We stayed at The Old Mill in Hatfield, a former mill property turned into a lovely modern rustic inn. The waterfall outside our windows was beautiful, but so, so loud. It was like an industrial fan on full blast running all night. :) We wandered around town, including Smith College, and then ate dinner in Northampton - Taiwanese food (soup dumplings, bbq pork bao, eggplant and tofu, fried rice) followed by ice cream at Herrell’s.
We spent a cozy evening in our rooms. I found a cool make-your-own-NYT Connections puzzle website. Liesl and I made up a really challenging one for Steve, and two easier ones for Seb. It was harder than we expected to create a puzzle!
Wednesday morning I headed out very early to fit in a long run -- Christie and I are running a half marathon on April 19th and I need to keep up my training. I went to the Norwottuck rail trail, which stretches between Northampton and Amherst -- flat and paved -- and ran 10 miles. The initial crossing of the Connecticut River in the morning light was possibly the most scenic stretch. It's stick season in MA and the trail is most likely better when the trees are leafy and provide shade from passing traffic. But it was good enough, and I was happy to be out.
After an amazing breakfast of bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits, pastries, fruit, and coffee at the Old Mill, we headed to Amherst College. Steve and I haven't been on campus in more than 20 years and obviously much had changed. It was fun to see our old dorms -- Pratt, Garmin, South, and Millikan for me; Cohan and Seelye for Steve -- and the gym, student center, main quad, and Memorial Hill. The new science building and res halls are beautiful.
We found my freshman year volleyball team photo in the gym....
And a 1960 photo of dad/Bompy as the manager of the baseball team. Sadly, the photos from the 1930s, with Grandpa in his baseball uniform, had been taken down.
We headed into town for lunch at Antonio's pizza, which was as quirky and delicious as we remembered.
And then we headed across town to UMass Amherst to tour a big state school campus. As Seb has said, we're doing a vibe check on college campuses -- city vs small town, different states, big universities vs smaller colleges. We're getting a sense of what might be of interest, and it's been fun. UMass was a little overwhelming at first, but then we got a better sense of the campus layout and walked around observing the students between classes. At 3, we hopped back in the car and drove to Boston.
