Quick Trip to MA

On Saturday morning I drove up to Boston from Princeton. I went straight to Ann and Lee's place and dropped off my bag and then Lee and I headed out to meet Allison at the MFA. I was very interested in seeing the Edward Weston show that was there, and was happy to have Allison suggest the Greene on Greene show, too. It was an enjoyable afternoon at the museum. Allison and I had tickets to see Kiss Me, Kate at the Lyric Stage Co. (thanks, Matt!), so we headed straight to the theatre after grabbing a quick lunch. The show was so much fun. The Cole Porter tunes are wonderful, and for me it brought back a lot of happy memories from my days in summer theatre when GCSDW did a production of Kiss Me, Kate. It was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon. The show got out around 6pm and then Allison and I met Ann and Lee at Finale. They were downtown because they had tickets to the ballet (aren't we a cultured bunch?). Finale is mostly a dessert place, but I had a small bite for dinner and then the most outrageous hot fudge sundae with chunks of brownies, whipped cream and of course, a cherry on top. Here's a photo of all of us, after enjoying our scrumptious desserts:

After that Ann and Lee went to the ballet, Allison headed home and I went up to Davis Square to meet some folks for candlepin bowling at Sacco's:

It ended up being a random assortment of fellas, but it was lots of fun. Here are Peet, Ben (Matt's friend), Matt, me, Tom (Nick's roommate) and Nick.

I ended up playing horribly, but still having fun thanks to the good company, the juke box and a huge bag of M&Ms that everyone got to share. After bowling I headed back to Ann and Lee's and we stayed up later than we should have just chatting and catching up.

On Sunday morning Ann and Lee and I went apple picking! It was kind of a cloudy day, and the orchards were pretty muddy from the rain on Saturday, but we found plenty of good apples and enjoyed the time outside in the country.

It's amazing how many "drops" there are and yet there are still plenty to go around. We went to Russel Orchards in Ipswich, MA and they have a bunch of different varieties. Most of them were still available, but a few had already been picked through.

I didn't go apple picking as a kid, although I've been going pretty regularly in the past few years. Lee, however, is somewhat of an apple picking connoisseur. Here I am following his instructions on how to successfully pick an apple:

And here I am after being a little too aggressive on that arm twist and ripping out half a branch. I was so surprised when 2 apples came off into my hands. Oops - I guess I still have some learning to do. Maybe I'll get it right next year.

One of the best parts about apple picking is the hayride out to the orchard. The other best part is eating cider donuts! At Russel, they sort of combine the two and use the leftover oil from making the donuts to power the tractors that take folks out to the orchards. This leaves a faint scent of cider donuts in the air, instead of gross exhaust fumes.

And yes, here are the donuts. They are some of the best I've had. They are not coated in sugar as most cider donuts usually are, so they have a more obvious apple taste as opposed to just sweet. They are always fresh and hot and you have to wait in line to get to this self-serve cabinet. And it's well worth the wait!

I was hoping to see a little more fall foliage while I was up in MA, but there were just a few spots that were starting to turn. I'm sure by this weekend or the next it will truly be peak foliage season. But it was still beautiful.

These quick weekend trips can be pretty exhausting, but they are always worth it. I stopped at John and Jill's for dinner on the way home and got a good shoulder massage from Jill and got to play with the kids a little bit. I read Emmy a book or two in his blue bed in his blue bedroom and watched Nathaniel practice with his newest aquisition: drumsticks! It was a great way to end an already fun-filled weekend.