<p>Ah, the Holyoke Mall. We spent a couple of hours there while D acquired a proper winter coat and a couple of sweaters. Her shopping needs thus slaked, she was indulgent about me acquiring a local map and taking the back roads back to Smith, driving past Mount Holyoke College and ultimately to Mount Holyoke itself (the mountain), all 942 feet of it. While I snigger at the pretensions of something 942 feet tall being called a mountain, the view from the Summit House at the top was drop-dead gorgeous. I highly recommend this to anyone who can carve an hour out of their schedule; I had heard about it before but never had the time as we sprinted from place to place, appointment to appointment.</p>
<p>Sunday morning we did our own foliage walk along the far side of Paradise Pond and hte stream that feeds it. We had originally hoped to find a footbridge over the stream but it got to the point where we had to turn back or else be late meeting people for a brunch.</p>
<p>This trip TheMom and I finally got a chance to see the art museum. The Boston MFA or NYC Metropolitan it's not but it's surprisingly good and includes works by Monet, ****aro, and <blanking on="" other="" artists="">. There were a series of early American portraits that I positively hated for their idealization, too.</blanking></p>