The First of Many

Today was our first (of many, I am sure) college visiting days with Mary. We went to three schools in western Massachusetts: Mount Holyoke, Amherst, and Smith. They are near each other (about five to ten miles apart). From our house, they are each about 90 miles. (Forty-five miles north of Hartford, if that helps.)
Before we got to our first college, we had the surprise of the day. Yes, this blurry picture tells the story: Holyoke, Massachusetts is where volleyball was invented (in 1895 at a YMCA, in case you're wondering). There is even a volleyball hall of fame in Holyoke. (No, we didn't go.) Here's a link if you don't believe me. As you might imagine, this little tidbit got the day off to a good start.

This is Brad and Mary at Mount Holyoke College, which is in South Hadley, MA. We all liked it a lot and I'm guessing so did Emily Dickinson, one of many well-known alumnae. It's a beautiful campus and we had a really good tour (Brad and I thought it was one of the best we'd ever been on). After all these years, we like to think we are connoisseurs of college tours. (haha)

Our second stop was Amherst College in Amherst, MA. Another beautiful campus. How can you not be excited about a school that was principally founded by Noah Webster, had John Dewey as its librarian, and Robert Frost as a professor? (Though I'm pretty sure not at the same time.) So we started wondering . . .how to decide where to apply among so many wonderful schools? (And with more to come, no doubt.)

And then it hit us. We had lunch at this noodle shop near Amherst. During lunch we realized that Mary could use noodle shops to guide her college search. In other words, all other things being equal, the school with the best noodle shop wins. Of course, this was all in fun. (I think.) And now, onto our last school.
Our last school was Smith College in the bustling town of Northampton, MA. (I am serious about the bustling - it was an amazing college town.) They don't do tours on Saturday, but we found a self-guided tourbook at the admissions office. It helped us to find our way, and it was filled with some fun tidbits. For instance, Smith is one of the only colleges in the country with a bent grass croquet lawn. Who knew? (And I didn't need a guidebook to know that Julia Child is an alumnae.) Mary loved what she saw of Smith (so did Brad and I), and she definitely plans to return for a real tour.



We returned home to a happy and energetic dog. Here's a one-minute video of Allie running off her energy out in the side yard.