Staycation summer

Summer.....what to do when you do not have travel plans?  A staycation, of course.  We love a good adventure, so when I stumbled upon the above book, I knew this would be the exact thing we should do this summer.  So we won't do 60 hikes exactly and we have already done 2 of the hikes, but we want to discover some new places in the western Pennsylvania region.  This area of Pennsylvania is beautiful, with a state park right in our backyard, which we use often......

 so on Wednesday, with book on Kindle, off we went to discover a couple areas we had not been to.  We combined two hikes into one day, which was very doable.  The first was Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve, in the borough of Fox Chapel.  The store and education center were interesting (don't miss the toilets in the Education Center!) and the hike was easy and well worth the time.

 Using a pump.....interesting for city kids!

 A natural play area.....

 complete with tree house.....

 and fun things to climb on.

 The pond held our attention for awhile....

 and the black raspberries we found along the trail

 complemented our packed lunch nicely.

 We recommend this hike because it was a loop, with other trails looping off of it, so it was easy and there was no risk of getting lost.  It was mainly shaded, so even on a hot day, we think the hike would be cool.

 Next we went to Hartwood Mansion, which was not very far from Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve.

 We did not call ahead to get a mansion tour, so we ambled around the outside and found...

 a payphone!  Really interesting to our kids!

 There are a lot of sculptures on the grounds to keep the kids happy.....

 and trees to climb for kids and kids-at-heart.....

We did not follow the hike suggested in the book, because it was confusing, but it was fun to roam around the grounds of the mansion.  We are looking forward to our next adventure in the western PA area!