the lake just to see how the ice had changed, playing in the water with two broken arms, cutting my arm after digging under a fence (still have the scar) and the memorable storm that threw fierce winter waves over the Michigan City Lighthouse. There was the national park visitor's center with the aerial photo of my town and the documentary film with a silhouette of a woman that I was convinced was my mother, looking for crinoids on the beach. Mr. Schaudt, teacher and park ranger, took us hiking, well, more like wading, through thick swamps.

Once, my dad sketched out a map of the major dunes along the lakeshore in the sand. Then we hiked them, years before that route had the trendy name of "Three Dune Challenge." As my appreciation for the dunes grew, so did my desire to explore more outdoor places. Which makes me grateful for the place where my love of the outdoors stated.