Excursion

We went out to the town of Lincoln today. Usually when we’re in Lincoln, we’re on our bike. Today I had a rental car, which is a little bit unusual. But since it was our second rental in as many weeks, the guy at the rental counter got all excited and upgraded us to a Ford Fusion with fancy electronic accessories including multiple LCD display panels. I got all excited too, and synchronized my phone to the audio system, played with the backup camera (which marks a curving trajectory when I turn the wheels) and experimented with all the options on the main display panel.

I also drove the car. We intended to go out to our neighbor’s farm in Western Massachusetts, but Alla wasn’t feeling completely well so we stayed closer to home. We did accomplish our secondary goal for the day, a visit to the Codman Estate to do a little reconnaissance for Nika’s wedding. My readers in Belarus may find this a little peculiar. In Belarus, when you decide you want to get married you go out, make the arrangements and get married. Boom. You can be done in a month if you feel like it. Here it takes a month just to figure out where to get married. Then, because planning everything else takes several more months, all venues are booked way in advance. Most people start planning a year ahead for a wedding.

Nika already attended a wedding at the Codman Estate so she knew what it would look like and feel like, but she wanted us to find out about stuff like catering, drinking, tours and tents. We found out.

We also bought apples as a consolation prize for our failure to go out to Williamsburg and pick apples. I think we saved a lot of effort by buying them, but I suppose we came home with fewer than we might have if we picked our own. Then I tried to figure out where else to drive my whizzy rental car. It was a beautiful day to be out, but we had nowhere to go besides a couple of stores difficult to reach by public transit. Alla didn’t want to stand up too long at a time, but she did rally when we got to the Russian grocery store. I bought ryazhenka.* With the apples and the ryazhenka, I think I’m in pretty good shape.

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* For those unfamiliar with ryazhenka, I found you an English language description from a Belarusian dairy.