On the second weekend of October, due to rain and slow color change in the Pioneer Valley, we jettison our original plans to take Jordan on a weekend bender to the Quabbin Reservoir, and instead drop in on my mom’s little place in Plymouth, to spend a weekend with the grandparents. After a nice drive south along 93S and Route 3 (during which Jordan naps in the car), we arrive at the lakeside house bedside the Barrington Sea, disgorging the baby and our car load of baby equipment. Jordan crawls around in the living room and my parents take him to explore the house as Jane and I set up his travel crib in the downstairs guest room. Afterward, we go out to visit the Pilgrim Monument on a hilltop overlooking Plymouth, followed by a brief visit to the Mayflower in Plymouth Harbour. Along the way, I take some portraits of Jordan and family using my tripod setup. We takeout a nice seafood lunch (lobster rolls, fried seafood, and clam cakes) at Wood’s Seafood; we enjoy this back at home, with Jordan slurping on pureed peach and chicken-and-vegetables in his booster seat. In the afternoon, with Jordan down for his second nap of the day, my mom and I head out to buy groceries for dinner, and a day-early cake for Jane’s 33rd birthday. After a brief visit to nearby Morton Park (and family portraits beneath a tupelo tree with striking red foliage), we cook up a one-pot minestrone with egg noodle pasta and sliced cod fillet. We enjoy this with Jane’s birthday cake (a flowery pink icing-covered affair of a chocolate cake, completed by a shark candle), followed by an early night and a drive back to Boston after Jordan’s breakfast the next morning.
