Mount Major

September 13th

Since we live in a state full of mountains, we've bought a NH hiking book and picked up some hiking gear for myself, so we decided to hike an easier peak for my first outing.  Mount Major was recommended to us.  This was 3-miles roundtrip, with a difficulty of only 4, but a rating of 9/10. We drove up the road about 25 minutes, parked and hit the trail, ready to climb 1100 feet.  

I was surprised at how quickly it turned steep - and at how many children, people with jeans and even a few senior citizens were coming down.  We thought we were nearing the top at one point, but realized it was just a break in the trees - but it still offered some great views.



We carried on, up big flat rocks, through some mud, up some roots, up some more rocks - and made it to the peak!

The peak had such great views of Lake Winnipesaukee and surrounding mountains.

Next time, we're going to try a higher peak!

Mom, Dad ... and Mimi in Manchester

September 5 - September 7

Mom had been hearing the girls at work talk about the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival - they've been before and enjoyed it.  So, she snagged that weekend with us in New Hampshire to come down and see what it was all about.

Wellll, since they had just had an anniversary, I decided to check out flights from North Carolina.  Mimi had moved away from next door last year and we miss her a lot.  Since she hadn't made it back to VT and my parents hadn't made it down there, I decided to set up a surprise.  Mimi and I were able to work it out and she flew in the afternoon my parents were going to arrive!!!  

We waited and waited (while I tried to talk my mom out of Lebanon shopping on the way down without giving anything away) and when they got here, they came up the stairs to where Mimi was sitting at the table - what a surprise!!! 

The forecast for that Saturday wasn't good as we headed down the road to the Seafood Festival. We found one of the parking areas and took a school bus to the beach! We walked around to scope out the food, and found a table in the beer tent and we each chose something different to try. Nothing healthy about all of this food, but I hear the seafood options were good ... if you like that sort of thing. ;)

As the dark clouds were threatening the area, we checked out all of the beach shops and stands and some more food an drinks. We made it out of there just before the downpour moved in - and enjoyed a bit of shopping (Target) and a movie in as the rain kept coming down.

Sunday morning brought on a much nicer day. There is a diner Aaron and I have heard about here in Manchester - supposedly one of the top 10 in the country. We decided to hit that up before everyone left town. Little did we know, there are four tables and a row of seats across the counter! Small place, but very popular. After a short wait, we squeezed into a table made for four people (I got the seat labeled "Ty Pennington sat here"!). It was great breakfast!!


I am so glad we were able to pull it off.  We had a great weekend and were sad to see Mimi go back to NC.  We'll just have to do it again sometime!

Aaron Climbs Jay Peak

August 31st

While in VT, Aaron decided to climb Jay Peak.  He's gotten into hiking this year, and it was supposed to be a great day.  He went by himself, which I was a bit worried about, but he made it up and down okay.  He really loved the views from the top and took some great photos.  



He wants me to go up with him next time.

Whale Watch

August 29th

While looking for ocean things to do, I came across some Whale Watch websites.  There was one right out of Rye, NH, only a half an hour from here!  We got our reservations and were ready to go!  I was a bit worried about sea-sickness, but we took our dramamine and were off.

This was a 4-5 hours trip into the open waters.  We got the perfect seats in the back right corner of the boat ... enough to keep the wind and splashes off and have the least amount of motion.  After almost an hour of being out on the water, (and a few sick people invading our area on the back of the boat!) they announced that our first whale had been spotted!  The cool news is that it was a Fin Whale - second largest whale AND second largest living animal to the Blue Whale, growing up to 88 ft. long!! -- the bummer was that it comes up only a few times for air before making a deep, long dive again - which doesn't offer too much viewing time. 

We did see 6 total Fin Whales, which was amazing.  But we didn't see any other types on this venture.  We'll have to go back (and Angie says she's up for a watch with us) and hope to see some others, along with some sharks.  This was a trip that was worth the 5 hours out in the open water!

The Great Outdoors ... NH & Maine

Since we live in a place that encourages outdoor discovery without even trying, we have done some different nature walks since moving.

We checked out Bear Brook State Park up the road.  The trails were nice - not as exciting for hiking as they will be for mountain biking - so we can't wait for next spring to get up there with our bikes.



We also took a drive up to Ogunquit Maine to walk a trail called Marginal Way. We walked it from Perkins Cove up to Ogunquit Beach, where the trail runs right along the coastline. It was nice to spend some time along the water on such a great day.

Aaron in Texas / Sheila in Vermont ... again

August 20th-27th

While Aaron *still* had time off, he decided to make a trip home to League City, TX.  I, again, decided to spend time up in Vermont (it's just too easy to get home now!)

Aaron spent some quality time with his dad and brother, Jesse.  
He and his dad drove up to the Shiner Bock Brewery in Shiner, Texas (where they've been before and just love it).

After that, they headed up to Jesse's place in Austin where they hung out a bit and then hit Schlitterbahn Waterpark the next day.  I guess they had a blast acting like kids for a day!

My week was a good one too - I got to spend more time with Shelley, Tyler, Tori & Trey. He grows SO fast!

This time, I also made my way up to St. Albans to spend time seeing people up there. Kristy and I spent a day having fun with blueberry picking and wine tasting!  

I also hung out with Anna & Matthew for an afternoon of cree-mees and playing down at the lake. Those two are such little clowns.

Another fun trip home - with a short drive there and back!

Shawn & Kristy's Visit to NH

August 14th - August 17th

Our first official visitors in New Hampshire were Shawn & Kristy.  We didn't have any set plans, but enjoyed a great day at Hampton Beach where we had lunch, sat out in the sand and sun for a bit and then hit up the arcade!


The next day, we hit the Anheuser-Busch Brewery just down the road in Merrimack - this was a great free tour with two free beer samples ... though Shawn stuck with the pretzels!  They also have stables with their famous Clydesdales, so we checked them out as well.




Other than that, the weekend included some late night ice cream cravings, some movies, and Shawn quoting 300 many, many times!

It was a fun weekend.