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.

Traditions (Boston, MA 08-13-12)

Most families have traditions, and mine is no exception.   One of our family traditions began over 42 years ago, when my parents decided they needed a much deserved weekend away from their four kids. They stayed at a small motel in New Hampshire, directly across the street from a beautiful beach.  As soon as they got home, they made plans to bring us kids to the Dunes Motel in Rye, NH. That was the start of one of my favorite traditions, our summer vacation at "The Dunes".  Every year  we would head there, staying anywhere from a few days to two weeks, depending on how far my parents could make their dollar stretch.     It's not the fanciest, or even the cleanest motel I have ever stayed in, but it had one thing going for it- location, location, location.

On the beach in 1994- me, brother Rich, sister-in-law Dawn, my daughter Jess, and son Stephen

We could grab our beach toys and a towel and walk across the street to play in the waves and the sand.

on the beach 2012- Stephen, Debbie, Rich, Dawn, Ray

 Once we'd had enough of the beach, we'd head back to the pool for a swim before heading out to dinner at our favorite restaurants.

Jess and I at the pool, 1994

 As the years went by, life changed, and not all of us could make it to the beach every year, but we all tried to go as often as we could.  Both of my kids have been going to "The Dunes" since before they could walk.
Eventually, I moved away and didn't have the chance to make the trek to Rye Beach for a long time.  My brothers and sister try to go every year, and they do manage to get there most years, although they only stay for a long weekend these days. 

Paul joins the tradition in 1999, with Jess

Jess and Stephen on the beach, 1999

on the beach, 1994, Ray and Jess

 Part of the reason I flew to Boston at this particular time is because it coincided with the trip to The Dunes. I had a great 4 day weekend with my family and it brought back a million childhood memories.

arriving at the motel, 2012- Richie, Stephen, Dawn and Ray

rainbow over the pool, 2012

White Mountains NH

We’ve seen a lot of waterfalls the last 3 days. Paul’s favorite was Diana’s Baths. It had numerous waterfalls with small pools in between. If the weather had been warmer, we could have gone swimming in the pools, which would be a lot of fun. I think my favorite was Arethusa Falls, which happens to be the highest waterfall in New Hampshire. I swear though, the hike to it was 2 miles each way, and it felt like it was uphill both ways(see picture). It was all hill, and rough terrain. The others were fun to get to, but in the autumn there isn’t much water running. It would be more dramatic in the spring. We moved from Gorham to Twin Mountain so that we could more easily access different areas of the mountains. We explored the Crawford Notch area one day, including the Willey House historic site, which I have been to several times. We drove all the way down to North Conway, had ice cream, as usual, and just stopped along the way if something looked interesting. At one point we stopped to take a picture of Mt. Washington, and a fox was meandering around the pull-off, looking for handouts from people. I took a lot of pictures, but it was kind of sad to see. Especially since a little girl did feed him, while her parents watched. Duhhhhhh. The campground we stayed at apparently has a resident bear that hangs around, although we didn’t get to see her, nor did we see a moose while we were here, which was very disappointing. We could have gone on a Moose Tour, but elected not to do it. We did meet Debby and Ken at the campground and immediately hit it off with them- conversation never lagged, that’s for sure. Sometimes we had multiple conversations going as we sat around the campfire trading life stories. They are also full timing and just starting out, although they are headed for FL for the next 6 months, and then they will be on the road- their passion is flyfishing. Yesterday was Franconia Notch exploration day. We did the Gorge tour, which was good, quite a walk, but expensive at $12 per person. We drove down to Clarks Trading Post, but there was no bear show that day. We did see the bears though. In the afternoon we explored the “Lost River”, which is a gorge with caves that you can go in and out of. The main reason we went there is because I remember going there as a kid and I wanted to see if it was how I remembered it. Paul had never been there. It was a fun afternoon. Left NH behind this morning, headed to Lake Champlain, VT. On the way we stopped at Cabot Creamery and took a tour of the facility. It was really interesting. Cabot is a farmers’ cooperative- it has grown from local farmers to hundreds of farmers all over New England. There are signs in several places that make people aware that ALL the profits of everything go back to the farmers. There was an amazing amount of sample cheeses, dips etc set out for people to help themselves. We ate quite a bit, but we also bought some great cheese. I tried something slightly different. It was cinnamon pear jam mixed with cream cheese- VERY good! I bought the jam so I could make it sometime.

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.