jennanddave.com

I saw a sound bite on the evening news Friday evening that led me to believe that the entire weekend would be rainy and gross. Imagine my surprise when Saturday turned out to be sunny and unseasonably warm, enough so that Dave and I were inspired to venture out with the troops to Bradley-Palmer State Park near Wenham and go for a walk. There's a paved road (closed to car traffic this time of year) that runs a circuit around the park, with hiking trails that snake through the middle of it. On the ride out, we passed a place called the Cupcake Cafe and Bakery. It took a lot of willpower not to slam on the brakes and come to a screeching halt on the sidewalk outside the Cafe but we somehow managed not to. After much discussion we decided that a cupcake after a nice walk would be a great treat.

When we got to the park, we let Henry loose to run around as he saw fit. He naturally gravitated towards crashing through the piles of leaves on the side of the road and would have gleefully waded into a stream that runs along the path if we hadn't stopped him. Meanwhile, Flash was busy marking all sorts of territory, so much so that the place actually belongs to her now and might as well be named Bradley-Palmer-Flash State Park as far as she's concerned. We had the idea that we'd walk around for about 30-45 minutes then get in the car and head home in time to put Henry down for an afternoon nap. Then we got lost. We usually walk the road for a while until we get to a trail that takes you through the meadows to another trail that takes you back to the parking lot. Dave was feeling adventurous and suggested when we got to the parking lot trail that we just carry on the way we were going and explore some new territory. By this time Henry was a little pooped from all the walking and had been transferred to the baby backpack. I said all right and off we went. To say this was the long way back to where we had started is a complete understatement. Everytime we'd round a corner, the trail stretched ahead of us again until finally we turned a sharp right corner basically heading back in the direction we'd come. I was a little annoyed by this point because it's really not a big park and yet we couldn't seem to find our way back to anything. Just as I was entertaining thoughts of being stuck out there forever like Charlie was stuck beneath the streets of Boston, we caught sight of a row of cars in the distance. Hallelujiah. By this time Henry was pretty pissed because we had seriously cut into his naptime with all of the exercise and fresh air and was probably mentally screaming at us to do him a favor and just sit on the couch the next time we get the urge to take a quick walk in the woods. Dave and I were worried the cupcake place would be closed when we got there.

It was. We all got out of the car and tugged on the door and it was locked tight, despite all the lights being on. Just beyond the door was a case full of beautiful cupcakes, begging to be purchased and eaten by yours truly. I was ready to kill Dave. Some how it was his fault. But then, miracle of miracles, the proprietor saw us and came around and let us in. We thanked her profusely while purchasing six cupcakes. We asked her what time she closed on Saturdays and she said 1 o'clock, so she had been closed already the first time we drove by her.

Four hours later Henry was fast asleep for the night, and Dave and I were settled on the couch watching a movie, me with smears of red frosting on my face and him enjoying the warm after-glow of an italian rum cupcake. It was a good way to end the day.