Strawberry Picking

It had been two months and a half of living in DC and never once that we stepped out of the square looking city area itself. As the bus drove through the Capital in late afternoon, the warm breeze reminded me again of holiday but just without a big crowd of people around. I love this feeling of being out there without the interrupt of people. The feeling like I have own every buildings, streets and those warm air floating in the sunlight all on my own. Katy and I had been waiting for this strawberry harvest season as long as I could remember and that day was a perfect time since we both got a day off from work.

The view outside changed from hundreds of buildings to thousands of evergreen grasses and tress all of sudden. We were quite pumped after not seeing the countryside in a long while.Katy then laid her head on my shoulder and we both fell asleep as the bus drove through the pale looking green field heading to Maryland. Everything seemed so right about coming out...or so I thought.

Oh please, Katy. Pull yourself together. Be a little adventurous. It's not that we were going to stuck there and live the farm life FOREVER! Although I would love that if it really happened! Anyway, as the bus turned into the main street of the small little town called Waldorf. I sensed something was wrong as soon as my foot touched the ground full of dirt. I double checked everything , then we realized there was no bus home! It was just a one way ride. And you bet what would happen next? Katy freaked out. Plus the fact that we got so lost because the direction we got was a little confusing. We kept walking and walking and the sun was getting hotter and hotter. Finally we saw the sign leading us to the Shlagel Farm! We were jumping like little kids with excitement when the brownish barn and tractor appeared to our sights. Then, the pumpkin, vegetable fields next. And finally, the fresh green filed of strawberry.

There were not many people there and little kids were running around the field with their moms behind and then all of them seem to head over to where the little playground beside the field was. There was a little wood house where they sell fresh goods like jam, vegetable they grew and already picked strawberries right in front of the field. Everything looked so perfect. Just as we has pictured what a farm would be like. We savoured the moment by sitting out on the bench outside the wood house for a bit while looking at the green field with red round spots all over. The owner said the only way we can get back to DC was by a taxi and it would cause us like 35 bucks to get to the nearest metro here in Maryland. I urged Katy to spend the night and we could catch the early bus back home at 5 tomorrow. Even though I had absolute no idea where we would crash. But come on there gotta be a mote l somewhere anyway! But Miss Katy said NO with the reason that we had to work tomorrow. Ugh, I just wanted to be naughty for a day. Being crazy, out of direction and gather some memories! How on earth would we find a chance like this again? But Katy finally got her way and got a taxi to come get us. So we only had 20 minutes to pick the strawberries. I was acting a bit childish at first but once we held that lovely blue baskets and headed toward the filed, I was back to good mood again. We picked, we laughed and gradually popped those juicy little strawberries into our mouths. The boy with bright blond hair was running around beside us. Somehow he just brightened up our day the same way his hair brightened up his lovely face. The taxi got there after we got two baskets filled with red ripe strawberries and so did our tummies. As the taxi slowly leaving the farm behind, I took one last look and thought this day was so lovely. Too lovely. -Candice

Strawberry and Kale Smoothie

You only need a couple things for this smoothie. It's easy and also fill you up really well. This is a recipe for two. So basically you will need two cups of almond milk, a cup of frozen strawberries and a big bunch of kale. But really, it depends on how you want your smoothie to be like. You can adjust the recipe to your own test. I'm pretty sure the result still be tasty!