escape from the city

Today I went hiking. In Boston. Yes it is possible! Here, for any Bostonians who may be craving fresh air.

So I woke up this morning stokedy stoked about plans for a hike with the boy. And then heard “pitter patter pitter patter” outside. Nooooooooooo! After consulting weather.com, decided to chance it.

So perhaps the beginning of the hike was a tad *damp* (yes, that is a STREAM running down our TRAIL).

    

And perhaps the directions were a *wee bit* unclear (yes, that is a “no trespassing” sign, one of many we accidentally encountered).

But it sure was gorgeous…

We stopped for lunch at some point… that’s an avocado and hummus sandwich that was so good it was ridiculous (admittedly I had worked up an appetite so I could’ve eaten the rock we were sitting on and it probably would’ve tasted good), apple (shared with boy) and raw revolution sample mini bar, the last one. I’m really sad, they are frickin’ delicious.

We got into a good natured debate over bars. He had a Powerbar (gag) and I was pointing out it was maybe not the most natural thing he could be eating. And then he tried a bite of my bar and was like “Um…. prefer mine” hahahaha.

Not shown in this picture is that we were sharing our improvised table-rock with a little slug, who was dining on his own lovely lunch… of a piece of poo.

The hike was really beautiful; the scenery changed a lot.

At this point it reminded me of all the pine forests in WA where I grew up, and I got hella homesick! (I grew up in Spokane, Washington).

And then we narrowly missed our bus, so we cuddled and watched a gorgey sunset:

Life is pretty damn good.

I got home and was ready to chew my arm off. Instead, I had a fabulous twist on Kath's pumpkin parmesan pasta.

  

I boiled up 2 ounces of whole wheat penne, then wilted ~2 cups of fresh kale in the hot pan (just cooking spray-ed) with a bunch of crushed red pepper flakes and nutmeg. Then I added the pasta, 1/3 cup pumpkin, 1/3 cup milk, and a laughing cow wedge.

SO GOOD. Pumpkin is such a filling food! Although I’m planning to eat more, since other than a bowl of cereal and bananas, you’ve seen everything I’ve eaten today, and that is NOT ENOUGH for someone who hiked for four and a half hours!