We visited the Albany Pine Bush today. I hadn’t been there for quite a while–enough so that I’d basically forgotten all about it.  We started with a hike. It was hot. The shade was comfortable, but it was mostly sunny and hot-hot-hot, especially with areas of the trail so sandy.
What’s great about the Albany Pine Bush is that it’s so carefully managed, so it really looks different from the random woods near your house, and the trails are well-marked an well maintained. What’s not-so-fun about the Albany Pine Bush, I thought, is that it’s so carefully managed. I kind of like to get a little bit lost, or to feel free to stray off the trail and clamber around on fallen trees or in a stream.
The Discovery Center had plenty of information, and it’s free, so who doesn’t love that? I think that the grown-ups both particularly enjoyed creating our own sand dunes, and M spent quite a bit of time looking through the microscope, while J was mesmerized by the video of a bird being tagged and release.  Both of the girls liked playing I-Spy. There was an outdoor playground area that was not as fun as we’d anticipated. We were around to see the 1 pm tour leave, and it was quite a small group, so that would have been a good option. Oh, and I loved that they had a billboard with kids’ questions that had been answered–a lovely feature if you have time to come a back again soon.
