A twist on a campfire classic. Increase or decrease the size of your skillet depending on how many people you are serving.
Ingredients:
2 milk chocolate bars, broken
2 cups mini marshmallows
Graham cracker squares
Essentials:
A medium cast iron skillet
Preparation: Add chocolate pieces to the bottom of a medium cast-iron skillet in an even layer. Arrange mini marshmallows over chocolate, covering completely. Cook for 3-5 minutes over the fire or until marshmallows are golden brown. Serve immediately with graham cracker squares.
Comfort campfire cooking can be healthy. Our cabins come supplied with olive oil, salt, and pepper, so just grab some metal skewers and fresh Brussel sprouts to enjoy this quick and easy snack.
Bring a 1/2 inch salted water to boil in a large frying pan or saute pan. Add the brussels sprouts, cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook until the sprouts are tender and the water has evaporated – about 5 minutes.
Toss the steamed brussel sprouts with the olive oil, garlic, and salt.
Allow the sprouts to cool for two minutes, then skewer 4 to 5 brussels sprouts onto metal skewers with 1/2 -inch between each sprout.
Place the skewers on to the grill and cook for 5 minutes.
Turn the skewers over and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.
Garnish with salt & pepper, serve and enjoy!
Photo credit: Evan Deschenes
Ready to try this tasty recipe on your own escape to nature? Book your Getaway today.
Motivation in the winter can be tough. Many of us leave for work when it is dark and arrive home from work when it is already dark again, making it both physically and mentally challenging to get outside.
While in the winter months it is important to rest, move at a slower pace and spend time drawing inward, it is equally important to spend focused amounts of time in nature to prevent emotional, mental, and physical imbalances. One of the most prevalent imbalances in the wintertime involves feeling mentally and physically stuck and weighed down.
Being outside in nature is one of the best ways to support physical and mental wellbeing during the winter months. Depending on how you are feeling, your time outside can vary from slow and gentle long walks to a more intense workout like a demanding hike. The more often we get out of the house, the happier and healthier we become.
Photo credit: Nina Goffi
Here are seven reasons to head outside, rain, snow, or sunshine.
Sunshine Improves Our Emotional Wellbeing
Psychologists at Brigham Young University found that an important natural aspect of emotional happiness was the amount of time between sunrise and sunset. Better moods positively correlate with increased exposure to sunlight.
Nature Is a Good Stress-Reducing Environment
Nature can reduce stress hormones and increase positive feelings. Being in nature is a great way to disconnect from our phones, focus on ourselves and awaken our senses. It is the perfect environment to relax.
Nature Exposes Us to Vitamin D
According to a 2012 study, 50% of the world’s population gets an insufficient amount of vitamin D. This number increases during the winter, as our exposure to sunlight (the best source of vitamin D) decreases. Vitamin D not only plays a role in mood regulation but can also decrease our risk of developing heart disease and the flu. Spending more time outside increases the amount of sun exposure, and therefore vitamin D exposure, we get.
The More Time We Spend In Nature, the More We Are Exposed to Clean Air
Indoor air pollutants can be up to 100 times worse than outdoor pollutants. Indoor air pollutants can cause coughing, sneezing, rashes, and headaches, among other things. Spending time in fresh air lowers our risk of getting sick due to indoor pollutants.
Nature Improves Our Mental State
Spending time in nature has been linked to numerous positive mental traits, such as improved attention span, boosts in serotonin, and increased activity in areas of the brain associated with love and empathy.
We Can Lower Our Risk of Depression By Spending More Time in Nature
A Stanford study found that people who walked in nature, as opposed to in high-traffic urban areas, showed decreased activity in region of brain associated with depression.
Getting Outside Can Prevent Boredom in Your Workouts
If you live in a colder climate, bundle up and switch up your workout. Instead of your typical fitness class, try something like cross country skiing, downhill skiing, snowshoeing, or a winter hike. It may take a bit of extra planning but not only will you get the physical benefits from exercise, you’ll also get the mental and emotional benefits of being being in nature.
Kerri Axelrod is a certified Integrative Nutrition health coach, blogger and yoga instructor, specializing in helping women live healthy, passionate and purpose-driven lives with a focus on gut and mental health.
It’s no secret that the National Parks are in a state of waiting with the government shutdown. All it takes is a quick google search to see photos of trash piling up or headlines about injured visitors needing to be transported by good samaritans because no emergency resources are available.
That’s an unfortunate byproduct of the current shutdown, but there are ways to help keep our precious parks in the state they deserve.
We’ve compiled a shortlist of organizations and actions you can support if our national spots of nature, leisure, and recreation are important to you.
Support your local National Parks Non-Profit
The Florida National Parks Association for instance is a private non-profit partner of the National Park Service. They are helping keep treasures like the Everglades operational during the shutdown.
Visit and donate
Zion National Park in Utah suffers from the shutdown as much as any other. The state of Utah issued $80,000 in state funds to keep basic services functional, but according to the executive director of the Zion Park Forever Project, the park largely relies on the goodwill and contributions of visitors. That means people picking up after themselves and, if able, donating time, resources, or money to the cause.
Donate to wildlife conservation
Another problem that arises when you have “overflowing trash bins, human waste in inappropriate places, altercations over parking spots and other impacts,” is that there is not only a threat to the safety of visitors, but to the wildlife whose ecosystem is put at risk.
Read and follow #ShutdownStories
Visibility and driving awareness is as important as anything, and there are countless amazing #ShutdownStories being told over social media. Follow along and share to your community.
Pick up after yourself but don’t clean up after your neighbors
There’s a reason why maintenance staff is hired to do their jobs. They are outfitted with the right uniforms and materials, and have the right vaccinations. Given the dire situation within many of the national park bathrooms for instance, it may be a bio-hazardous area and is not for the average park goer to try to remedy. That being said, if you visit a national park, pick up your own trash and plan for their being no accessible restrooms during your time.
Write your representatives
Ultimately, the government started this and the government will end the shutdown. Ensure that your local and state representatives know how you feel about this issue so they can advocate for your point of view.
Shop for the cause
We love places like Parks Project, where every purchase helps a project in a national park. If the cause fails to sway you, their clothes and accessories look well designed and ready for your adventure. Peruse their goods here.
Here’s hoping you find a way to enjoy and support the outdoors this year.
Much has been made lately of the great pleasure of eliminating extraneous things from our lives. In the wake of the Netflix miniseries Tidying Up, Instagram was overflowing with posts about the dazzling transformation people experienced by following Marie Kondo’s method of simplifying their possessions to only those things that bring them joy. Just search #kondo or #tidyingup, and you’ll find tens of thousands of posts, both inspirational and aspirational.
The popularity of this trend makes intuitive sense. I mean, who wouldn’t want more joy?
Essentialism at Getaway
We started Getaway to help people experience the pleasure of existing unencumbered and in the moment. So our philosophy shares some DNA with the burgeoning minimalism movement. But there are also some pretty big differences. Namely, how we think about joy. In our view, joy isn’t something to be individually achieved—the reward of a well-organized life—but something to be continuously and collectively cultivated.
Earlier this year, our founder Jon gave a speech at an annual conference of the National Retail Federation that explored how we see Getaway in relation to the current trend of minimalism. Moreover, he explored why what we’re offering is actually a better option; we are providing what people might really be seeking when they take that first step toward simplifying their lives.
Getaway is about stripping away distractions and focusing on what really matters to you. It’s taking the central thesis of minimalism—you don’t really need all this stuff—and asking then next obvious question: what do you need to live a truly balanced life?
So we try to provide a few things we think we all need. The first is an opportunity to experience the restorative power of nature—to calm us, to inspire us, to force us to slow down, and to expand our perspective. The second is the time to nurture our relationships—with ourselves and with our loved ones. And the last is the luxury of experiences unmediated by technology.
If you’ve been close to startup culture over the past decade or so, you’ve probably heard people use the word “disrupt” as a positive—disrupting an outdated industry or product. But we think of it in the more traditional, troublesome sense. Sure, technology powers our progress. But it also distracts us—pulling us away from things that may feel less urgent but are ultimately more important.
So at Getaway, we ask you to lock away your phone, and we encourage you to explore the world around you, and the ideas and feelings and relationships that matter to you.
Why Essentialism Matters
There’s a connection here to what all those minimalists are prescribing, a call to judge the things you own not by what they’re worth, but what they’re worth to you. But the focus with minimalism is still always on our things, or lack thereof—not on the people, the places, the memories, and the feelings that enrich us.
Those kinds of experiences can’t be entirely engineered. They’re personal and unpredictable. There’s no right way to do them. They’re also forgiving. Ask any new parent what their volume of “stuff” looks like, and you’ll quickly run up against the limits of minimalism. It can be useful to think intentionally about the things you own, but we don’t think you need to swear off creature comforts and embrace asceticism to find balance. In fact, we believe the only way to feel truly free and at ease is to have all the essentials—everything you need, nothing you don’t—taken care of. We all need stuff. But we also don’t need to dwell too hard on it.
Because we know our things are never really what makes our lives memorable and meaningful. It’s those early morning sunrises. Those quiet cups of coffee. Those late night talks. Those bursts of creativity that lead us in totally new directions. Those things that we do, and the people we do them with—that’s what we’ll remember a decade down the line.
This growing trend of centering our possessions—even in their absence— over our relationships is the antithesis of what Getaway is all about. So you’ll never catch us encouraging you to ruthlessly discard or needlessly sentimentalize your stuff. Because we’ve learned that what people really want is what we’re offering: unstructured time in a natural environment that already has everything you need, and nothing you don’t.
Photographer Jennifer Young believes that her way of connecting, communicating and sharing with the world is through imagery. Here, she shares a moment of her Getaway stay and a simple-to-make Paleo Stew recipe.
Ingredients
1 medium yellow onion 2 medium carrots 2 small squash or Zucchini 3-4 small purple or red potatoes 1/2 lb. grass-fed ground beef 3T Kerrygold salted butter, cubed salt and pepper to taste
Items Needed
Fire pit Wood Lighter Cutting board Knife Aluminum foil
Directions
Prepare a campfire, allowing 30-45 minutes for wood to burn down thoroughly to create ideal cooking conditions.
Once your fire is established, layer two, 18×12-inch sheets of aluminum foil on a flat surface. On a cutting board, dice the onion, carrots, squash, and potatoes and arrange at the center of the foil.
Add butter, salt, pepper and ground beef to your mixture, and blend together until all the ingredients are evenly distributed. Using your foil, wrap the concoction utilizing the “burrito method” to ensure your hobo pack remains intact (try to leave a little space for the airflow).
After your hobo pack is fully prepped, create a bed of coals at the center of your fire ring approximately three times the size of your prepared paleo stew. Place the pack at the center and cook for 20-30 minutes.
Notes
A variety of different veggies can be used depending on preference. Olive oil can be substituted for butter if desired.
The Lindy Effect, named for a longstanding New York deli, is the idea that the longer an idea or practice has survived, the longer it will survive into the future. It’s why, despite fidget spinners being the talk of the summer, jump ropes are much more likely to be around in 50 years. Newfangled technology may thrill us, but it’s the allegedly boring, familiar stuff that lasts, burrowing into our routines and longings.
The really, really old stuff even burrows into our evolutionary makeup, marrying its survival with our own. This is the case with humanity’s oldest and greatest technological achievement: fire. Fire ushered in cooking, radically reducing chewing time. It provided a new way to ward off predators, lengthening our lifespan. It heated and lit us up, increasing how far we could travel. It not only changed our lives, but it also changed our bodies: our brain and stomach size evolved to fit our newfound ignition.
How Fire Ignited Our Emotional Lives
Most relevant to our purposes, fire changed our emotional lives, too. In fact, one could even say fire created our emotional lives. Firelight extended the day beyond daylight, creating a social time after work but before sleep. According to research by anthropologist Polly Wiessner, this exciting new time of day — which mixed the energy of firelight with the impossibility of hunting and gathering — unleashed the magic of human community:
In hot seasons, the cool of the evening releases pent up energy; in cold seasons, people huddle together. Fireside gatherings are often, although not always, composed of people of mixed sexes and ages. The moon and starlit skies awaken imagination of the supernatural, as well as a sense of vulnerability to malevolent spirits, predators, and antagonists countered by security in numbers. Body language is dimmed by firelight and awareness of self and others is reduced. Facial expressions — flickering with the flames — are either softened, or in the case of fear or anguish, accentuated. Agendas of the day are dropped while small children fall asleep in the laps of kin. Whereas time structures interactions by day because of economic exigencies, by night social interactions structure time and often continue until relationships are right.
Thanks to fire, humans had time to talk through their emotions about themselves and each other. We could start bonding within and between groups. We could create and pass along culture and tradition. Without fire, all the stuff we like about being human might never have happened.
Finding the Spark Again
As the nightly campfire has come to be replaced by gas light, lightbulbs, and, eventually, the blue glow of screens, we, as a species, have forgotten about the joys of this special time of night: campfire time. However, our bodies and minds have not forgotten. Anthropologists at the University of Alabama have found that sitting by a campfire lowers blood pressure and other stress indicators: the longer we sit by the fire, the more relaxed we become.
This mirrors studies about what happens to us in all natural environments: fire, like the woods generally, produces what researchers call a “soft fascination,” modestly grabbing our attention while allowing the analytical parts of our brain to rest. This is the “restoration theory” of nature: nature allows the always-on, critical part of our minds to take it easy while prodding the long-dormant, open-ended part of our minds to come alive.
And, as any scout or camper knows, our emotional lives are also rejuvenated when we return to the campfire. The Boy Scouts acknowledges this with their opening ceremony for campfire sessions:
As glow the hearts of the logs upon this fire, So may our hearts glow, and our thoughts be kind, As glow the hearts of the logs upon this fire, May peace and deep contentment fill every mind.
As Wiessner mentions at the end of her study on the early social effects of fire, the Danish idea of hygge, or coziness, calls for the heavy use of candles to, like the fires of old, “stimulate intimate conversation.” The culture of ghost stories around the campfire, too, reminds us how well burning embers pair with being open to strange and fruitful thinking.
It’s no wonder that the oldest way of gathering has lasted this long: it relaxes us, warms our hearts and takes us to another place.
And, in line with the Lindy effect, gathering around the campfire is likely to outlast the latest wellness crazes, continuing to be humanity’s go-to way to escape and rejuvenate. Perhaps all the answers you need are not inside of your cellphone screen, but rather among the sparks and flicker of your next moonlit blaze.
Need to add some quality time in nature to your life? Boston makes it easy with an abundance of options, whether you want to stroll within steps of downtown, sit on the edge of the water, stop and smell the flowers, or hike through the wilderness.
The Boston Common isAmerica’s oldest park and has been a gathering place for Colonial militia to present day political rallies. With a gazebo, a fountain, baseball fields, and the Frog Pond – where you can ice skate in the winter – it provides a common ground for everyone in Boston to play.
Just across Charles Street from the Common is the Boston Public Garden which has a decidedly different vibe.Created 200 years after the Common as the first botanical garden in the US, the Public Garden places an emphasis on flowers in Victorian style. It is home to a lagoon where you can lounge on the banks while getting your daily dose of nature and watching the Swan Boats and actual swans glide by.
The Greenway is filled with plants, from magnolias to milkweed, birches to bamboo. Many different soothing fountains are interspersed among the foliage, including a labyrinth and a stream. It’s also the perfect place for a lunch break downtown, so get your cannoli, dumplings or food truck fare to go and eat al fresco.
Charles River Esplanade When a little water therapy is what you need, spend some time along the banks of the Charles River on the Esplanade.
Stretching3 miles from the Museum of Science to the BU Bridge, the Esplanade provides 64 acres of green space separated from the city by Storrow Drive. After crossing one of eight pedestrian footbridges to enter the park, you can meander by the river, check out the Hatch Shell, hang out on the docks, bike down the path, or even head out onto the water in a kayak.
Back Bay Fens Originally designed by the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the Fens has undergone many changes since his original design, including the addition of the English-style Kelleher Rose Garden, and it continues to be a beautiful green space that is part of the Emerald Necklace (which also includes the Boston Common/Public Garden & Arnold Arboretum).
Located in Jamaica Plain, the Arboretum consists of 281 acres of plant life, from conifers to crabapples. The trails in the Arboretum provide plenty of easy hikes and are open from sunrise to sunset every day.
One of the best times to visit Arnold Arboretum is in spring when the lilacs are blooming. There is even a special Lilac Sunday each May to celebrate these fragrant flowers.
Fresh Pond Located across the Charles River from Boston in Cambridge, Fresh Pond Reservation is another open space influenced by Olmsted. Consisting of 162 acres of land including meadows, forests, and wetlands surrounding Fresh Pond Reservoir, this is a lovely park to explore for awhile.
A 2.25 mile trail circumnavigates the Reservoir, providing plenty of opportunity for walking, running or biking along the water. Fresh Pond is also a great place for bird watching.
Middlesex Fells Just north of Boston proper, you can easily escape to nature in Middlesex Fells. The Fells comprise 2,200 acres of wilderness, with hiking trails ranging from the easy 1 mile Spot Pond Brook Historic Trail to the 3.7 mile loop Rock Circuit Trail to the 6.9 mile loop Skyline Trail.
You can hop on your mountain bike or find rock climbing areas in the Fells as well. Dogs are also welcome to join you on your adventures, and Sheepfold Meadow is an off-leash area.
Blue Hills Reservation On the southern end of the city is the Blue Hills Reservation in Milton. With 125 miles of trails on 7,000 acres, you can immerse yourself in nature in no time.
Explore Houghton’s Pond on an easy hike or challenge yourself on the 3.5 mile hike up to the summit of Buck Hill for a beautiful view of the reservation.
The Blue Hills also offers mountain biking trails and cross-country skiing trails in the winter.
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