Waxing Leaves 2023

 

Caramel Apples

Hanover Weekend

Since it rained for most of the weekend, we did not partake in any other homecoming activities. We mostly had a quiet day at the cabin on Saturday, punctuated with a short trip out to Norwich for the farmer's market and King Arthur Flour for lunch:

Lots of wet leaves on the ground, but they were still pretty in the rain

Sunday was more promising. The rain finally stopped, although it was still grey and cloudy. 

We could finally get outside and look at the lake

We said goodbye to Sean after breakfast and headed back towards Hanover to hike to Gile Fire tower, which Abby had been wanting to do:

Lots of yellow at the start of the trail -- it seemed like most of the red leaves had already fallen

Nice view at the power line right-of-way

Gile fire tower

Kevin decided climbing the tower was not for him, but he took a picture of us from below

The view from the top was gorgeous

Without Kevin, we had to take selfies

Panorama

Pretty glimpse of the path back down

Dartmouth Homecoming

We got up super early on Friday morning to fly to Hartford and then drive to Hanover in time to have lunch with Abby before her Friday afternoon class. We decided on Lou's, of course:

After some back and forth, Abby decided she wanted to come back to the cabin with us for the night. We headed out there for dinner with Aunt Sean after her class, and then back to Hanover for the actual homecoming activities:

Speeches were made on the steps of Dartmouth Hall for the first time since before COVID (it had been under construction)

Singing the Dartmouth song in the pouring rain

In front of the unlit pyre

Going up in flames

 

PSAT breakfast

 Benji had a late start at school one day last week because the 11th graders were taking the PSAT (the 10th graders had taken them the day before). We used the opportunity to go out to breakfast at the Villa Diner:

Here, Benji is finishing off my plate

It was our first time trying this diner, and I was tickled by the stickers on the receipt

Behind the Wheel

Benji and I went driving for the first time last week in the Fashion Square Mall parking lot:

Movie Going

After not going to the theater for years, we've been to the movies a ton this fall. Last weekend, we went twice in three days, seeing Hocus Pocus's re-release for it's 30th anniversary and also Taylor Swift's concert movie:

We took a picture in front of the ticket booth since it was decorated for the holiday

It's a thing to dress up as one of the Eras if you go to Taylor Swift. We chose Evermore, since she is wearing a flannel and jeans, which felt doable