When fall hits New England I get a serious hankering for long walks in the woods, coffee, maple goodies and friends. All of which can be found in abundance in Northampton, Mass where I went to college. A best friend still calls Noho home along with the kiddos I babysat for so I try to make the trip as often as I can. This past weekend M, K and I headed up for loads of everything mentioned above and a good weekend away from the city. The Northeast is one of the perfect areas for day/weekend jaunts. It's small so you can get to an exciting new town, city or state in just a couple hours and in the fall the drive can even be the most enjoyable part of the trip. I can't wait for our next adventure, I want to go here, here and I need to be here. Sometimes I get super frustrated in the car and I have to practice yogi-patience when there is traffic and really get in to the road trip mindset (the trip up alone involved lots of Michael Jackson and the trip back with M included lots of mozarella sandwiches). If you ever find yourself in Northampton there are a couple important things that should not be missed:
A delicious coffee from one of the many awesome cafes, a personal favorite is The Woodstar - because my friend works there and because their ginger molasses cookies and tummy tea are the bomb diggity.
With your coffee in hand you should head to Paradise Pond on the Smith College campus. This is easily one of my all time favorite walks in the world. It's super short only taking about 45 minutes round-trip and that's if you're walking liesurely. I was lucky enough to take a walk here almost every week for four years. The pond is also wonderful for canoeing, swimming, ice skating, beaver watching and frog catching, but I'd still rank the walk along side of it as the most awesome. You'll start out at the top of the hill where the first photo was taken and when you get about half way through you can take a nap on a large rock or look for red efts.
After that kind of stressful day you're going to need a nap and some tasty red. Lucky for you weekend trips allow for that sort of behavior. Have fun!
Thomas Cole painting of the Oxbow; Oliver Scott Woodstar coffee photo; Paradise Pond by Marina Zaiats; LIFE archival and still from Sideways.
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