About Reviews

The @home.outdoors blog has had posts in several categories so far: Reviews, Day-Tripper, Bike Rides and Events. But Reviews and reviewing natural and cultural places is most of what the @home.outdoors blog is about. We go to a place, check it out and then write a review of our findings. This is a quick guide to help you understand how to use the reviews. Each review is made up of 7 sections: Outdoor Appeal, Setting, Explorable Op's, Difficulty, Facilities, Review and Recommendations. Why so many? The information is chunked in order for you to easily browse the review to find what's most important to you. If you are travelling with young children then it's likely you'll want to know how difficult the terrain is and if there is a place to get to a bathroom quickly. So you could quickly look at the Difficulty and Facilities sections to find out about both. If you have older kids you'll probably want to know if how much there is to do at the place. The Explorable Op's (Op's is short for "options") section will tell you how much there is to do and explore at a given place. Although most Review posts have all 7 categories, sometimes they are not all applicable and may be left out. For example, Van Sant Airport has no Difficulty section because it's a place to watch planes, not a place to hike and explore. Below is a quick description of each of the sections that you will find in a Review post.
Outdoor Appeal: This is a rating from 1-10 with 10 being the highest mark. Typically a place that gets high Outdoor Appeal has a beautiful natural setting, tons of options for outdoor exploration and varying difficulty levels that make it accessible (or challenging) to everyone. The Outdoor Appeal rating easily lets you know what to expect on your visit.

Setting: This sections gives a quick description of what you'll see when you visit. Delaware River, hiking trails, bird blind in a meadow, boulder strewn trails - these are typical short descriptions of some of the more important characteristics of a place.

Explorable Op's: As mentioned above, "Op's" is short for "options." This section always begins one of three ways: a few, a lot or a ton. This quickly gives you and idea of about how long you can expect to keep kids entertained at this place and if it's a place you'll want to visit very often or not. The section then continues on to give details about the major features of the place. For example: hiking trails, bike path, nature center, covered bridge, playground, creek, etc.

Difficulty: This section always begins with one of these three words: Easy, Moderate or Tough. Not too much explanation beyond this is usually necessary although there are almost always more details to follow. For example, you might want to know why Dark Hollow park is rated "tough" and rightfully so. The park is along the Neshaminy Creek and it would seem like any trails would be flat and easy to hike. But in reality the trails are often muddy or even underwater. This is good to know if you're heading out with kids.

Facilities: Depending on your kids' age, this may be the most important section of the post because it encompasses the conditions, or lack of a bathroom. This section starts out with one of these words: Civilized, Rustic or Primitive. Civilized means that you're going to feel rather at home with the bathrooms. There may also be places to eat, vending machines at the place. This might be a place that has a nature center. A place with Rustic facilities usually means, yeah, there's a potty, but... well you get the idea. Primitive means you're on your own - no bathroom, no water fountians, no changing tables, nada! Actually, a lot of times I find a Primitive places a bit more liberating than the Rustic ones because if there is no bathroom there's no obligation to enter the "stink-tank."

Review: This is the blogging part of the post. The review details what we did while we were at the place and gives our opinions as to what we found. This is a good section to read if you want to visit a new place with your kids but you don't know what there is to do there. This is an especially important section if you are trying to keep your visit within a time constraint. Some places have tons of explorable op's and it's hard to know what might be manageable during the time you have. The Review section can also give you a concrete game plan so you're not trying to make decisions while dealing with kids chomping at the bit to get out of the car and do something. It can also give you highlights of a place that you may not know about. For example, did you know there is an Indian Shelter along a trail at Peace Valley park? The Review section gives you all the details.

Recommendations: This is the final section of the Review Post and it gives you some helpful suggestions for your visit. It may tell you the best time of day or best time of year to plan your visit. It can tell you what's near by, what you shouldn't miss or what to stay away from.

We this helps you get the most out of reading @home.outdoors. If you have comments or suggestions please leave them below the post or email them to mattdsikora@gmail.com