CANOES & PEACHES

GRISWOLD 2009 - "GRISWOLDS GO FOR BROKE - THE RECESSION TOUR" - DAY 13

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3

We began the day at the South Bridge Boat House in Concord, MA, where we rented a 19' canoe and headed out onto the Concord River. It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the 70's, excellent weather for a little minor exertion on the river.

Everyone had their turns paddling.

We began heading downstream, towards the historic Old North Bridge, so everyone was all smiles on the way out.

Going downstream, it didn't take too long to get to the bridge either!

As we passed under the bridge, we got a nice view of the Minute Man Statue too. These are some of the perks of recreation in a historic area.

We continued a very short distance beyond the bridge before turning around and heading upstream.

Okay...I guess we were still smiling even on the way back upstream, though it was certainly a little more work going against the current.

We got our second wind, so we actually traveled back beyond our starting point. Along the way, we'd seen lots of turtles sunning themselves on rocks and branches out of the water. Upstream a bit, we also got very close to a number of ducks.

After returning to the boat house and turning in our canoe, we went to Bickfords in Acton, MA before hitting the road towards our next stop. That stop was Smolak Farms in North Andover, MA, where we did a little peach picking.

The trees were loaded and it didn't take long to pick all of the peaches that we wanted.

We may have "sampled" a few peaches in the process. We had to make sure that they were ripe, right?

Slowly, but surely, the bin began to fill up.

After we'd gotten all of the peaches we wanted, we headed back towards the farm store, where we picked out some unusual looking gourds to display in our front yard for the fall season. (Yes...with the cooler evenings lately, fall may be just around the corner!)

We got back home early enough to do a little relaxing the rest of the day. That's what time off is for after all and since things have been rather busy lately and school begins next week, we've all got to enjoy that time off!