Monday, July 11, 2011

Leverett, Montague, & More

On day eight, we drove out to Leverett to visit the Peace Pagoda where Liz and Vanessa got married. It was beautiful.

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We spent a good deal of time walking around and just enjoying the quiet. The kids, especially Satchel, enjoyed looking for toads, fish, turtles, and salamanders in the pond.

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They were also fascinated by the cairn rocks, which are purposely stacked.

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Before leaving we desperately tried to get a good family photo. It proved impossible so we went with the one in which the adults looked the best!

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Then we went to Montague to have lunch at Lady Killigrew's and peruse books at the Book Mill. Right outside the restaurant and adjacent bookstore is a stream. We ended up spending the entire afternoon there. I'll probably cover the food over at DWM, but here's a peek at the area. Totally cute. Totally New England.

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Used books with a view.

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I'd like this to be my office.

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A few feet from the bookstore is a trail to the river. It impossible not to dip your toes in.

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Clearly we should have packed swimsuits.

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Once everyone was good and soaked and had their fill of food, books, and water, we headed back home. The drive was incredible since it followed the river. We also just happened upon the family farm of my dear friend, Catherine's, husband. Too bad they weren't in town!

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Back at the house--here it is by the way--we decided to have a final cookout in the backyard.

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I love their backyard. Do you know that they actually had a bear in it not too long ago? Apparently it's pretty common! I definitely prefer monkeys.

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After such a lovely day--our last--I just didn't want it to end. I convinced Vanessa to sneak out to Mt. Tom's for more ice cream. On our way out the door, Jiro busted us. I let him tag along and then we ended up getting ice cream for everyone. It was almost 10pm when we got back and the combination of a busy day, the late hour, and sugar was insane. Honestly, I had to laugh to keep from crying. It was a mad house! How we ever got everyone to bed I'll never know.

The next morning after we were all packed up, we decided to take one last trip to see the dinosaur footprints and say our goodbyes there.

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There are dozens of footprints from at least three species of dinosaurs. How crazy is that? The kids weren't all that impressed and soon escaped down to the river banks to play around and climb an enormous tree that washed up.

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I could not get Miles to smile for a picture the entire time that we were there. The best I could do was to get him to look at the camera. I tried every trick in the book. He almost smiled when I said, "Look, I grew a third boob!"

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As we walked to the car it started to rain so our goodbyes were cut short. It was so nice to get to spend 9 whole days with the family. The kids really got to know each other and it was so interesting to watch them interact. They definitely act like siblings! And now that we've experienced Liz & Vanessa's hospitality and cruise directing, we definitely want to visit more often.

As we headed out of the state, we made one last stop at the Dr. Seuss memorial gardens in Springfield. It was still raining, but that didn't stop us from grabbing a few photo opps.

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Goodbye, Massachusetts! We love you!

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