New Hampshire–Part Two

Gavin is taking a nice long nap this morning and Carter is having fun on the Ipad, so I figured I would knock this post out quickly.

So where did I leave off … ah yes, Monday we meandered our way through Vermont in search of the fall foliage. Sadly we missed most of the leaves by about a week, week and a half. There were still some left on the trees, but it wasn’t to the degree that I was hoping – a cold front with a windstorm took the majority off. We wandered around the town of Stowe where I got a few fun fall photos after we had visited the Von Trapp Family Lodge.

There were chrysanthemums and pumpkins lining the entire front porch of this hotel and restaurant.

This church against the sky with the leaves was so dramatic that I had to snap a shot. I had some fun post-processing this to bring out the sky more and give it a little bit of a dark & foreboding feel, like a storm was coming in. Which it was.

There were jack-o-lanterns all along the steps of the town hall – some creative carving!

More pumpkins stashed in with some withering petunias from the summer.

I had to get across some busy streets to get a shot of this family! I absolutely loved how everyone decorated for fall – I would say 80% of all front porches had something on them.

We ended the night with Monday night football, cheese & crackers, and good company with Annie, Maggie, and two other guests that were staying at the farm.

Tuesday was a lazy day – Jeremy was up half the night finishing a puzzle, so he wanted a nap after a wonderful breakfast. We finally wandered into the town of Littleton for some shopping and an early dinner at Bailiwicks. Prior to dinner we stopping at the Italian Oasis Brewery for a hot drink and I had a WONDERFUL spiced cider. The bar was on the second floor overlooking the town and it was a blustery day, so it was fun to watch the wind at work.

Wednesday was Jeremy’s day of Heaven … I finally agreed to go golfing with him. Sadly we took our point and shoot camera, so I don’t have any photos from it. I did well considering I haven’t golfed on a course in over twenty years. I think I was 140-something – laughable to those who can golf. For me, I was just glad I pretty much stayed in bounds for the majority of it! Worst part is I thoroughly enjoyed it – another expensive hobby…

Thursday we decided to do a hike since we could move again. We headed to Franconia National Park to do a two mile hike to see the Flume Gorge. First we stopped off at the Basin on the way.

Jeremy in front of the rive leading down to the Basin.

The waterfall behind Jeremy in the above photo.

Another spot along the river – If only the trees were still completely leafed out! Ah well…

Another view of a waterfall along the way to the Basin.

The Basin.

We were so lucky to not encounter anyone for the hike to the Basin until we were on our way out. We got really cool video of one portion of it that looked like a water slide – but sadly, it is on the other camera (still haven’t heard back).

On to the hike to the Flume Gorge. Here is Jeremy at the beginning of the trail.

The boardwalk through the Gorge, leading to the top. We learned from some other guests that were staying at the Farm that the National Park disassembles this boardwalk every winter and rebuilds it every spring. I have no idea how they would do it as there is no easy way in or out of it!

The waterfall at the top.

Jeremy on the hike back to the visitors center.

A bubbling little brook.

And the path back to the center – some leaves are still up, but so many were gone!

We headed into Conway after that for some shopping, stopped at the The Muddy Moose for lunch (that was as close as I got to a moose, even though I was hunting for them the entire trip!). Jeremy’s new entrepreneurial adventure was to create the Northwest version of the restaurant called “The Dirty Deer” – or even take it to a new level and ditch the restaurant idea and start “The Dirty Dear.” Feel free to use your imagination on that one…

Thursday night we headed back into Littleton for Thai food and we listened to some live music – a man on the violin and another guy on the guitar. We headed back to the Farm and relaxed the rest of the night.

Friday we had to head towards Boston so we could catch our flight early Saturday morning home. We slowly meandered our way south and I took a bunch of photos with Sony camera. What really sucks is this is where we got a lot of video and photos of where the leaves were in full force. I am still holding out hope…

It was a fantastic trip that we both really enjoyed. We really started missing the boys after a week and were so excited to come home to see them. Grandma and Grandpa get all sorts of extra kudos for watching them for ten days – it isn’t easy to hop into the phases kids are at for an evening, let alone well over a week! We really appreciated it though and anticipate they will say no the next time we ask them to watch the boys, hahaha.

And now we are home, getting back into our routines, and preparing for HALLOWEEN!!!!