Fall, Football and PSL

This past weekend was “Fall Football Weekend #1,” meaning the first Saturday whereby L.J. and I were solo for most of the day. My goal is to pick out something fun for us to do each FFW this season!

Our first outing was to the Yellow Daisy Festival at Stone Mountain Park. It’s an annual event I’ve been curious about for years, so decided it was the perfect time to check it out.

It was enormous…easily several times the size of Atlanta’s famed Dogwood Festival. There were four huge loops of artists’ booths. The booths were along shaded paths, a necessity in the blazing heat. If you weren’t under a tree it felt like you were on the surface of the sun.

It was also enormously crowded. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law also attended – we met up with them for a bit – but they waited in an hour-long line of cars just to get into the park. (L.J. and I fortunately arrived early enough to avoid it!)

L.J. and I had a good time while we were there, minus the heat. He was intrigued enough by the different booths and a little intimidated by the amount of people, so thankfully he was happy to stay put in his stroller.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the booths had very affordable items. Dogwood and the other Atlanta arts festivals tend to be rather aspirational in terms of price. I’d love to go back next year sans L.J. (no offense buddy!) so that I can linger and explore a bit more.

Next topic…

Oh, Pumpkin Spice Latte. I’m not a coffee drinker but I do welcome your return each fall. Until this year. Some curmudgeon had to spoil you for all of us by proclaiming that instead of a sweet beverage that heralds fall, you are actually a concoction of chemicals and artificial flavorings. I mean, yeah, we all kind of knew that – or at least suspected – but it’s one of those things (like hot dogs) where it’s much more pleasant to just stick your fingers in your ears and say “la la la” and pretend to be oblivious. Sigh.

So with that said, I must give a huge shout out to Good Housekeeping magazine for publishing a “real food” PSL recipe. I can’t rave about the drink yet since I haven’t tried it…but I can rave about stumbling across a recipe that looks delicious!