Another Fall Activity--Apple Picking

Rob and I just joined the Harvard Law Couples Association (HLCA). They sponsor really fun activities and it's a great way to meet people who are outside of your normal sphere.

Anyway, the HLCA activity for this month was...dum dum dummmm...Apple Picking!! I am happy to be able to say that in my years in Connecticut I did manage to go apple picking a few times so it wasn't a total first for me, but it's amazing how much more fun everything is when you get to do it with the love of your life! (cheesy, but true).

To get to Honey Pot Orchards it was about a 40 minute drive. We again were blessed with amazing scenery--we got to drive right through Concord, MA, home of "the Shot Heard 'Round the World" in the American Revolutionary War, as well as home to quite a few famous authors including Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa Alcott, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. (see http://www.concordma.gov/pages/ConcordMA_WebDocs/about)

We carpooled with our friends James and Leigh Schulke, who we met at a RedSox game earlier this year. They are both from Texas, are huuuge UT Longhorn fans and have become converted to Ticket to Ride. So we have a lot of fun with them.

Rob and James had a great time with the Honey Pot Bear...

So the deal was that you buy a bag that can fit about 20 lb of apples (we split it 3 ways and STILL have apples coming out of our ears!) and then you go around the orchard and pick the kind of apples you want. The Golden Delicious apples were ginormous. Absolutely huge. I thought those were really good but Rob liked the McIntosh apples better.

We're pretty much professionals at this...

After we were done picking we went to the orchard store, bought some AMAZING apple cider--after trying a sip Rob immediately grabbed an entire gallon to bring hom--and some AMAZING strawberry rhubarb jam, and also partook of a few legendary apple cider donuts. It was a good day!

Rob would like everyone to share in the experience of his fabulous goatee. He was sporting it since we've been here, but actually just shaved it off this weekend. Everyone at school is commenting on how young he looks!

A "For Real" New England Clambake

Rob and I got invited to a clambake by Paul and Nancy Dredge (Stan and KK's friends from their Harvard days)! It was hosted by the Arlington Ward (we belong to the Cambridge 2nd Ward, so we didn't think we'd know anybody there...) on a Saturday afternoon.

Despite my years in Connecticut, I had never attended a clambake so we didn't really know what it was. Both of us were excited to experience this traditional New England activity. It was held out at this beach about an hour northeast of Cambridge.

If you want to know what a real clambake is, Wikipedia does a great job
explaining...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_clam_bake

As you can probably see from the pictures, Saturday dawned a little bit overcast and pretty chilly but Rob and I headed up to the beach anyway. We drove through really cute old-fashioned seaside towns with beautiful scenery. When we finally got to the beach we ran into a friend of mine from high school who is living in MA for the year with her husband while she is applying to med school! We also ran into a friend of my sister's from BYU who is now married and going to MIT. AND our friend who goes to Harvard Law School who we met out in Utah is in that ward, AND another Harvard Law Student and his wife are in that ward. So, we ended up having a fun little reunion! It really is a small world!

This is Paul Dredge--Stan and KK's friend from Harvard. He invited us and gave Rob and me each a lobster! He and his wife, Nancy, have great memories about their "Good Ol' Harvard Days with the Ellis'"

Anyway, they cooked all the seafood (lobsters, clams, mussels, etc) in these huge metal drums. They had great cornbread, hot dogs for those who were a little more squeamish, and other great side dishes and desserts. Rob and I feasted on the lobster and clams. We discovered that I actually liked the clams more than the lobster (Rob definitely disagrees). All in all, it was a very fun New England-y Saturday!

Oh, and on the way home we stopped at an apple orchard that had AMAZING apple cider donuts! If you ever get a chance to have some, they come highly recommended.

And that is me eating a clam. Yummm :)

Here we go!

So, Rob and I liked the idea of recording our adventures in Cambridge in a format that we can share and is organized. It's kind of like online scrapbooking, but with much less baggage! So we'll give it a go and see how it works out.