This October, One World Two Feet is celebrating its first anniversary! We have been thrilled to share stories of adventure and admiration for this great big world with you our readers, and glad to hear your responses as well. We are lucky to have a large, growing, and interactive community that has given our site:

• More than 24,000 views
• Over 10,100 visitors
• Above 5,200 likes
• and beyond 430 comments!

And we have only just begun! Thank you for being a part of our community.

In the spirit of encouraging more people to go outside and explore this amazing and diverse world, we asked our explorers about their experiences in bringing novice outdoorspeople outdoors! Here are their stories.

Finding Nemo in Central Park, by Lillian Ciardelli

The morning after snowstorm Nemo, I hopped out of bed and began high-speed bundling myself, all while yelling at my Texas-bred roommate that we needed to hurry if we were going to see any untouched snow in Central Park. She informed me that she was not coming – slush is cold, she hates the sound of snow under her boots, and she doesn’t have the right clothing. I was disgruntled but decided that it was her loss, and power-walked/slid to the park. It was beautiful. The park was like one of those old timey paintings where everyone is frolicking about like the entire city has a snow day.

Kate had to see it. Text-harassment proved insufficient to dislodge her from our apartment, so I resorted to bribery. I hobbled home and gave her my fluffy lined-rain boots, bought her a coffee on the way to the park, and helped hoist her over snow banks. We made it the park approximately 100 years later because Kate’s snow walking speed is equivalent to the slowest sloth in the world. Not just any sloth, the slowest one. But we made it, and Kate was not disappointed. We watched dogs maniacally flail through snow up to their eyeballs, adults elbow children for the best sledding territory, and eventually wandered to the Central Park Zoo.

To this day I’m proud that I forced Kate out into the cold. She still hates the sound of snow under her feet, and she moved back to Texas (probably related), but we will both always remember that snow day in Central Park. The day ended with Kate daring me to trust fall into a snow pile that turned out to not be as deep as we thought and I got the wind knocked out of me. Worth it.

Turkey Creek Park, by Erika Zambello

I love hostessing. When people visit me, I think of detailed itineraries to fit in as much as possible (which sometimes exhausts my guests!).

Turkey Creek Park in Niceville, FL is one of my favorite areas for incoming visitors, as its boardwalk is long enough for an excursion, but not too long. When my friend Steph and her mom came to spend a long weekend with me in September, I knew we had to make a stop there.

The walk down was pleasant, cool air brushing the whispies away from our faces and feeling almost like fall. We looked down at the swamp vegetation below, to the tops of the cypress trees above.

However, as soon as we turned to go back the skies opened up and literally dumped buckets of freshwater atop our heads! We had a plastic bag for cell phones and cameras, but nothing to prevent us from becoming completely and utterly drenched. In fact, we were so soaked we couldn’t help but laugh, and we laughed and laughed the entire 3/4 of a mile back to the parking area.

Though it was unexpected, getting caught in the rain was my favorite part of their visit!

Pebble Beach, by Stephanie Panlasigui

For a time it was my privilege to teach 5th and 6th grade kids about the great outdoors in California. A big favorite each week was Beach Day, when we visited a sandy beach, a rocky shore, and finally a pebble beach in Bean Hollow State Park. Some of these kids had never been to the beach before, and became awestruck by the sights, sounds, smells and feelings during their first encounter.

There, we played with pebbles in every color: arranging them into rainbows, seeking the rare purple ones, lying down and scooping the pebbles over our legs and stomachs. The kids were never more elated than when they received a pebble shower. First the lucky recipient plugs their ears (just in case), then their friends sprinkle handfuls over their hair. I’ll always remember the shimmering sound of pebbles bouncing and laughs of pure delight on that beach.