After hiding amongst the palm trees and perpetual sun, it is nice to be working ourselves into fall. Well… okay, full disclosure: there were plenty of days in the mid-70s this month but it did feel like a real fall day when we took a quick trip to Winchester to pick some apples and explore a little more of our new backyard.

First stop was Marker Miller Orchards where the kids had fun climbing on the large play set. Plenty of tractors to pretend drive and there was even a big wooden pirate ship to captain. The adults enjoyed the chance to sit on a rock and relax a bit while the kids ran around. The apple cider doughnuts were a hit with everyone and rumor has it, dad snuck back in the store for seconds.

After picking a pile of apples (the toughest part being preventing the kids from picking everything and taking bites out of everything), it was off to Winchester to explore. The city proved to be another fun, sleepy city with some better than expected food and drink. We stumbled on a pretty good coffee shop that, in addition to making a great traditional cappuccino, had in Sophia’s eyes the most amazing, new thing in the world: a ping-pong table. What does it mean when your 4 year old orders octopus at a restaurant but has never seen a ping-pong table before?