White Mountains

This month we went on what is technically our second biennial outing to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The last time we went, Lily was all of two months old.

Aside:

Since Carrie really wanted one of those Vitamix blenders, we thought we'd try to acquire one. Vitamix blenders are available in Canada, but they are prohibitively expensive. In the US, Vitamix sells reconditioned units at a considerable discount. The problem is that they don't like to sell these to Canadians. So of course I went about trying to acquire one.

The Internet told me that if you call Vitamix to order a reconditioned blender and the credit card you use to pay for it has a Canadian billing address, they'll politely tell you "nuh-uh". So I had to add a US billing address to my card (or at least I tried, but since Carrie is the primary cardholder for our card of choice, they insisted that she call to add the address). I used the address of the home we rented for our week in New Hampshire. The next problem was shipping and delivery. I had to order early enough to ensure that the item was delivered before our holiday was over, but also late enough that the unit didn't arrive before we did. So I tracked the package once it shipped, and sure enough, it was to be delivered a full week before we were to arrive. The shipper, UPS, could hold it at a depot, but they led me to believe I needed proof of residence at the initial delivery address. (Also, the depot was nowhere near where we would be.) So I had find another solution. Enter Kinek, one of several delivery services that will let you ship your package to one of their locations and they'll hold your package for you. It's great if you live near the border and need to order something that ships only within the US. So I picked a location at the Vermont border and then called Vitamix to redirect the package to that address (they waived a $25 fee to do this); the packaged arrived there a week early and sat patiently to be picked up.

Easy-peasy, huh?

Fast forward to our holidays, during a particular day of shopping: we step into a kitchen-stuff store, and lo and behold, the same reconditioned Vitamix blender I'd jumped through a thousand hoops to acquire, and for the same price! AAARRRRRRRRRGGGHHH!

It felt like a thousand hoops anyway. Sigh.

In the end, we have our new blender and Carrie is deeply in love with it.

Now, where were we? Oh right, vacation.

On the VRBO website we found a vacation home rental for a week, situated in the town of North Conway, New Hampshire. We hoped to do a bunch of hiking, enjoy the fall colours, and indulge in some tax-free shopping. The drive--without stops--is only 5.5 hours. A midday, midweek drive meant a fairly uneventful trip.

The weather forecast wasn't looking great, but it turned to be a wonderful week. Our first hike was up South Moat Mountain, with an elevation gain of about 2100 feet. It's a moderate trek, but challenging enough for our first time out. We'd mostly sought out 4-hour round trip hikes, and it proved to be an ideal length for us all. It was pretty cold and windy at the top, so we stayed for a bite to eat and then headed right back down.

Lily tended to sleep for half an hour on the return leg of our hikes; this was a nice quiet time, but we felt sorry for her very bad posture (though it doesn't seem to bother kids). We eventually used a scarf to prop her head up so it wouldn't fall off.

When she wasn't sleeping, she was often heard singing boisterously or reciting her favourite Curious George books with surprising accuracy.

Another day's hike took us up a mountain named Kearsarge North, with an elevation gain of 2600 feet. Its trailhead was conveniently only a couple of miles from our lodgings.

Some colour.

Snack break. Better bundled than on the previous hike.

There was a fire tower on the peak, and the view was expansive. Maybe not as colourful as we might have liked, but we couldn't have asked for better weather.

We discovered the joy of candy necklaces. Made for a messy but quiet child.

One day we drove up to a local lookout called Cathedral Ledge. We also took a walk to Diana's Baths, a interesting series of waterfalls over smooth eroded rock formations.

View of the valley from Cathedral Ledge.

Diana's Baths.

Our little adventurer.

We were in the vicinity of the Presidential Range, and we thought it would be nice to scale a presidential peak. We chose Mt. Jackson, which tops out at just over 4000 feet. (As it turns out, this mountain was named after some geologist and not the president.) We were in surprisingly better shape by this time, and seemingly interminable climbs were not nearly as discouraging or difficult as they'd been a few days earlier. This hike's elevation gain was 2500 feet.

Directions at the top. There's a whole network of trails connecting various peaks.

Bold little thieves.

Made it!

And another peak; we did a side trip to Mt. Webster on the way back down.

All over, trails were quite rugged and would have been treacherous if wet. Fortunately for us, we had a pretty dry week.

Almost as steep as it looks.

Totally as steep as it looks.

Climbing up was often easier than down, particularly with a child on my back. I fell backwards on top of her (sort of) only once; hooray for frame packs!

Whilst tripping over exposed roots, we could imagine an Ent looking down at us irately.

Easier going.

We did a bit of shopping, including my obligatory visit to the local cigar shop. I have my cigars, Lily has a bunch of fancy new clothes, and Carrie has her blender. I guess Christmas came early.

Oh, and chocolate. We were accosted by a Lindt store, so we helped ourselves to some deals. Looks like I have a few hundred Lindor chocolates to consume.

After a relaxing week, we headed back home, with a quick stop in Newport, Vermont for super deals on chicken. While Carrie loaded some things into the trunk at the grocery store, I helpfully whisked the (pretty much empty) cart away. Off we drove.

An hour and a half later, and we were approaching Montreal. Suddenly Carrie said, "Hey, where's my wallet?" We searched the car for ten minutes and then decided to call the store in Newport. Sure enough, someone had found the wallet and handed it in. The good news: mystery solved. The bad news: back to another country!

So we backtracked, talked to sympathetic border guards, retrieved the wallet, and sat down for dinner before heading north again. So, four hours after approaching Montreal, we were again approaching Montreal. Not the funnest trip ever, but at least all was well in the end.

Our little miss smarty-pants enjoyed the week away and has fond memories of it. She recently couldn't find something of hers, and exclaimed, "Hmm, maybe it's in New Ampshire, ackshly!"

And I end with the obligatory Lily photo dump.

The leaving-the-playground meltdown.

This one loves leaves. "Lily haffa leaf?"

"Onna big baloo skeeky [squeaky] swing wiff Mom."