Not to be out done, Jeanine hosts a small adult gathering. Three parties going on simultaneously establishes a new record for the Calabria household.

 
Maya follows suit with her friends.

 
Nicolai has invited a bunch of his friends over for a pre/post trick-or-treating party.

 
Jeanine alerted me to a spectacular sunrise this morning. Peak color lasted for less than 90 seconds.

 
My Sonos commute does not feature as much natural beauty as my Avid commute did but that is not to say it is without any.

 
Nicolai scored the opening goal with this beautiful header and his team went on to a decisive 8-0 victory. His team finished the season with 62 goals for and 8 against setting an all time school record for goal differential.

 
Nicolai played his last middle school soccer game this evening. His team is 11-0 and looking to close out a perfect season this afternoon.

 
Five minutes into my soccer game this morning I was kicked in the ankle (note the variety of unnatural colors). The free kick this earned was not worth the pain I suffered for the rest of the match or the potential impact on next week’s game. We played Lexington who beat us 5-1 on their field the last time we met. On our turf we were able to achieve a 1-1 draw. I had a number of nice break away opportunities but was fouled from behind on all but one. On my one chance, the goalie did a good job of cutting down the angle and my shot missed wide by inches. I redeemed myself five minutes later by setting up our only goal with a nice cross from the end line.

 
Maya has become a tough little soccer player. With four minutes left to play, she scored on a beautiful shot to the low corner giving her team a 3-2 advantage. She then came off the field to nurse a bruised knee only to watch her opponents score twice for the win.

 
Kyle’s high school team played under the lights this evening and secured a 3-1 victory against Wayland. Kyle put a strong shot on goal but it bounced off the cross bar and no one was in position to put it away. Here he jumps to play the ball in the air.

 
Because I will be in Santa Barbara on Election Day, I am voting by absentee ballot for the first time. Never, in my opinion, has the outcome of an election been so important and I encourage everyone to vote. I remain irritated by the fact that the USA does not elect our president democratically and look forward to the day when we abolish the Electoral College and give each citizen one vote. What a concept!

 
This evening Maya and I worked on a model of the treehouse she would like to build in our woods. She has located a tree with three major trunks and cleared a path to the proposed site. We may start construction this fall or wait until spring to begin the project.

 
Another scene from Harvard Square.

 
Every day I drive through Harvard Square on my way to and from work. This evening I decided to take in the sights and sounds. Pictured here are two incredibly talented street musicians. If not for the need to get home for dinner I could have listened to their smooth jazz all evening.

 
Chloe coerced Kyle into a photo this afternoon but I did not get a single shot where they were both looking at the camera. Earlier in the day I played my best game of the season. Finally injury free, I scored two goals, one a blistering drive over the goalie’s head and the other a diving header. Unfortunately we still lost the game by a score of 2-3.

 
On the drive home we simply had to stop when we saw the sign for Janine’s Frostee. The fine ice cream made for a sweet conclusion to our two day adventure. Jeanine and I were married in 1990 at our home under fall foliage and this was a most befitting way to celebrate that day and all the years since.

 
Our final destination was the Quabbin Reservoir where we hiked along the Winsor Dam, climbed to the top of the Quabbin Hill tower and walked out along the Goodnough Dike. The dam is one of the largest in the east at 2640 feet in length. The reservoir provides the drinking water for Boston and is carried there by a series of underground tunnels the longest of which is 25 miles and terminates at the Wachusett Reservoir. When the Quabbin was created, the towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich and Prescott had to be abandoned and now lie at the bottom of the 150-foot deep reservoir.

 
The perfunctory New England small town church shot.

 
It did not take us long to find a nice kayaking venue just north of Holyoke. We did about five miles in the Oxbow Pond (actually a river in the shape of the letter C with a small detour into Hubert’s Pond. We spotted a nice Blue Heron and a double-crested Cormorant but little else until we spotted a pair of Bald Eagles soaring overhead. About a half hour later the eagles returned but this time there were three of them. Fifty years without ever seeing a Bald Eagle and I have now seen four in the last two weeks. I was able to get a photograph that was good enough to confirm the species but nothing worthy of posting. After returning to our put in point, Jeanine pulled out and I continued out onto the Connecticut River for another couple of miles. The wind induced chop was rather heavy so I kept close to shore.

 
Despite the cool overnight temperatures, Jeanine and I were almost too warm in our tandem sleeping bag. We broke camp and headed south in search of a kayaking destination. We stopped in Florence for a great breakfast at a diner which featured a 5 egg omelette (which we split) and a strawberry covered Belgian waffle.

 
Before settling in for the night we climbed the fire tower for a magnificent vista which included the states of Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire.

 
We enjoyed dinner at Amanouz Cafe a Morocan restaurant in Northampton before heading to the Daughters of the American Revolution State Park in Goshen where we made camp for the evening. We zipped our sleeping bags together for a very cozy coccoon.

 
We also discovered a Swedish Weaving school which Jeanine would very much like to enroll in with Maya next summer.

 
We traversed the Bridge of Flowers which is lined on both sides with exotic specimens of plant life. Rather than tear down this old trolley bridge, local gardners have created a 400 foot linear garden across the Deerfield River which has become a major toursit attraction.

 
After descending from the cliffs, we drove into Shelburne Falls for lunch and to enjoy this delightful little town. Here we watch as a women prepares to blow a glass vase.

 
Click on the photo for a higher resolution of the view we enjoyed from the ledge.

 
The view from High Ledge was spectacular and etirely worth the thirty minute climb. Jeanine captures me photographing from the edge.

 
Next we hiked up to a place called High Ledge which overlooks the Shelburne Falls Valley. On the trail Jeanine pauses to pick apples from a tree along the path. The search for a perfect apple would eventually find Jeanine climbing up into the tree. Eventually she settled on three apples which would be consumed later on our journey.

 
Our first stop was at Turners Falls where we got out to stretch our legs a little. This is the dam which diverts water into the canal providing a source of power for the mills which line the river.

 
Today Jeanine and I loaded up the kayaks and hit the road for a two day fall foliage weekend get away to celebrate our wedding anniversary (actually October 6th). We headed towards western Massachusetts with a loose plan to take in the southern Berkshires and the Quabbin Reservoir.

 
My parents arrived earlier in the day. They have generously offered to look after the kids while Jeanine and I get away for a long weekend in celebration of our 18th wedding anniversary.