Head of the Charles

The Head of the Charles Regatta is this weekend, which draws a huge college-age crowd from all over.



As with any kind of river festival, there has to be the usual fair food.


Actually, there were lots of places giving away free samples -- ice cream, pizza slices, granola bars, cereal, coffee, fruit drinks, potato chips. I don't remember so much free stuff from other years, but the past couple Regattas the weather has been kind of nasty so I've not really gone down there.

But today was beautiful, and seemed like a perfect day to be rowing -- not hot, not cold, no freezing wind or rain in your face.


I'm still full from the free pizza and ice cream ... oh, and the kettle corn ... (I only got a small bag of kettle corn this time ... major self control!)

And after the cider doughnuts ...

... we continued on up to Rockport.


It was basically sunny where we were, but we could see rainstorms in the distance over the water.

Maybe you can just make it out, but behind me, on the tip of land furthest to the left, is a lighthouse.

Um ... see it? Kind of?

I only mention it because it took us awhile to figure out that it's on a little island -- even though it looks like it's just on the coast line. So it's hard to get a closer view of it. Maybe we'll find some random dirt road that gets us a clearer view of it someday, but for now ... that's as close as we can get!

We hung out at the end of the pier awhile.




Since we had a car full of cider doughnuts, we refrained from raiding the candy store, and just had a late lunch and strolled the shops.


Yeah ...

Cider doughnuts!

Tom and I had been meaning to visit Brooksby Farm for awhile, and this weekend we finally made it!

Granted, apple-picking season is over with, but that's okay. It was a gorgeous autumn day, and there were a lot of people there enjoying the farm.




Of course we had to say hi to the animals.

You were expecting maybe cows and pigs?

But really, the farm store was the best part! All kinds of great produce, including about ten different varieties of apples, but there was also the best ever hot apple cider ...

... which Tom is enjoying here!

But the main attraction? The apple cider doughnuts!

Ohohoho, wow! These are not like other doughnuts, okay? They are the perfect texture, a little crispy on the outside and moist and cakey on the inside, flavored with their amazing apple cider ... mmmmmm ...

We grabbed one apiece, while they were still warm, just to taste them ... and then it was very clear that we needed to get a bag of them.

This bag had six in it yesterday. Heh.

The rest of them won't last long, believe me. Ten seconds in the microwave and ... delicious!

Tom and I recommend them!

Dessert on Friday night ...

... looked like this.

The Dessert Sampler from Finale ...

Um, yeah. In our defense, we didn't actually eat it all at once. We've ordered this dessert twice before and managed to finish it, and we both nearly went into sugar comas. Having learned our lesson, this time we ate the treats that needed to be eaten right away, and took the rest home. We might finish the last of it tonight.

It's a very fun thing to order, though.

OH on a bus ...

Uttered by five-year-old boy, sitting next to me on a packed Sunday inbound bus making frequent stops:

"How many times is this bus gonna STOP?!"

Then, seeing me looking at him, he squirmed a little and added:

"I was just saying that to myself."

I know exactly how you feel, little dude.