...But I Would Be Proud to Partake of Your Pecan Pie

So, I'm originally from Los Angeles, and Kathy's originally from New York City. She grew up a few blocks from Central Park, so I've always been really jealous that she got to experience the true fall foliage experience growing up. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, where there are no freaking trees. Except for palm trees, I guess. And those generic looking trees they use for landscaping in mini-mall parking lots. Anyway, then I moved to San Francisco, where it's so windy that the leaves are ripped off the trees before they have a chance to change colors (or something like that). So my whole life I've been totally deprived of the fall experience.

I mean it's not that I've never seen a tree change colors. But I've never experienced the full-on, all-encompassing, in-your-face type foliage, where you're just surrounded by explosions of color. You know, the Billy Crystal-Meg Ryan foliage:

We've gone on a few fall trips to Upstate New York to visit Kathy's parents and I always carry that hope that this will be the trip where I will finally get my "When Harry Met Sally" fall experience. Of course, what I never knew until my first fall trip to New York is that, although on the calendar, fall lasts three months, "FALL" really only lasts, like, 10 days, so it's awfully easy to miss. So as a result, on my first and most disappointing trip, we had to go driving up and down the Hudson River Valley trying to find "FALL" and only succeeded in finding one solitary orange tree, which we of course had to photograph like goofy Californian tourists:


(We were really excited to see that tree.)

The other problem is that for some reason, we always end up going to New York in mid-to-late September, which is technically Fall but is actually a good three to four weeks before the typical New York FALL. And by unfortunate coincidence, on our road trip, we shall be arriving in the New England area in, you guessed it, mid-to-late September. So barring some sort of sudden global cooling, no FALL for us. Just a bunch more goofy pictures of us in front of a single orange tree.