Fall in New Hampshire & Maine

From the top of this mountain on a clear day you can see New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Canada, and New York. (Fri morning)

The pictures are not necessarily in order, but I left captions helping describe them. Then their is a detailed description of our trip below. Sorry so many pictures, but I couldn't pic just a few.

York, Maine golf course. (Sat)

The turkeys, there were 17 in all. This ones for you Pop-Pop (Sat)

Skip searching for shells. (Sat)

Stephanie on the beach in Ogunquit, low, low tide. (Sat)

In front of the covered bridge near Liberty Gorge (Fri)

Nubble Lighthouse on Cape Neddick (Fri)

The point beside the lighthouse, the surfers were loving the waves that day. (Fri)

Our lobster in York, Maine. So appropriate right now! (Fri night)

Skip on top of a ridge on the golf course. It was a hike to get up to his tee box. (Sat)

The Flume Gorge, discovered in 1808. Franconia State Park, northern New Hampshire. (Fri)

This is why NH is called the Granite State. (Fri)

Looking past the gorge as the gorgeous foliage. (Fri)

This little cavern required you to get down on your hands and knees to crawl thru. It was dark and wet, and we opted out of that lovely experience. Didn't even know if my tall husband would fit :) (Fri)

Another covered bridge, this one just a pedestrian bridge, built in 1939. (Fri)

Atop Cannon Mountain, Franconia State Park. (Fri)

The tram can hold 70 people and all their ski equipment in the winter. (Fri)

Echo Lake from above, and some beautiful color splashed in. The town of Franconia is located at the top of this picture. (Fri)

Flume Bridge built in 1886. There were too many covered bridges to visit. Everywhere you looked you would see "fall" with pumpkins decorating doorsteps, bridges, etc. This bridge is located at the beginning of our hike to Flume Gorge. (Fri)

The pictures just don't do it justice! The colors were spectacular! (Thurs)

More color as seen on the golf course. (Thurs)

In front of an old iron furnace built around the early 1800's in Franconia. (Fri)

Lobster and I in front of Echo Lake, Franconia State Park. (Fri)

This picture shows how shallow and clear Echo Lake is. If you look in the center, slightly right, you will see a tram going up the mountain. We took that tram after leaving this lake. (Fri)

Taken on Owl's Nest golf course in Campton, NH. (Thurs)

Just a random stop outside Franconia--I made Skip stop for a picture. (Fri)

The Gale River in Franconia, NH, a quaint town of about 900 that was settled in 1772. We stayed the night here. (Fri)

The hotel we stayed at Thurs night, and ate at the Irish Pub on the right for breakfast. (Fri)

Our rental car for the week. (Fri morning)

Skip enjoyed the golf, we both LOVED the view! (Thurs)

Skip & I on Owl's Nest Golf Course in Campton, NH (Thurs)

Skip & I went on a kidless vacation last week. We decided to celebrate all of these events by taking a trip together: our 10 year anniversary, we sold the house, we survived last year, relax before the baby comes, spend time with just the 2 of us. It was an incredible trip, very relaxing, and I feel like my batteries are recharged. I of course cried leaving the house, missed my munchkins like crazy, but it was worth it! We want to give a huge thank you to my mom, Heidi, and Jeff who were all crazy enough to step in and play the role of caregivers while we were gone! Thanks so much guys!!!

The trip started Wed. night, and we had flight delays which required us to stay the night in Charlotte, NC. That was interesting, simply because that area has no gas right now. There was one gas station working in the area. We weren't sure we'd make it the one mile to the hotel and back again for our early morning flight. It worked out, and we finally made it to Manchester, NH, at about 12:30 Thurs. There was just enough time to grab our rental car and drive up to Campton to play for our 2:00 tee time. We made it with about 10 minutes to spare (wow). The golf was gorgeous, the views amazing, and I think Skip had fun, too. The couple we played with were from Maryland and were working on their goal of playing golf in all 50 states. New inspiration for Skip! We finished right at sunset and quickly hopped in the car to drive by at least one covered bridge. We got to see it, but the picture of that one didn't come out, too dark. The weather couldn't have been better for the day. We stopped at some local restaurant and ate a delicious dinner, yummy squash if you can believe that, and drove to our hotel in Franconia.

The next morning, Friday, we ate at an Irish Pub with super thick pancakes. We hopped in the car and drove around the small town of Franconia. The White Mountains, where Franconia is located, is a huge draw for all four seasons. For those who ski, Bodie Miller is from around there. Franconia Notch State Park is also located there and is a gorgeous area full of activities. The town was established in 1772 and has all these older buildings with a river running thru the town, pumpkins were everywhere, and of course the splash of color. We then drove down to the tram up Cannon Mountain. We stopped at the base to see Echo Lake and a monument to the Old Man of the Mountain. This natural rock formation looked like a mans face in the mountain and was named in 1805. All the highway signs in the state have this image. Unfortunately, it fell about 5 years ago, but they have hopes to recreate it somehow. We took the tram up the mountain and were still lucky enough to have missed the rain. The tour guide said he thought he would consider it "peak" time for the leaves while we were there b/c of the storm they were supposed to be getting would wash out all the old color and they'd only have the new color left. From the top of the mountain you can see 4 states and Canada. We had a great view and it actually started raining on our way down, great timing. From there we drove south about 4 miles and stopped at Flume Gorge. This natural glacier-made gorge was discovered in 1808 and is amazing. We hiked around the gorge, which included a second gorge, Liberty Gorge in the rain. It wasn't too bad to be raining then, b/c it kept things cool and the tree canopy kept most of the rain off us. It was a bit slippery in parts, and my sweet husband was always willing to help this growing bellied woman from falling. It was well worth the hike. The trees were so pretty, the water made it tranquil, waterfalls are always a favorite for me, and we felt like we were all alone hiking in the woods (something we don't do too often). Although there were Moose Crossing signs on the highway and warnings all over, we never saw a moose, and no bears on this hike (unlike our last hike in Alaska). The hike included a couple of covered bridges as well, something you have to see in New England.

After the visit to the gorge we dried off and drove thru the Lakes Region of the state getting to see some cute little lake towns with a very colonial feel. There was a stop for lunch at a little cafe for chowder (perfect rainy day food) and sandwiches. We continued our drive down to York, Maine to spend the night. This coastal town was established in 1638, making it rather old if you ask me! We had to dodge the rain Friday night. We went to visit the Nubble Lighthouse on Cape Neddick. We stepped out of the car to take some pictures and got right back in. The wind was howling, the rain blowing sideways, and it wasn't warm. So, most of my pics are from inside the car. This wasn't a lighthouse you can go into anyway, it is located on a small island. From there we drove to a "tourist" store to find something special for our little Lobster. We found a cute stuffed animal and had to get the other 2 munchkins something special, for being good we hoped, in addition to some delicious fresh saltwater taffy made locally! We asked some locals where to eat lobster, and found a great little lobster restaurant (like that was difficult to do, there were lobster restaurants lining each side of the street). They did a great job of showing us how to eat our lobster, peel it apart, what to eat and not eat, etc. It was a fun experience to be in Maine, eating fresh lobster. It was also pretty yummy, just not something you want to do if you are starving! After that we actually went to the movie theater. As pathetic as that sounds, yes, we enjoyed a movie. I can't tell you the last time Skip and I had a date night at the movies. We got Coldstone Creamery ice cream and saw Eagle Eye with a theater full of teenagers. It was a good choice, since it was pouring rain outside (I think the area got 6 inches in a day).

As we woke up on Saturday, we were amazed that it wasn't raining! We headed to the golf course and were the only ones on the course (not literally, but after moving ahead of a group we didn't catch anyone all the way around, playing as a single). The course was amazing, both in beauty and according to Skip level of play. We saw several chipmunks munching on nuts and even had 17 turkeys run across the fairway in front of us (he got a birdie on that hole). It rained for about 3 holes, but other than that the weather was great. After the round of golf we headed up the coast about 10 miles to another quaint little coastal town, Ogunquit, which is known for their beach. It is highly populated in the summer, so we heard, and was full of cute little shops. It was a busy little town. We ate some delicious pizza (pizza places were all over the place up there) and headed to the beach. It was a little rainy, not too bad, and kind of chilly, however we couldn't resist walking in the water and on the beach for a bit. We hunted for shells for the kids, chased the birds, and watched the surfers taking on the big waves.

We dried off and headed back down the coast to drive thru Portsmouth, NH and drove about 5 miles out of our way to cross into the state of Massachusetts just to say we were there. We headed back to Manchester, ate dinner, repacked our bags for our early flight the next morning. Sunday we left the hotel at 5:45 am to catch our flight home. We had a bit of a layover in Philly and then off to KC. It was so sweet to see my kids again, and they really seemed to be happy to see us, after they came out of sleepy state from their car nap. I think they missed us a little but they stayed so busy that the week flew by.

It was a great vacation, and we loved being able to spend time together focused on us as a couple. If you ever have the opportunity to head to New England in the fall, don't pass it up!