"New England is pretty cool" moment

So yesterday I was sitting in the living room while the kids were napping trying to come up with a good Valentine's dinner idea. In the pre-kids era, that would have most likely involved dinner at a restaurant but two kids later, eating out is not the same (never mind the lack of romance factor). Sadly, we haven't explored all the little gems near our home and I thought Valentine's would be a good time to check them out (I consider this my "walking on the wild side" moment). So when the kids woke up, I put them in the stroller and headed down the street. First we dropped Josh's suit off at one of the two nearby dry cleaners then headed down to a mom and pop pasta shop. For Valentine's Day they were making heart-shaped cheese ravioli; I generally avoid heart-shaped anything but figured I could break my rule in the name of Valentine's Day. We waited while two men (father and son) made us a pound of our very own ravioli--can't get fresher than that! We then walked to the local bakery and got a loaf of their rosemary bread. It was at that point I realized how nice it is to do my errands on foot all within 1.5 blocks of our home. I am not crazy about the population density in New England but I do love the little "squares" with neat, little locally owned businesses. And for the record, the ravioli was awesome and I know we will be going back to try some of their other pastas (but not the lobster ravioli, that's beyond my version of the wild side).