So the next morning, (well, it was before noon,) we hit the road to New Hampshire, taking the long, scenic route through Newburyport, MA and a very nice taste of small town New England.
A veeeeeeeeeeery nice taste. Oldies rocked our world and sucked away a good hour. Then the Pizza Factory re-energized us and made us really glad we ordered a large so we had plenty to eat later. Seriously amazing pizza.
More beautiful driving and warnings to watch for Moose. We really wanted to see one but we really didn't want to hit one with our car so pros and cons both ways that the only one we saw was the one above the fireplace at the hotel. And speaking of the hotel....
Wow...
We had been told that it was a huge, beautiful old building but ohmygod, here we are coming up on it from the road. (L) Even from the distance, you can see it's pretty massive. (C) As you get closer, it looks like a huge ship floating by itself on an ocean. (R) And as you pull up, The Shining kind of comes to mind. Luckily, there are enough people around and enough "life" to it that the feeling quickly dissipates, especially when you get inside.
The lobby is vast and airy and our room was beautifully cozy. That night, we met up with the rest of the wedding guests and stayed up way too late meeting everyone, catching up and toasting the bride and groom. No pictures of this but...
... (L) the next morning we splurged and ordered in room service. It was gooooooood. (C) Then we ventured forth to explore the hotel, especially the veranda (R)...
...until we finally found our perfect spot. Vacation? Indeeeeeeeeeeed.
After an afternoon of luscious relaxation, we got ourselves together and went to a gorgeous wedding. The only thing more gorgeous than the wedding was the massive brie that greeted us as soon as we got to the reception. Seriously... Hand included for scale... I strongly suggest you click to see it bigger. It's very worth it.
After dinner, we started playing a game that is an old family tradition and that we'd been looking forward to playing for days (at the groom's suggestion)........ Spoons. Ever play? It. Is. Hard. Core.
We cleared one of the dinner tables and, at one point, had 15 people playing! We converted so many people to the game and, although I didn't win the final game, I won quite a few of them and defended my Spoons playin' reputation handily. At one point, one of the waitresses told us how much she wished she wasn't working so she could join us, we were having such a fun time. And we were... We had an amazing time the whole night and it was great to reconnect with that side of the family. It was a late night, a late morning and we left as late the next day as possible.
(L) Bye Mount Washington Hotel! (C) As we speed away (R) through the Bretton Woods
On the way back, we went down some gorgeous little back roads on our way to Portsmouth, NH. We thought it was in Maine but turns out it's on the New Hampshire side of the border. Ever the intrepid explorers, we drove across the bridge to Kittery, looked around and drove back. It was very very pretty and now we can say we've been to Maine.
First thing was stopping for a late lunch at Friendly Toast and then for a lovely walk all over Portsmouth. It was so cute and surprisingly hip for a small town. We thoroughly enjoyed it and it would be fun to go back and find the yarn shops there.
And we finally drove back to Boston to finish the trip like it began. My sister got out the spread and we toasted to our wonderful time and started making plans for the next visit. She's coming out here! That will be a goooood one....
(I apologize for the relative lack of detailed/high end commentary on these last few posts. I've done so much better... Looking forward to getting my writer brain back some day.)
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