fall is for cider and corn mazes

I'll be 45 and still gathering my friends every fall to go to a corn maze. Maybe there'll be kids involved at that point, but you know what? I romanticize and just frankly adore my time with other adults, finding the kids inside ourselves. So maybe when I'm 45, and Matt & Whitney, and all my closest friends, and I have kids, we'll leave them at home, and we and our partners will drive out onto country roads, up to a rustic barn, and do a corn maze with just the adults. That's just the kind of thing that I imagine will keep us young and invigorated for our kids, still so full of life, making dirty puns that stem from nothing but spending time together, reminiscing old memories, and making new ones. We'll grumble even more then about waiting in too-long lines for hot cider and grilled hot dogs - or maybe because we have kids, we'll have learned some patience. We'll pass a bag of kettle corn between us as we hunt through the maize maze with a crayon and a clue sheet, purposefully going the wrong way until we decide it's time to go the right way. We'll take ridiculous photos, and run behind giant stalks of corn to scare the others (and I'll always be the only one scared, even then).

It'll be great when we're 45, just as great as it is right now. It's my favorite fall tradition, started last year and not going anywhere anytime soon.

one year ago: Temple Hall Farm

if you go...

corn mazes & pumpkin patches near dc

this year we tried Corn Maize in the Plains

tickets: $10

tip: the maze is great, the lines for food are epic, and other attractions are weak

maze: it took us about 40 minutes

friday photo: football season is here

I've been reluctant to see summer go. I feel that way every year. It's one of the reasons I was drawn back to LA over and over again for years. But on the east coast, summer refuses to stay longer than a single season, and every year, as temperatures steadily drop a degree here and a few there, I wistfully cling to it - refusing to put away my sundresses and sandals, shivering long into mid-September nights. This year, I basked in summer's offerings - day hikes, a camping trip, time well-spent napping and reading at the beach, slowing down time with old friends and speeding it up with new projects, long days and slow evenings with the taste of the grill in my dinner. But every year, including this one, just as I consider packing up my bags to chase summer, small reminders of what Fall brings sneak into my routine and my line of sight. The return of football, the thought of picking apples and the memory of the smell of apple cake in the oven, and the imagined taste of hot cider, and the vision of Shenandoah National Park in fall - with a brisk breeze and leaves of a thousand colors falling down over my steps, and pulling out skinny jeans that have nearly gathered dust and knee-high boots that have done the same - these are all the things that warm me when the sun's rays stop, and I think this year, Fall is going to be as filled with love as its fading predecessor.

my bylines...

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best day hikes from dc (starring zan & me in the picture!)

guide to the saijo sake festival in hiroshima (one of my best memories of my year in japan)