{"id":169029,"date":"2021-05-24T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=169029"},"modified":"2021-05-21T15:47:09","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T22:47:09","slug":"ranice-innocent-limitless-sides-to-outside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/camp\/ranice-innocent-limitless-sides-to-outside","title":{"rendered":"Ranice Innocent: Limitless Sides to Outside"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are so many ways to enjoy time outside. This is one of many unique stories we\u2019re sharing as part of our effort to highlight the Limitless Sides to Outside<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was born in California but was raised in the woods of Snohomish, Washington. I grew up playing in the woods, riding horses and riding my bike. I certainly did not grow up going camping regularly. It wasn\u2019t ever a family or summer tradition by any means, but I do remember camping a few times. My husband Ricardo, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, didn\u2019t spend much time playing in the woods or camping, but he did spend summers playing in the city or visiting family on the Virgin Islands.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to adulthood and parenthood. My husband and I wanted to create a new family tradition of camping at least once or twice every summer. We began doing this when our daughter was about 8 and our son was 2. We wanted to cultivate or provide them opportunities to play, hang out, explore and enjoy nature. Our camping adventures occurred primarily at state parks and county campgrounds. One of our favorite memories to date is making s\u2019mores over the campfire and playing UNO or Mancala. Now that our kids are older, we tend to cabin camp, or \u201ccamp\u201d staying in a cabin, versus tent camping. Our kids still adore the outdoors and have always been nature-loving kids. More recently, we take day trips to the mountains, hike on local trails and visit local beaches.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all of that said, one of the harder and constant conversations we have as a family of color was: I<\/em>s it safe? <\/em>Is the<\/em> location where we are going<\/em> safe? Do<\/em> we see <\/em>ourselves where we go? <\/em>Are<\/em> other f<\/em>amilies of color when we go camping? Are we going with friends<\/em> or other <\/em>famil<\/em>ies<\/em> where we have a white person with us<\/em>,<\/em> which <\/em>could <\/em>help us \u201cfeel\u201d <\/em>safer<\/em> and <\/em>who<\/em> <\/em>would<\/em> <\/em>help us <\/em>\u201cappear\u201d <\/em>safer<\/em> to others around us<\/em>?<\/em> We would commonly joke about this and about rationalizing why we would spend our vacation days \u201csleeping on the ground\u201d in the woods. Because that has been and still is a (historically) scary place and space to be in as Brown and Black people.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, we\u2019ve made the decision that we are just as worthy of experiencing camping as anyone else, and equally deserving of feeling safe in doing so. We are determined to allow and provide the opportunity for our children to enjoy camping as well. They have always enjoyed our time in nature and playing outdoors.  <\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are so many ways to enjoy time outside. This is one of many unique stories we\u2019re sharing as part of our effort to highlight the Limitless Sides to Outside. I was born in California but was raised in the woods of Snohomish, Washington. I grew up playing in the woods, riding horses and riding my bike. I certainly did not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9145,"featured_media":169234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2139,1973],"internal-tag":[],"class_list":["post-169029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camp","tag-limitless-sides-to-outside","tag-representing-the-outdoors"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/camp\/ranice-innocent-limitless-sides-to-outside","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Ranice Innocent: Limitless Sides to Outside","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/camp\/ranice-innocent-limitless-sides-to-outside","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/camp\/ranice-innocent-limitless-sides-to-outside"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/05\/ranice.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/05\/ranice.jpg?fit=2000%2C1000"},"articleSection":"Camp","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Phuong Le"}],"creator":["Phuong Le"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["limitless sides to outside","representing the outdoors"],"dateCreated":"2021-05-24T16:00:00Z","datePublished":"2021-05-24T16:00:00Z","dateModified":"2021-05-24T16:00:00Z"},"rendered":"