We spent Friday morning at the Lincoln Park Zoo. It’s a lovely place, and we had a great time. I’ll be back with another post about our week in Chicago (and more zoo photos) but here are three pairs from our morning at the zoo.

We were among the first people to see the new red panda cubs. They were just allowed outside for viewing on October 15th. We were early enough that it was easy to get a good look at them, as well as their momma. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a red panda before.

I have two photos of this pair to share with you. These birds were fascinating and we watched them for quite awhile. We’re quite sure we’ve never seen one species cleaning a bird of another species, but that was exactly what was happening.

But this pair is my favorite, and it won’t surprise you at all!

I’m linking up with Helena’s Pairs which you can find right here.

On our way from Rochester to Chicago we stopped in Elkhart, Indiana to visit the National New York Central Railroad Museum. Tracy and his best friend have spent many hours creating a model train layout in Pete’s basement, and now Tracy has started a very small one at our house as well. There were several interesting displays, and a very large model train display, but truthfully, I was most interested in all the textures I found on the box cars as we walked through the outdoor railroad yard. I didn’t have my better camera with me, but the iPhone camera proved to be quite good. So here are two pairs of textures from the railroad museum.

I’m linking these up (a day late) to Helena’s fine meme, and off now to check out the other pairings for the week.

This morning Tracy needed to purchase treats for a committee meeting tonight, so we drove out to Schutt’s Apple Farm for cider and donuts. They have the BEST cinnamon sugar fry cakes.

In case sweets aren’t your thing, Honey Crisp apples are my all time favorite. Matt introduced me to them several years ago when a professor of his at Cornell brought a different kind of apple to each field trip (they were foraging mushrooms, I think). He called me to tell me to get some to try. Most of the ones at the grocery store come from Washington state, but more and more New York apples growers have them now as well. 

Knowing it would be unlikely that any donuts will come home after the meeting, we bought two of the cinnamon sugar donuts to eat on the way home. Apples later . . . .

I’m linking this up to Helena’s blog. Check out the other pairs, and Helena’s attractive new haircut!

We had a lovely weekend. On Sunday we drove to Hyde Park for the baptism of my grand-nephew, Finn Robert, and spent the night with my brother. It was a beautiful ceremony, a gorgeous fall day, and a lovely party afterwards.

Finn was not particularly enamored of the whole event, but the rest of us enjoyed it. My two nieces are on the left, Momma Stephanie next to the priest, and Kevin and his sister on the right. The two sisters are the godparents.

Although it’s hardly “on the way home,” we decided to drive to Manchester, VT on Monday. When we were working, we frequently drove to Manchester on Columbus Day weekend. We arrived in time for a late breakfast at our favorite spot, “Up For Breakfast,” where we had Morning Glory pancakes (carrot cake in pancake form—delicious!) 

We spent the better part of the morning and afternoon walking and shopping. Manchester is an outlet center, and they have some lovely stores with good prices. We also spent an hour or so at Northshire Books, our favorite independent bookstore. I always find titles there I haven’t seen before, and my “want to read” list gets even longer.

On our way out of town, we stopped at the Equinox Valley Garden Center to pick up some pumpkins for our front porch. We’d never been there before, and will definitely return. I think it deserves a short blog post of its own. 

But, finally, here are this week’s Pairs for Helena’s meme.

Pumpkins at the garden center.

Pumpkins on my front stoop.

As leaves begin to turn (yes, there are red leaves on two of our trees already!), it becomes ever more important to soak up the last of the summer sun and heat. We’ve been spending a lot more time on our patio:reading, eating summer, sharing a drink at the end of the day. And Monday, we took some time to go to the pool one last time. 

This week the photos weren’t taken intentionally for Helena’s Pairs meme, but when I looked at the week’s photos, these popped out at me. You’ll find more takes on the meme right here.

Goodness! How did it get to be Wednesday already? I popped open my Feedly this morning and saw all kinds of pairs posted already at Helena’s blog, and thought I’d better get with it. Fortunately, I have my pair for this week. On Saturday, Tracy and I made our annual “fall” trip to Ithaca. We went a little early this year since the Commons has just been renovated, and they were celebrating the reopening over the weekend. 

Our first stop, as always, was the Ithaca Farmer’s Market. It’s really one of the best ones I know, and we have a list of favorite stops there. It’s been awhile since I bought flowers there since I have to buy the container as well in order to keep them alive for the rest of the day and the 1 1/2 hour ride home. But I couldn’t resist.

The flowers I purchased are right there in the middle of the display.

And here they are on my kitchen table. The woman advised me to change the water every day. I have, and I’m happy to report they are still beautiful as I write this. Matt, Betsy, and the girls are coming for dinner tomorrow night, and I’ll move them to the dining room table. 

One other photo, just for fun. It’s not often I manage to get a fun selfie, but I caught both of us in these celebratory balloons on the Commons.

I’m off now to link up to Helena’s blog and check out all the other Pairs for the week.