Last Saturday was Mer’s day, and we headed back to Holden Arboretum. Our year-long membership ends in October, and Mer wanted to make sure we’d hiked all the trails there. This time we headed to the western and northern trails, which are the most rugged, involving quite a few stairs and some rough spots on the trail. The longest main trail we hiked along more or less followed a stream, and was very isolated and pretty. We only ran into people twice on all the remote trails that we were on over the couple of hours we were hiking.

We did also hike in a field section of the arboretum as well. Mer likes to be complete in her hiking, and the maps showed a trail through the meadow, so we did our best to follow it. I think we stayed on it, but it got a bit hard to follow in places in the field. In all, we hiked about four miles, and we are pretty sure we have covered all of the major trails at Holden. We’ll have to go back in the spring to see the new rhododendron garden addition, but for now, we’ve gotten our money’s worth out of our membership.

In the evening, Mer took me out to eat, and she chose an Indian restaurant called Raj Mahal. I had not had Indian food in several years, and now I remember why – it is too spicy for me. I got the mild version of my chicken-and-rice dish, and the spices still made me slightly ill. Mer loved her food; I expect it is because she is naturally hot.