Watch the skies. It feeds on the dead, hunting the gasses of decomposition with a keen sense of smell, grunting and hissing.
No, this isn’t the latest post-apocalyptic zombie abomination. This fearsome creature is the turkey vulture, and there might be one flying overhead right now!
This Mon. Feb. 20, Olive Free Library in West Shokan will host Robinson’s Wildlife: Birds of Prey at 11am. Meet turkey vultures, hawks and other predators of the sky. No registration necessary.
Shake your fit bits. As the weather looks to be taking a turn for the warmer again, many are reminded of how long we’ve been stuck inside, sedentary, taking on calories with too few activities to burn them.
Get momentum, get moving, and start shedding that winter weight this Sun. Feb. 19 at 1pm as the Center for Creative Education holds a “FREE Family Fit Fest” at its Kingston headquarters. The array of activities is dizzying: For kids, there will be dodgeball, boxing, DXF (a combination of dance and exercise), meditation, high intensity interval training and yoga. There will be additional adult sessions including self-defense, combat training, life coaching, breath work and Zumba. Plenty of family-friendly games will also take place, and you can even visit the Kingston Pop-Up Shop & Cafe to discuss meal prep, healthy food recommendations and nutrition.
Walk the walk. As part of Kingston’s epic, multi-event celebration of Black History Month, you will have the opportunity to walk in the shoes of abolitionist hero Sojourner Truth. At 11am sharp on Sat. Feb. 18, a free bus will pick up walkers at Dietz Stadium in Kingston and transport them to Port Ewen, where the walk will begin at the statue there honoring Truth. After walking back to Kingston and arriving at the Old Dutch Church for rest and refreshments, Deborah Zuill will stage a reenactment of Truth’s famous “Ain’t I A Woman” speech.
This will be an amazing opportunity to connect with your community as well as your history. It’s a bit of a hike (that’s part of the point), so prepare appropriately.
Have a sense of adventure. In winter, it can be a challenge getting kids out of the house to interact with other kids. It’s important, though. One fantastically low-pressure way to do this is to hit your local library. There’s no cover, you can come and go as you please, and there are special events happening all the time.
Whether you’re a parent, caregiver or babysitter, one great activity going on this Fri. Feb. 17 at 11am is the Town of Esopus Library’s “Play to Learn: Sensory Social Hour”. For an hour, the library gives books a break and focuses on sensory explorations with a variety of “sensory explorations” set up for creative play.
If you’re looking for something different, the Town of Esopus LIbrary has several other events going on, and they’re only one of the many libraries in Ulster County offering great programming. If you haven’t been to your local library in a while, you owe it to yourself and the kid(s) to scan the events happening this week – there’s so much to do, like a drawing workshop for ages 5-12 with artist David Goldin on Tue. Feb. 21 at 4pm over at the Woodstock LIbrary.
Explore freely. The Mid-Hudson Discovery Museum in Poughkeepsie is always a great idea when you’re out of ideas for what to do with the young ones. What you may not know is that it’s also completely free on the third Saturday of every month. For families with children 12 and under, admission is free this Sat. Feb. 18 from 5pm to 8pm. Make a big impression on the pin screen wall. Create flying machines hovering over the wind table. Hang out in “RiverTown” and cosplay as a firefighter, doctor, chef, artist, construction worker and more. These are just a handful of the activities that await curious minds.
Join the family! 
