Home again, Home again

. . . jiggity jog.

Yes, we are home now. Allen and I flew into Dallas Wednesday night. He drove all the way to Houston for an early morning meeting and I somehow got to Waco. I have been slow updating the blog because I have a yucky cold -- the kind I get when I spend two days on airplane-air, a few days in a different environment, and many days having fun and not getting quite enough ZZZZs. Yesterday, Allen let me sleep ALL day, and I am feeling so much better for it. As the little ones like to say, Daddy gets "clop - clop - clop - clop - AAAAANEN!!!" (translate: clap, clap, clap, clap, AMEN!) Thanks, Babe, for taking care of everything!!

Our trip to New Hampshire and Maine was wonderful, even if it did seem weird without kids. We flew into Manchester and spent our first night with my dear friend, Kamal, and her husband Bill. Kamal went to high school with Allen and me, and it was our first time meeting her husband. We had a wonderful time catching up and reminiscing. They just moved into their beautiful home, and already they've unpacked more than we have and we've been here a year. Thank you both for a gracious New England welcome! (I would love to have a yard that pretty. . .)

The next day we hit the road for a scenic trip through the western part of Maine to a little town called Fryeburg where we checked into the Admiral Peary House B&B and parked our bags for the rest of our vacation. Rather than post every picture I loved, I'll just post a slide show. I know they all start to look the same after awhile anyway. The weather in Maine and New Hampshire was beautiful. We slept with the windows open at night, and during the day, I think the highest the temperature got was 82F.

Here is a quick summary of events. The details might be of interest if you are actually heading that direction, but otherwise, it will bore you. If you need or want the actual locations, email me & I can expand. We spent almost a whole day just driving to Fryeburg because I wanted to take a scenic route, but it was enjoyable. We ate at a tasty Thai restaurant and then tried to go to sleep early. At 3:00 am (yes, 2 am our time) the alarms rang and we joyfully jumped out of bed, dressed quickly and were on the road before 3:30. (The insanity -- that we would do this willingly?) Our goal was to make it to the top of Mt. Washington before the sun broke over the east coast. On the way, I saw a moose walking down the highway, but Allen was very focused on the road -- driving an unknown, windy road in the dark. Thankfully, the drive up the mountain was also dark, or I may have looked over the edge of the cliffs and made him turn back. (Think, windy, narrow road, steep cliffs, loose rocks, no guard-rails, more than 6000 feet up -- eeek.) We did make it to the top, but the top was in the clouds, so we didn't see the sunrise. Just a few hundred feet down, we got some beautiful pictures, though.

It was definitely an experience we will remember. We were prepared for the cold, but not so prepared to handle the wind. I think most of the wind was about 45 mph, but there were gusts as high as 62 mph that nearly blew me away -- at least that's what it felt like. I tried filming Allen leaning into the wind, but as I moved, a gust caught me. . . It was terribly foggy so we didn't really get any pictures of each other, just of the fog (imagine photo with white. . . not much else in focus.) I am posting this video because we laugh so hard every time we watch it. It is hard to see exactly how windy it is, but Allen's pants and jacket are flapping madly. If you have the sound on, you will hear what we heard: nothing but the wind. We could barely hear each other. I came home with cheeks pinked, not by the sun like on most of our vacations, but by the wind on the mountain burned my cheeks rosy.

We got back to the inn in time (by 9 am) for a tasty breakfast of muffins, banana-coconut pancakes, and fresh berries with berry-thyme sorbet and a welcomed hot, delicious cup of coffee, then we went back to bed for a bit. We woke up around noon and went out for a self-tour of the White Mountain National Forest and surrounding villages, focusing on finding country churches, covered-bridges, and letterboxes. That evening, we ate at a dinner and listened to the Waybacks perform at the Stone Mountain Arts Center. Okay, I am getting into the details I didn't mean to . . .oh well. I had a dinner salad that was awesome and I can't wait to try some of it at home -- yeah, it had the lettuce and tomatoes like usual, but there were dried cranberries, cherries, and blueberries, candied walnuts, and blue cheese crumbles, topped with a maple-mustard vinaigrette. Now my mouth is watering again. You know what the best part about the day was? That we made it turn into two days -- at least it seemed so: Day 1 at the mountain, Day 2 touring the area and listening to music.

The next real day was Monday and it was the only day we didn't have firm plans. We had another great breakfast and let the wind direct us. We did a lot of driving, taking pictures, hiking, and finding more letterboxes. We have decided this is an addictive hobby and definitely something the family can enjoy together. In case you didn't click on the link above, according to letterboxing.org,

• letterboxing is an intriguing mix of treasure hunting, art, navigation, and exploring interesting, scenic, and sometimes remote places. Here's the basic idea: Someone hides a waterproof box somewhere (in a beautiful, interesting, or remote location) containing a logbook and a carved rubber stamp. The hider writes directions to the box (called "clues" or "the map"), which can be straightforward, cryptic, or any degree in between. Often the clues involve map coordinates or compass bearings from landmarks, but they don't have to. Selecting a location and writing the clues is one aspect of the art. Once the clues are written, hunters in possession of the clues attempt to find the box. When the hunter successfully deciphers the clue and finds the box, he stamps the logbook in the box with his personal stamp, and stamps his personal logbook with the box's stamp. The box's logbook keeps a record of all its visitors, and the hunters keep a record of all the boxes they have found, in their personal logbooks.

At the end of the day, we were worn out, but excited at all that this small area (geographically) has to offer.

Tuesday we took a five-hour round-trip on the Conway Scenic Railroad up to Crawford Notch. The scenery was spectacular, as promised, and we were lucky enough to arrive at a perfect time: the leaves were just starting to paint the mountains with reds and oranges, but the valleys still were speckled with wildflowers. It was amazingly stunning and it was obvious God was the painter of these magnificent landscapes. We finished the day with more of the same -- enjoying the vistas and finding beauty all around us.

I found it fascinating how much older things are up here than what I've seen in Kansas and Texas. The "recent" buildings are sometimes early 1900s, even though there are some late 1900-built ones, too. Many of the older churches and town halls have notes over the doors (ie, Est. 1836). In a moment of mindlessness, I was in awe to see a wooden house marked 1550, an another next to it from 1548. It was so hard to believe that that particular house was actually nearly 500 years old, but here in New England it isn't uncommon. My sense caught up with me when I noticed the third house, seemingly built around the same time, said 1546 on it. My awe flew away and was replaced by a slap to the forehead when I realized those numbers were the addresses and not the ages.

Wednesday was bittersweet -- there was still so much we wanted to do and see, but we were ready to hold our children again, too. We boarded the plane and said good-bye to the pristine streams and rivers, the crisp mountain air, the fresh scent of New England flora, and the heavy cloud of mosquitoes that followed the scent of "Texan" blood.

It is good to be home and back to normal. It seems that the cusp of autumn has followed us back -- at home, the air is a tad bit cooler, the shadows are longer, and we can open the windows in the morning and evening. Now I just need to finish up a little laundry and make out another grocery list, and we will be good to go.

PS - Check back later this week for the slideshow of photos we took. Allen used his film camera, so we are waiting to get those back from the developer. I may also post more info about our letterboxing.