2009-09-09 42 -72

Location

On a residential street in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Participants

Sara with her son, and her daughter, whose seventh birthday is today.

Expedition

It's my daughter's seventh birthday, and I got two presents: the geohash was very close to home, and my daughter is getting interested in geohashing (more on that below).

Right after sharing birthday cupcakes with daughter's class at school, my daughter and son and I drove over to the hashpoint, which was on a residential street in Springfield, in a neighborhood where I had never been. I didn't know what to expect there, but it turned out to be a pleasant neighborhood.

When we got there we discovered we didn't have the GPS with us, but that was ok because I had seen the basic location on Google Street View. I'm pretty sure the hashpoint was in or very near the street, so we didn't need to go onto private property. (We did go a meter or two onto the lawn, but almost no homeowner would mind that. That first meter or two might even belong to the city.)

At the hashpoint, I picked up some trash, son plopped himself down near the street and enjoyed watching vehicles go by, and daughter enjoyed being photographed and taking some pictures.

As we were walking back to the car, daughter asked if we could find a new playground in that area. I'm thrilled that she's getting interested in visiting randomly-chosen places she has never visited, as long as those places are playgrounds. We found Van Horne Park about 2 km from the hashpoint and enjoyed a few minutes at the playground there.

Van Horne Park was pretty nice - a few people were jogging on paths through the woods and a few people were walking along the paths through the grass. There are also athletic fields and a pond. Springfield surprises me sometimes.

Lessons Learned

Allow enough time to visit a playground as part of the trip.

Photos

The birthday grin, near the hashpoint
Looking the other way, also near the hashpoint
The chalk mark in the street, near the hashpoint
Daughter's idea of geohashing is you go to a new playground, randomly selected by the internet. Today we ended up at Van Horne Park in Springfield.
Son liked the playground too. For some reason he kept shouting "We're doing a science!" and "Science!" I wish I could get him one of those "Science, it works..." t-shirts.