Walk 5: A Mother’s Day Weekend to Remember
The reason I get to celebrate this holiday <3
Not every walk in The Family Stride journey looks like a trailhead and a packed bag. Some of them look like tulips in the rain, a flaky pastry, and a one-mile loop around a pond with your parents.
This Mother’s Day weekend was a good one.
It started with a rare Steve-and-Laura Saturday, while Sam spent time with his grandparents. The morning was dreary and drizzly, which I’ll confess I actually love. There’s something about soft rain — gentle enough that you can still hear the birds — that instantly puts me at ease. My brain always goes straight to an imaginary cottage in the Cotswolds. Someday that won’t be imaginary, but for now, a rainy morning in Connecticut does the job just fine.
One of the many stunning views from the gardens at Julien’s Farm Store.
The gardens have something going for them in every season. Summer brings flower gardens in full bloom. Fall sets the surrounding hills on fire with color. In winter, snow-covered hills frame the property while the wood burning stoves keep outdoor diners warm, and the farmhouse table often holds a bowl of red holly berries that beautifully contrast against all that white. On this particular morning the tulips were in their full glory, every variation and shade imaginable in bloom.
The blooms are just getting started for the year.
The food is the other reason people drive from across the state to get here. The breakfast sandwiches are made on freshly baked biscuits that genuinely melt in your mouth. Steve went savory with the egg, cheese, avocado, and parsley sandwich. I went sweet, which for me always means some variation on my ultimate comfort combo: a latte and something flaky. I ordered my go-to pistachio latte with oat milk and a blueberry sweet danish. Steve also picked up his all-time favorite — the banana bread with peanut butter frosting and chocolate chunks — which, if we’re being honest, I have strong opinions about too.
It’s tiny and you’ll likely spend some time waiting outside, but it is well worth it!
These were our wedding flowers so they’ll always be special to me.
Goodbye (for now!)
After picking up Sam, our travels took us to the newly opened Wicked Press in South Windsor. I’d been following them since before they opened, and I may or may not have played the “it’s Mother’s Day weekend” card to justify a pit stop. (I did. No regrets.) The book selection is small but well-curated, the literary-themed drink menu is extensive enough to make choosing feel impossible, and the décor is exactly right. There was a custom “fueled by books and coffee” 3D book mural that I want for my own home.
The next morning brought Walk 5: a casual one-mile loop at Stratton Brook State Park with my parents. The park was bustling; it was a gorgeous Mother’s Day and it felt like half of Connecticut had the same idea, which honestly made it better. Families everywhere, kids fishing with their dads and grandfathers, photos being taken on the iconic red covered bridge. It felt like a slice of New England heaven.
We walked the main flat path before looping back around the pond. Sam had fashioned a makeshift fishing rod and was testing it out from the sandy beach with great confidence and disappointing results.
No bites today!
The moment that stayed with me, though, was simply being there with my parents on Mother’s Day. It reminded me of childhood Mother’s Day picnics on Long Island, which consisted of big family barbecues at one of the state parks near the coast at picnic sites tucked into the woods with the beach just a short walk away.
It also felt right to connect the day to The Family Stride, because my mom is a real part of why hiking matters to me. When we lived in Southern California during my middle and high school years, she used to hike the canyons near us and often brought us kids along. One of my favorites was Paradise Falls in Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks. Those were the strides that first taught me what it felt like to move through nature as a family, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I ended up here, building something around exactly that.
Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. Thanks for showing me how it’s done.