Outdoor and Indoor Dining

Is lunch better taken beneath the golden leaves of a tree in the open air, or inside a dining hall filled with friendly faces? The answer all depends on the season.

Outdoor and Indoor Dining

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Blue Hour on the Main Quad

We returned to Trinity College in Hartford, CT, for Reunion this year. It was a classic reunion setting—back ‘neath the elms, on a perfect summer night. I’ve increasingly found that, rather than being an occasion for excess nostalgia, reunions are a tonic against over-romanticizing college. It takes actually visiting to realize that the location is different from the group of people who were once assembled there.

Blue Hour on the Main Quad

‘Neath the Elms

Summer on a college campus (with all of the energy of a reunion weekend) buzzes and burbles with the remembered excitement of perfect afternoons. On the quad of Trinity College, in the shadow of elm trees and the enormous Neo-Gothic chapel, this reaches its apex. I particularly enjoy the father and son talking on the bench in the foreground, adding a touch of the intimate to an otherwise crowded scene.

'Neath the Elms