Sib Trip! (06-02-13)

Part of the reason we are spending so long in Boston, is that all of my siblings (two brothers, a sister and a sister-in-law) live here. Once we knew our dates for visiting, we planned a Sibling Trip to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

We all met at my brother’s house on Thursday morning, where we piled into the SUV we rented.  We thought the trip would be more fun if we were all in the same vehicle. My brother Ray volunteered to drive, since Paul drives so much on a regular basis. I think Paul enjoyed riding Shotgun!

North Conway is about a 3 hour drive, so we stopped to stretch our legs along the way.

Instead of getting hotel rooms, we rented a house-it had the advantage of giving us a common area where we could just hang out.

We also had no need to eat out for every meal- we cooked most of our own meals, and had fun doing it.
Ray and Paul were our master Barbequers.

With the weather forecast calling for reasonably clear skies and temperatures in the 90s (unbelievably warm for the New Hampshire mountains) we took a van ride and headed up to the top of Mount Washington.  Not the tallest peak on the east coast, but the one with the worst weather!

We were able to see quite a distance before we got to the peak, but once we got to the top, we were in and out of the clouds. 










in the clouds



out of the clouds













 
The wind wasn’t as bad as it usually is, and it wasn’t even that cold, so all in all, not a bad day to go up. 

Once we were back down the mountain, we had a picnic lunch and it was still early enough in the day to take a short hike to Glen Ellis Falls.  It was getting pretty warm by then, but the cold water kept it a little cooler.

My brother Richie is always up for a round of (miniature) golf, so we topped the day off with a quick, but by this time, very hot game of golf.









Our evenings were spent at the kitchen table, playing our favorite card game.  A lot of laughs were had by all!


my sister Debbie won the first night we played



my sister-in-law Dawn won the second night















Of course, you can’t visit a quaint town like North Conway and not go shopping, so Saturday morning we beat the heat and headed to the stores early in the day.  As usual, I didn’t buy anything!

    With afternoon temperatures expected to soar into the 90s, most of us headed to Diana’s Bath, one of the top rated natural swimming holes in the country.  After a short, half mile hike, we arrived at the waterfalls.

It is extremely unfortunate that the water is mind numbingly cold.  The guys dipped their feet in, but I was the only one who went all the way into the water.









Still, it was a great afternoon to relax by the waterfalls.














Sunday came much too quickly, and after a great breakfast at a local restaurant, we started the long trek back home.  We couldn’t resist making one more stop along the  way, though, so we found Lost River Gorge in Lincoln NH.  We all got some exercise hiking up and down the hundreds of steps.

There are numerous caves to explore in this gorge, but I think the consensus from all of us would be that this place is a young person’s place. Many of the caves would be perfect for kids to explore, but a bit of a challenge for us adults!

Back home, we have about 3 days to recover before our daughter Jessica flies in from California, and another whirlwind long weekend begins.

White Mountains (Gorham) NH

As we drove along, leaving Maine for New Hampshire, I realized I will really miss the ocean. One of the things I loved about Acadia was walking in the woods and being able to smell the ocean as well as the pine trees. There is a very distinct smell to salt water that I really love. Lakes just aren't the same. I am looking forward to seeing other parts of the country, and discovering all the differences that make each area special and unique, but I think the Atlantic Ocean will always feel like home.

Paul has a fascination for forts, and Fort Knox was pretty much on our way to NH, so we detoured just a bit to be able to check it out. One of the things we have discovered after seeing quite a few forts on the east coast, is that most of them either never saw action, or saw very little action. It always seems to take so long to build them (25 years for this one) that by the time they get built, the technology has changed so much that they are obsolete. By the time they were ready for the cannons at this fort, cannons were obsolete because ships were made of steel.

Our ticket to the Fort also included a bonus feature for Paul. We drove across the Penobscot Bridge, which has a huge tower, that looked like an observation tower to Paul. Our ticket to the fort included a ticket to the top of what actually in fact is an observation tower. That was a fun and unique experience.

We arrived in Shelburne/Gorham NH after spending a night "on the road," at a campground along the route. We also made a stop at the visitors center in NH. We have learned to make that stop as soon as we enter a new state. There is so much information we can get there about what the state has to offer. We hadn't made a reservation at a campground so we beelined for the one we wanted. Most of the campgrounds around here are not very full right now, so we are only making reservations if we want a specific campground for some reason. After setting up, we took a ride around the area to check it out, and make some plans for the next few days. Once we did that, the weather changed everything anyway!

Saturday the idea was to go hiking , check out some waterfalls and investigate anything else that looked interesting. When we got up, it was cloudy, VERY windy, and not exactly warm. An executive decision was made to "trade days". We usually do our errands and laundry on Sundays, but with the lousy weather it made more sense to do it Saturday. We were really glad we did, when we saw today's weather. Beautiful! Warm, beautiful blue skies, and just as importantly, no wind. We took off to explore and stopped for a picnic lunch along the way (we usually pack a lunch every day and eat wherever we happen to be).

It was never really in our plan to go to the top of Mt Washington. We have both been there, and for whatever reason, didn't really feel the need to do it again. Until we saw it. And by that I mean, we could see the whole thing. Usually its in the clouds.

As we drove up the mountain in the van, the driver commented that there are really only about 12 days a year that are this fabulous on the mountain. The air temperature was 49, toasty warm for the mountain (yesterday:35 degrees), visibility was 130 miles, (yesterday:1/16 mile in freezing fog) and the wind was only 30mph (yesterday: gusting to 90 mph).

The views were absolutely amazing.