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Alright. In case you haven't already guessed we both work in Cambridge. And while we love it with all of our hearts, the People's Republic just ain't NYC. Now that wasn't true when I was at NNHS and we hit the square every summer evening cruising like Coloradans revvin' their pickup engines down Main Street. For all intents and purposes, this event was the a late twenty-something version of the same thing, but this time it was for a gerat cause. CitySprouts. And we were ready to eat.
Now my best friend Foodie Mommy might argue that Cambridge got it going on in the culinary world, but you'll notice she sneaks off to the Apple every chance she gets. There was some good stuff here at the Taste, but it was point in case why being a Foodie in Beantown is tough. The boys? They didn't mind. They stuffed their faces. The girls? They didn't mind either, each ticket came with four glasses of beverage included.
For $50 (free for the kiddos) we got to surf Boston's finest. Lij particularly liked the fruit gazpacho. The higlight of the evening though was the message. The fine folks at City Sprouts have made an amazing garden with the staff, families and kids at my school. You should check them out. Even better throw them a few bucks (yeah, that cutie with the tomatoe is one of my boys). The evening reflected their excellent work all the way down to the compostable silverware. So if you are single and surfing and wanna help some kids get fresh veggies, check out the Taste of Cambridge and bring my boys for free.
After a lifetime of staying out of the Berkshires, we are back for pass two of three in less than six months. Needless to say, last time was in a foot of snow and a day of crazy downhill at Butternut. This time it was 90 degrees and we needed to cool down after a morning of horseback at Undermountain Farm. Yesterday we hit the lake, today we had our sights on the water slides. Bousquet is a local fav amongst the ski set. While Butternut was either too flat or steep, Bousquet seems to have made out better in the glacial age. This winter we will try out their 22 lovely trails. For now, we worked the mini-golf. Oddly enough, Sydney seems to like golf. Meemaw got him a set of "clubs" and he hacks away at home. After hacking away off the greens at Bousquet, we got bored at hole 15.
I can't believe he waited this long for the slides. The big kid/adult slides were tempting. I almost took a Dadbreak. Instead we watched in glee as Sydney shooshed down the kiddie slides. It brought me back to my summers in Jersey at Action Park or down on the coast at Wildwood (thankfully pre-"Situation", but still Jersey Shore baby). So I was delighted to see that the parking lot was full of Jersey plates. You can take the kids out of Jersey, but you can't take the Jersey out of your kids.
I like to think of myself as a bit of a risk taker. I pride myself on the fact that my boys are willing to try anything. I also love horses. Like with most large animals, some urge comes over me to scratch their ears, pat them, smile at them. But, my last real experience riding was not a good one. With little training I was at a cantor with a friend ahead of me who trained horses. We started to race up a hill at camp and my horse shot ahead of hers. As she tried to catch me to settle my horse, her ride threw her head first at a tree. An hour later an ambulance made it to the rural spot in Maine with her eyes closed and slow breathing. Thankfully a neck brace for her, but not a lot of riding for me after that. So, the boys seem to share my love of large farm animals. We hit the pony rides at Belkin and Davis, but that was just a tease. Today, we met the coolest horse trainer I've ever seen. She managed our party of five and two others, while calming gearing up the horses, directing her staff and generally holding court with kids ages two to fifteen. "If he's over six months old and can sit up on his own, he can ride." So as our two closest girlfriends (or 3rd grade super heros as the boys like to see them) led the horses, the boys took the mounts. For thirty minutes they replayed every fantasy I had since watching Black Stallion in the seventies and reading the entire series (I know, I know, I was the only boy doing this, but at least the main character was a boy too). This place is more than just rides though. It is set over Tanglewood admist the mountains and trees. It was a perfectly clear day with a bit of heat, and they were full up. Some kids were getting ready for jumps, others like ours were on their first real outing. They run everything from trail rides to day camps. They have it all. But in the end, the have one most important factor to my boys; a love of animals.
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