"Daddy you said it was going to be fun" - MB

We traveled north an hour or so today to see a sugar house in operation. We visited Folsom's Sugarhouse with our good friends for a little peek into the workings of a maple syrup operation. Before we left, we scouted out the area for a lunch place, because if there's one thing we've learned about New England it's that you can't count on normal restaurants in every city. Knowing we would be a group of 12, we wanted to make sure we had an idea of where we could eat lunch before we left, lest we drive around for an hour looking for something (and, yes, this has happened to us before). Isn't St. Google wonderful? All I had to do was use their maps function to find restaurants at the exit...and God must have been smiling down on us because, among other restaurants, there was a CRACKER BARREL! #1--they have great food & sweet tea and #2--they can manage a large group. Score.

After lunch, we continued to Folsom's, a small, family-run operation. The sugar house smelled fantastic...no calories in smelling! The biggest concern was that it was a fairly small little place with a giant evaporator in the middle of the room that was Hot, Hot, Hot--keep back kids. Outside there were a few trees that were tapped (they claim the trees are not hurt when tapped, but I've never heard a tree talk, so really I think the jury's still out on that one) and we could watch the sap flowing.

It tastes mildly sweet straight out of the tree, but really more like just water. It doesn't leave your fingers sticky, either.

The kids had little fun during our expedition--the art of the simple things is, unfortunately, kind of lost on them. If it doesn't light up, play a jingle, or otherwise engage them, they kind of tune out. That's a shame. They did, however have fun

sliding down the slice of a giant tree (the kids claimed it was 140 years old--no one counted, though),

running through the snow and climbing on the piles of snow,

and splashing in the muddy drive.

After we had seen all there was to see, we checked out their store to purchase some maple products. We left with some maple syrup (of course), some maple candies for the kids (who were marginally well behaved) and some maple bbq sauce. The BBQ sauce has me a little humored. There are things that New England does remarkably well, like snow removal, fall colors and Boston Cream Pie, but I'm just not sure that BBQ sauce is one of them. They have a tough act to follow, too, because my uncle sent some of his M R Pigs BBQ sauce for Christmas this past year, and I must say we all LOVED it. We'll have to follow up with our loyal readers on the BBQ sauce.

Tomorrow's breakfast menu will most likely include pancakes :)

Alternate Title - "The Kids Are Stuck in Folsom Prison And Time Keeps Dragging On" - but we thought we'd have to explain that one too much. Bow to St Google if you don't get it on your own.