Repeating last years safe distancing we set the table up and greeted the costumed customers from afar again.
Sunday, October 31, 2021
Distant Distribution
Monday, October 18, 2021
Monday, October 11, 2021
Sunday, October 10, 2021
The Tour Guides
I'm adding this picture after the fact because it was provided by someone else from the tour, but here is a better picture of our guides. From left to right Xavier the driver, Howie the wellness director, and Gary the tour director.
The New England Crew
A group photo of the people we toured with, as well as Gary and Howie in the front.
Southwhat?
We found out the morning we were going home that Southwest had cancelled our flight. It turned out that Southwest had been cancelling hundreds of flights because of "a weather issue in Florida." This is still up for debate since nobody else seemed to have this issue. They cancelled so many flights over so many days it made major headlines. Luckily for us our travel agent Tracy was able to get us out. We had to bounce through JFK in New York (seen here) and it took four hours longer than our cancelled direct flight, but we still made it home which was more than many could say.
Space Light
And then another brief stop at the Cape Neddick Light, otherwise known as the Nubble Lighthouse because it was built on a little patch of land known as Nubble Island. Constructed in 1879 it is considered an American icon and "classic example of a lighthouse." So much so that the Nubble Lighthouse was among the pictures chosen to put on the Voyager spacecraft.
Any Port
We drove around and made a brief stop in Kennebunkport. A quaint little Maine town, made somewhat famous by the Bush family having land out here.
Boston Bound
Today was mainly about getting back to Boston so people could catch their flights, but we still got to see a little more of the New England Coast along the way.
Saturday, October 9, 2021
Farewell Feast
The day was capped off by a really nice "celebration dinner" at Boone's Fish House with clam chowder and lobster for everyone!
Main Maine
From the lighthouse we went to Portland, Maine and were given time to wander around. Here's their Customs House built in 1867. Nice town though the only thing that really stands out is we were adventurous in our eating and had Lebanese food for lunch. Turned out to be really good. Who knew, Lebanese food in Maine.
Butterfly Base
Of particular interest to me, just outside the lighthouse is a park and there's a huge section of the park dedicated to being a monarch butterfly migration habitat. Very cool!
Headlights
We rolled into Cape Elizabeth, Maine to see the iconic Portland Head Light. Built in 1791 on the orders of George Washington it's the oldest lighthouse in Maine and still in use today, though the lights and horn have been automated.
Beauty Of A Different Kind
The Maine coast. Give me overcast and rocky shores with that pretty greenish blue water anytime.
Last Peep
Today would see us leaving New Hampshire and heading towards the coast of Maine. So this would be the last of the truly vibrant fall foliage we'd see on the trip. Gary took us to this lake with the church steeple across the way, saying it was a favorite last picture stop of his.
Friday, October 8, 2021
Say That Five Time Fast
Our winding, leaf peeping road trip looped back through the Kancamagus Highway with endless views like this and eventually returned us to the White Mountain Hotel.
Political Peaks
This stop was for a photo of the Presidential Range. From the left to right the peaks of this range are named Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Clay, Washington, Monroe, Franklin, and Eisenhower. If you look closely Washington is the one with the towers on it. That's the Mount Washington observatory.
The big hotel in the foreground is the Mount Washington Hotel. It was constructed in 1900 by an eccentric coal baron named Joseph Sticnkey.
Not So Wiley
One of the prettiest stops was Crawford Notch, former location of the Wiley House. In 1826 the Wiley family was afraid of an avalanche coming down the mountain so they built a special shelter. Well an avalanche happened and they all ran to the shelter and got squashed, while the house they fled was untouched. Kind of a strange story but the views were spectacular!
Prime Peeping
The rest of this day was all about looking at the fall colors in a wandering tour through the White Mountains. I probably have 50 pictures of various landscapes and trees, but I'll narrow it down to a few.
Knowledge Is Power
The morning started with a lecture from Chris, a member of the Raven Interpretive Wildlife Program. He was really interesting, I could have listened to him talk about local flora, fauna, and weather patterns for twice as long.
Thursday, October 7, 2021
Cliff Side Lodging
After a pretty drive along the Kancamagus trail we ended up at the White Mountain Hotel. A really nice place with amazing food that would be another two night stay.
Golden Goose
The mountain was named after the great northern diver, a member of the loon family. The view was worth the ride up. Pictures don't do the colors justice. Like the way the golds really seemed to glow in the sunlight.
Loony
Full of fried cider we left Vermont for New Hampshire and Loon Mountain, where we took a gondola 3,065 feet to the top for some fall vistas.
That's A Lot Of Apples
Then we were treated to coffee and a doughnut. As well known as Cold Hollow is for their cider, it's their "legendary" cider doughnuts that the locals really go crazy for. They will sell on average about 60,000 cider doughnuts a year. Gotta admit, it was a pretty good doughnut!
Job Insecurity
And then we all stared at this poor guy behind glass as he sprayed layer after layer of diced up apple from that hose onto white cloths, then brought a huge press down to smoosh out all the juice.To be fair he's probably used to being gawked at by now.
Let The Peep Show Begin
We'd seen some fun things but the next two days were going to be focused on the main attraction, the fall foliage. So we started out the day at Mount Mansfield for our first real blast of tree color. That's Gary walking by.
Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Rest
That was it for today's activities, so we spend a leisurely evening wandering the grounds of the lodge. Here's a small cemetery where most of the von Trapp family that came over from Austria is buried, including Maria.
At Least Try It
After the presentation we were treated to hot, fresh maple syrup. Now the way to eat hot maple syrup is to pour just a dab over some shredded ice and roll it around until it becomes a little sticky ball. You then eat that little sticky ball of syrup with either a doughnut hole or a pickle slice. The pickle combo sounded terrible but it was surprisingly good with the salty and the sweet and the crunchy texture.
No Such Thing As A Syrup Farm
We sat down for a presentation on how maple syrup is made given by a real character of a guy. He was so engaging we all forgot to take a picture of him. One thing he told us was it's called sugarmaking. If anyone calls it syrup making or a syrup farm they were clearly a tourist. On the way out they had this display of all kinds of grades of syrup. It has nothing to do with how they make it or ingredients, it's purely when it was made. As the spring warms up, the sap coming from the trees becomes darker in color.
Chocolate Gold
Sweet literally as the first stop was Lake Champlain Chocolates. I'd never heard of them before, they make everything on site by hand. We got another free ice cream, which was really good but not typically what you want at 10 in the morning. The chocolates all looked amazing but were super expensive so we passed.
Short And Sweet And Foggy
Early morning from the Trapp Family Lodge. Today is supposed to be "relaxed and sweet" according to Gary.
Tuesday, October 5, 2021
Bierhall
The day ended with an exclusive tour of the von Trapp brewery and an Austrian dinner served in a loft above.
Sheepish Serenade
Mari and I were delighted to find out that our room walked right out onto a green pasture, right next to which was a pen full of sheep brought up to "mow." We could hear them braying form inside our room which was really neat. We enjoyed it so much here's a picture of me taking a picture of Dad taking a picture of Mom taking a picture of Mari with the sheep.
Nun Too Soon
From there we arrived at our hotel for the next two days, the Trapp Family Lodge. I had no idea that the real von Trapp family, made famous by the Sound of Music, settled in Vermont in 1938 and in 1947 opened an alpine style ski lodge. It's still owned and operated by von Trapp descendants today.
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