30th Anniversary Trip

On September 11th, Eric & I celebrated our 30th Anniversary by flying off to New Hampshire to spend a delightful ten days with Ben & Caitlin. After flying all night with a layover in New Jersey we finally arrived in Manchester where Eric was surprised to know that prayers can be answered when he received a snazzy rental car instead of a clunker.

We headed north for the two hour drive through the Franconia notch. We had no idea what that meant but as we continued to tweak the GPS and read various maps we were greeted with scenic vistas and overwhelming beauty.

We were appreciative of the lovely Jackson Inn accommodations arranged for us and were even more thankful when we checked out and found that Ben & Caitlin had paid for the two night stay! We loved wandering through the mansion and seeing all of the cool rooms. Thanks for the wonderful memories.

On Sunday we explored the area around North Conway including Diana's Baths, Cathedral Ledge and Echo Lake. We stopped at a produce stand and enjoyed delicious apple juice and fresh veggies for dinner that night.

On Monday we hopped in the Charger and drove to Woolwich, Maine to meet Caitlin's parents, Brian & Elise. We had a wonderful lunch, a fun game of bocce ball and enjoyed the Grand Tour of the home they built themselves on 10+ acres of wooded terrain. It was fun seeing Caitlin's roots.

Then it was back in the car and on to Belfast Maine. In the morning we continued our journey and stopped at Fort Knox and Penobscot Narrows. What a visual feast!

We continued on to charming Bar Harbor. We enjoyed dipping our fingers in the Atlantic (brrr!) There was a cruise ship which was unusual and had the locals in town heading to the harbor to check it out. We drove back across the bridge to Ellsworth where we stayed one night and enjoyed a lobster dinner at Jasper's.

Our second night we stayed in the Sea Breeze Inn on the coast of Mount Desert Island.

We enjoyed the hike through Acadia National Park with scenic views the first day and the journey around the south end of the island to Bass Harbor the second day. The fall leaves were beginning to turn and the drive was an immersion in the history and color of New England. Picturesque spired churchs in every town, water-front property on rivers, lakes and the ocean and trees as far as the eye could see.

We returned to the White Mountains area and enjoyed three days and nights in the cozy little cabin in the middle of the Jackson woods that belonged to Caitlin's grandparents. The amount of work required to keep and maintain a home is compounded when it's on an acre+ of trees.

I love watching the lumberjack videos as they split logs from their own property for winter warmth.

Everywhere we looked there were Kodak moments. This barn is on the road leading up to their cabin and the waterfall is in Jackson.

On our last day in Jackson we took a hike to Tuckerman Ravine, a ski resort in the White Mountains. It was about five miles round trip and was basically like doing the stairmaster for four hours! My calves felt it for several days afterwards, but the view was worth the effort. We returned to the little house in the middle of the woods for a final farewell and bid adieu to Ben, Caitlin, Virgil and Ryder.

We spent our final day in Concord. We went to the Capitol and wandered through the building. We saw a group of people gathering and stopped to ask what was going on. The woman we talked to was the governor's assistant and he was coming to give awards to volunteers who work with sick children. We checked out the historic district and then headed off to lunch at the Puritan Backroom in Manchester which was tasty and great for originality.

We were too early for the airport so we stopped at a park and watched a boy and his dad fish and read for a while. When we got to the airport we found they had changed the time of our plane. It was now leaving thirty minutes earlier than we had planned. Fortunately we were in time! What's with United and their last minute changes? We flew through Chicago O'Hare (enjoyed the self wrapping toilets, thanks Noelle!) and got home at 10pm where Aunt Karen picked us up at the curb. What a Grand Adventure!