day trip two : i want to go north!

..so north we went. 

when i first moved to boston i was looking at the blog of the family of the house i was living in (they moved to london for 6 months) and i came across this post  and just knew i needed to find that crane estate and go someday. 

i decided that day was going to be this day.

PSYCH. after a nice hour long drive to the estate we got there 12 MINUTES AFTER THE LAST TOUR and they wouldn't let us join in. i had misread the info online and thought we had plenty of time so i was pretty bummed. the drive was nice though!

lucky for us i am a planner and try to usually kill two or three adventure birds with one stone so i planned for us to head to russell orchards after crane estate which was conveniently just down the road. 

so we turned around and head to the orchard. i fell in love with it immediately.

it had the best and cutest store. 

homemade cider donuts made right then and there!

raspberry apple cider, those freshly made cider donuts, something new to both of us - cape gooseberries, pond friends, best barn, and nice shade under a big tree. 

 a self-timed failure i rather enjoy

if you are thinking i don't know how large i look in this picture - rest assured - i am very aware. and if you didn't think that, well now you are. 

cape gooseberries! i liked them until john pointed out that they taste like cheese. 

WARNING: this is a boring story so you might as well skip it.

this would be the part of the day when i realized i had a huge oil circle on my bum and then looked down and noticed i SAT ON A DONUT. who does that? oh just me. trying to get a nice picture i grabbed that donut and set it down next to me so it wouldn't be in the way. then i got up to play with the friends above and then forgot about the donut. then as i came back and sat down i started criticizing john for not actually getting me in any of the pictures and must have sat on it without realizing it. then i made him try again with me in the photo and this is what we came up with. worst picture with the worst stain bum. this was a very stressful moment and i felt so annoyed and mad about everything that was happening and all john could do was laugh. laugh and laugh and laugh. why?  because he is dating the crazy photo lady and doesn't even know how to help me in my moments of being nuts. i hated yet secretly loved him for this reaction. he handles the crazy well. 

 lil sebastian!! and uncomfortable "this cider might kill you" warning label

animal friends

for some reason i thought it would be a good idea not pick apples and thought we could have time to come back some day and  do it after going to the crane estate. 

that was wishful thinking, we definitely did not make our way back up there. 

     and we will close the orchard portion of this post with the most ugly and sweet animal maybe ever :

down the road we saw the topsfield fair going on that seemed rather promising so we decided to stop and check it out. (this day i was missing swiss days so i needed some county fair in my life!)

i didn't know this was still real

so many gems

this nice man showed us all about how he makes wooden pens and i thought it was so cool that this pen had teeny tiny clock pieces in it. he even offered to make me a wooden letter opener! dad, i still look for those every where for you.  

best news = these guys. 

 gerbs seeds friends told us all about where we could find little caesars in massachusetts and gave us some great ideas for good things to do this fall in new england. it only got slightly uncomfortable when green shirt started asking if we had any booze on us or where he could get some. some people are so good at surprising me and making me feel awkward! green guy is one of them. 

after talking to them they thanked us for stopping by the guitar guy across from them because it made him stop singing for ten minutes hahah. john loved those jams!

our next spontaneous stop : farmer browns grocery store

that kettle corn was delicious and i laughed so good at that corn sign

 and then heyo what is this feast of three saints festival doing here?! i really had no idea what it was but it sounded nice and was only a few more miles north and it was in fact north day so it seemed appropriate to attend. 

bless his heart for dating me and my summer bucket list

 classy

i believe this was the day john truly realized his hatred for my camera. 

 i don't know if this explosion of loud sounds was planned or not

 i can't really say we ever knew what was going on at this festival but we appreciated seeing everything, being introduced to fried pb&j's and italian rice balls, and also seeing lots of grown men wave fire around and chant random things in italian. scott you are coming with us next year!

in closing we also REALLY appreciated this chicago cover band - except for the part where they didn't play any of my favorite songs and that made me sad. 

and that my friends, all happened in a matter of like 10 hours. i said it once and i'll say it again, bless john's heart!

every title i can think of for this brooklyn post is stupid.

the sunday of new canaan weekend was just going to be spent driving back to boston so instead i drove back to new york with john!

his work gives him a ridiculous amount of money each weekend for traveling expenses so we had this nice car service man pick us up. my favorite part of our time with him was when i offered him a pop-tart and he really took it! i thought for sure he would have said no but it made me so happy he didn't. 

i don't know whose genius idea it was to arrive in brooklyn at 8:30 in the morning (john's) but we sure did. he thought we could get into his hotel room early but they were definitely still full so we just sat in a chair in the lobby and ate sandwiches i had made for lunch because we were starving. i think that combined with my snowflake blanket made john a little embarrassed but i assured him his marriott friends wouldn't even recognize him if he just closed his eyes every time they walked by.

after that fun time we walked down to grace and dave's house (bnotd = they live five blocks away from where john stays!) and went to church with them and baby alta. the walk was so painfully hot/humid but we were sure happy to see the poulsen's again!

old yellow house friends nate and annelisa are in their ward so we got to see them too! we also saw a mormon blogger celeb who i don't particularly love - but grace told her i did - and that was awkward. 

maybe we only got a few hours of sleep in new canaan and we were dying during sacrament so we pulled the weareonvacationkindof justification and went to take a nap. upon arrival i saw this little treasure, who knew you can find a book of mormon in ever single room at every single marriott? i actually think i might have known that at one time but definitely forgot about it so it was a fun surprise.

we went back to grace and dave's house for lunch and brooklyn has turned her into a healthy little cooker!  i miss them living in boston and being so close so getting to spend time with them this day was such a treat. 

we then went on a little stroll around the streets and john let me bring my camera

(which is always kind considering when i have it i forget to interact with others around me and just go into picture mode -  way annoying i'm sure)

it was fun to see the other side of the city and the most random pool placement ever

best place for a table and chairs

i really enjoyed the photography projects that lined the sidewalk 

i wanted to be a part of this wedding so badly

carousel!

i think it is safe to say that i really like brooklyn. i liked how it was more quiet than the other parts of the city i've seen and it just seemed so quaint and nice. i was loving our walk but sadly it got cut short because we needed to head back to their house so they could take me to the airport.

but theeeen my flight was cancelled because a crazy rainstorm was going to hit! which it did, as you can see above. 

so then we got in some extra bonus time with the poulsen's and with nate and annelisa. 

(and i feel like i should say we had just come in from the rain in the picture above, that is definitely not sweat haha)

annelisa made some bomb butternut squash lasagna which we ate as we watched a little of the olympics and had nice conversations. then we said goodbye to our friends and went to bed early (not together - separately) and i thoroughly enjoyed being in a place with central air and waking up because it was time to get up rather than because i was sweating to death. 

and so bright and early i headed to the business men shuttle to catch a 6 am flight to boston and by 7:45 i was at work (thanks to natalie for being a champ and picking me up from the airport!) and ready to head our monthly staff meeting.
(and yes of course i just wore the same clothes i wore all day sunday because i had sent everything home with natalie the day before thinking i wouldn't need any haha)

in conclusion i say yes to having a random day trip to brooklyn and yes to john's firm for funding it! 

(i'm glad there is at least one perk to having Deloitte decide to work him in a different state for six months)