A Big Fall

Ahhh, Fall. Fall is wonderful: crisp air, harvest flavors, cozy scarves, turning leaves, apple cider, football games, farms and fairs. The Jills and I ventured to Ipswitch Saturday afternoon to get our fill of fall festivities. We began by picking quite possibly the largest apples in any orchard this season. Seriously, news might leak that they used performance enhancing drugs... they're huge! The size of the apples was only diminished by the size of Big Boy the pig. His name does not do him justice. He is a monstrous animal, weighing in somewhere over 2,000 pounds (Jill remembered that they stopped weighing him at a certain point. Can you blame them?!) As it turns out, 'big' became a theme of the day. First came the apples and the pig, followed by all things big at the Topsfield Fair. Big crowds swarmed the fair grounds to indulge in big plates of big, typically deep fried, concoctions while they pushed big strollers that trailed their big balloon prizes. For some reason, these big balloon prizes were typically of the Spiderman variety. I don't know why. I digress. Anyway, I'm not kidding, everything was big.

Jill showing the Lilliputian apple compared to the Brobdingnagian one.

Personally, the cherries on top were the sandcastle and prize-winning pumpkin. I was amazed by the sandcastle. A sign described how the construction crew of two painstakingly transformed blocks of compact sand into the towering artwork before us. They were still perfecting the piece with palette knives and straws, which they used to blow away the freshly shaven sand. I could've stood there for hours, but we had to continue on, bigger and better. In particular, we had to see the pumpkin. This year's prize winner clocked in at an impressive 1600-someodd pounds (still not as heavy as Big Boy, but impressive nonetheless). Rumor has it that it did not break a record; however, it didn't stop thousands of spectators from gawking.

Sculptor hard at work

Sunday continued the big theme, but in a different way. We journeyed to Fort Devens to cheer on Adam and his ultimate frisbee team Slow White during their regional finals game. Let me tell you, they won BIG! After that win, they will most likely be ranked first at nationals in Sarasota over Halloween weekend. They're kind of a big deal... From the game, a big group of us (eleven to be exact) ventured to a pub nearby to celebrate and feast.

We are finally taking roommate pictures, slowly but surely.

I have to say, I could get used to big, fall weekends.