Today began with a lie-in. I didn’t get up until noon, which was just fine from my body’s perspective. I haven’t been feeling well this week and clearly my body thought we needed some more sleep.

After a hearty bowl of oatmeal and berries, we decided to forgo the chores we should be working on and instead go out and enjoy the sunshiny weather.

I called up Sarah and the three of us headed out to the Maryland “countryside” (really, it seemed more like less developed suburbs…) in search of cider doughnuts. Not only did we find them, but they were in such short supply that when we finally got them, they were fresh and hot!

Having accomplished that goal, we decided to see if we could find Sarah some unpasteurized cider. Because I prefer my cider hot and with cinnamon sticks, I don’t tend to notice the difference between raw cider and its pasteurized sibling. But Sarah prefers hers straight up and cold, where I imagine the difference is terribly noticeable.

We hit the road and headed south, trying to make what Google said would be a 70 minute drive into the 58 minutes before the farm stand closed. As we hit Olney town center, we knew all hope was lost. Feeling slightly dejected, when we passed a different farm stand, we decided to pull in to see if anything they had for sale could make up for the loss. They had a sign up for cider, so Sarah decided that it was better to have the processed cider than none at all and asked the girl for a half-gallon. Well, you could have heard our cries of joy up the road when the girl turned and asked if Sarah preferred pasteurized or non! We picked up a bottle, too, and are going to do a compare and contrast with some I bought last week at the farmers’ market.

After we dropped Sarah off to enjoy her cider with the lamb stew she had cooking in her crock pot, I suggested to Rudi that we should do our cat litter buying up in Columbia Heights and combine it with dinner at Pete’s. I haven’t had our favorite D.C. pizza in ages and it just felt like the right way to end a fun Saturday out.

Tomorrow, I’ll have to get some things done — I need to hit the garden, the tomato paste needs to be made, and a heap of laundry awaits my attention. But after a stressful week, it was nice to leave all our woes at home and just to go out in the car with friends in pursuit of some Northeast soul food.