Annual Nashoba Valley Winery Trip

This last Sunday we made our annual fall trip to the Nashoba Valley Winery in Bolton, Massachusetts, to take in one of their fall festivals. Maura has been every year since she was born and Jennifer and I have been making the trip even longer. The trip is one of the highlights of our year and we’ll likely continue it in years to come. In addition to producing some very enjoyable wines, Nashoba Valley offers apple picking in their orchard and a microbrewery that makes some very good beer. While its alcoholic products are for adults only Nashoba’s orchards and their festival events are family friendly and Maura enjoys our annual excursions there as much as her parents do.


This year our weather was bright and warm, the very best of fall weather in New England. We could sit outside and enjoy the day without bundling up. We haven’t always had such great weather for our visits. On the day of Maura’s first festival at Nashoba it was a raw cold day, New England fall weather at its almost worst. She was only two months old, a tiny baby. I wore her in a front carrier zipped up under my coat to keep her warm. Another year there had been so much rain that the field used as a parking lot turned into a swamp. Our car sank to the axles in the mud and we had to call a tow truck to pull us out. The driver stayed to pull out the dozens of other cars that needed his services.


This year we met a group of our friends for the Brews and Bluegrass Festival. The festival featured beer from the microbrewery on tap and music provided by bluegrass band Southern Rail, all outdoors in the winery’s picnic area. Between sets we enjoyed spending time with our friends while Maura and their children ran around and rolled down a grassy slope, getting dizzy and covered in grass stains.


For a treat at the end of the day we had fresh caramel apples. Maura’s treat got the better of her. When she was done with it she’d lost a tooth and covered herself in caramel. Of course, the tooth had been loose already. It got wrapped up to go under her pillow for the tooth fairy.



On our way home we took the scenic route, heading back toward Boston on route 117 through Stowe, Sudbury and Lincoln. Our route took us by the Walden Pond Reservation and through woodlands and farmlands. The bright sunshine lit the brilliant colors of the autumn trees along the way. We stopped at a farm stand for fresh pressed cider, a great ending to our beautiful day.

Camping With Maura

This past weekend Jennifer and I took Maura camping. It was her first camping trip. We had been talking about camping all summer but we didn’t have a tent and it was hard to find a weekend we could go. We finally decided that we would go Columbus Day Weekend, weather allowing, knowing that it would be the last chance we would have this year. We borrowed a tent from our friends the Tittlers, bought a new sleeping bag for Maura and found the rest of our gear in closets and the shed.

The week before the trip it looked like we might have to wait for spring. The whole family was down with a nasty cold. Maura was out sick from school for two days and I felt sick enough on Saturday night that I came home early from work. When we woke on Sunday, though, we felt well enough for camping. We had a good breakfast, loaded up the car with our food and camping gear and headed for Shawme-Crowell State Forest in Sandwich at the base of Cape Cod.

We had a good time on our trip. There were no disasters. On Sunday afternoon we stayed near our campsite enjoying the tasks of setting up camp, gathering firewood and cooking dinner. We got a nice fire going and after the sun went down and it got chilly we huddled around it. We toasted marshmallows for s’mores and sang songs. Well after dark we walked down the road to a clearing and looked at the stars. We couldn’t identify many of the constellations but we could see many more stars than we get to see when we look at the night sky here in Weymouth. It might have been the first time Maura got to see real darkness outside.

After star gazing we retired to our sleeping bags and settled in for the night. We didn’t sleep well. It was cold and none of us was used to sleeping in a tent but it was still fun. When we got up to use the bathroom the moon had risen and though it was only a crescent it was bright enough to cast shadows.

A few hours later we woke to a cold (but not quite frosty) morning. I got the fire going again and started the stove to heat water for hot cocoa and make our breakfast oatmeal. After breakfast we broke camp, packed up and cleaned up the campsite. We put Maura in charge of picking up bits of paper, most of it left behind by previous campers. We wanted to leave the site cleaner than we found it.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon we spent hiking and exploring around Sandwich. We hiked a bit in Shawme-Crowell, visited the Cape Cod Canal and learned about it at the Canal Visitor Center and explored the Greenbriar Nature Center and Jam Kitchen. Then we had a large lunch at a restaurant and headed back home. We had a wonderful time and everyone agreed we would go camping again in the spring.