field trip

Okay, so it's not quite "tomorrow" as promised, but there are no pictures of soup.

Last week, on my way back from the fabric store, I took a quick field trip to Belmont. It's right on the way and I have always wanted to stop there. And as I was driving home last Thursday, I thought to myself, as I always think to myself, "I'll bet Belmont is really cute. I wish I could stop in sometime." And then I wondered why I couldn't and then I just did it. Do you ever do that? Wish for something over and over and then realize that (usually) you can do what you want?

There are two reasons that I have always wanted to stop in Belmont. #1: the college. You can see Belmont Abbey from the interstate and it looks like an enchanted castle. And I'm not talking about Shana's version of an enchanted castle, I'm talking the real thing. It is a good thing that I didn't consider things like "college visits" a necessity in my day, because otherwise I would have ended up at a super tiny, super expensive, private school with great architecture and landscaping and then where would we be? Certainly not where we are now, so I really dodged a bullet on that one.

Anyway, this college was just as pretty up close as it is from the road. I drove around campus and admired the buildings and the trees. I checked out the students and thought about what it might be like to go to a school that fancy, with a campus coffee shop called "Holy Grounds". Clever indeed.

I hopped out of the car for a brief moment only, because I could not find legal parking anywhere. But I did get a few pictures of the buildings and one of this nice sappy tree. It took me back to my childhood when one of my favorite things to do outside was play with the sap tree in our yard. That's right- I called it the sap tree and to this day have no idea what type of tree it was. But it was great for climbing and, more importantly, making lots of nice sap. Not the super-sticky-never-comes-off-your-hands-white-Christmas-tree sap. But the shiny-golden-bubbles-up-into-beautiful-mounds sap. It's difficult to say exactly what the allure of the sap tree was, but it had me hooked.

Reason to stop in Belmont #2: downtown. There were signs advertising the "historic downtown district" and they did not disappoint. Historic it is. And super cute. With places like "Shirley's Restaurant" and "Belmont Electric Company" and lots of little shops just begging to be wandered in. I refrained from wandering on this particular day, both because I did actually have other things to be doing and because I was without my favorite wandering partner. But we will go back soon and wander, he and I. We will wander all over that cute town.