Vermont/MA, Part 1...Northampton/Hadley

Northampton, Massachusetts

Well, if I am to write anything at all about this trip, it will have to be in pieces, as there is so much to write. Let's see if I can start somewhere.

Rob and I left for our trip to MA and Vermont at noon on Friday. Stopped at WF to pick up a few things in Portland first. Beautiful day, 60s, sunny, non humid. Made great time , 3 hrs, to the WF in Hadley, MA. Listened to my Hermans Hermits radio CD from WMPG on the way there, which really helped. Weather was just as nice when we got to MA.

The WF (whole foods) in Hadley was much smaller and different than I remembered it. I was very dissapointed by it and very nervous in it at first. I did not want to spend much time in it at all. Their selection of everything was like 1/4 of what our WF has. I am so glad and lucky we have such an amazing WF. I got some banana peach mango sorbet from their gelato place which was quite good, so that part was good. We met my friend Pat sitting on the tables they had outside, which turned out well. We spent an hour with her and it was quite pleasant. An intellectually stimulating, engaging conversation. She also gave me a copy of the book she had written.

Pat and I

From there we went to an ice cream shop called Flayvors, which was on a farm only 2 miles away. They make their own ice cream there, and have cows outside you can pet and take pictures of. You can literally eat the ice cream while petting the cows it came from, and we did.
Rob had the grass (asparagus) flavored one, which he said was actually quite good. I got my picture taken with the cows, which were even better than the ones at the parade.

Ice cream place Me, getting up close and personal with a cow!

Mooo!

From there, it was only about 10 minutes to nearby Northhampton, a bustling, hip and happening college town. Finding parking was quite difficult, but we enjoyed strolling around the downtown.

They've got a quirky sense of humor here.

So much to see. Rob had a goat cheese sandwhich from the Haymarket Cafe that he really liked.

A quirky little cafe where I used to get excellent smoothies.

I took a lot of pictures.

Totally awesome tie dye shop!

We walked around for an hour and then drove the 25 minutes to Longmeadow, where my grandparents live. After chatting with them for a bit, we went to bed at what was for me quite an early hour, as we had to be up at 730 for the cow festival in Vermont the next day.

Not a bad first day at all! More to come.