Leaf Peeping Anyone??

Al and I just took a short trip through Western Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont to do some leaf peeping. We left Sunday morning headed for St. Johnsbury, Vermont. We didn't have any specific plans in Vermont. We were just looking forward to enjoying the beautiful ride. Sunday was a partly cloudy day so the tress didn't always show their true vibrancy- but when you did get those patches of sunshine, it was unbelievably beautiful. The mountains looked like they were covered with a soft blanket of oranges, yellows, and rich reds. We arrived at our hotel, got settled in, and struck out to find something for dinner.

We soon learned that it was probably a good thing that we didn't have too many high hopes for things to do, because just finding dinner in St. Johnsbury proved to quite a task. Let's just say that there were not many options in the area! We ended up with some dry, sauce-less chicken parmesan takeout that we ate back in the hotel room. The location.....not so great, but I loved this hotel room. Not fancy, but so comfy and convenient. It was just easy to settle in and feel right at home. In the morning we headed east toward North Conway, New Hampshire. The scenery was breathtaking to say the least. I did take pictures, but they don't begin to do justice to the beauty of the mountains in person so I am not even going to post them. We arrived earlier than expected and stopped at The Settler's Green Outlet Mall to do a bit of Christmas shopping for the kids. We had never been and were pleasantly surprised at both the quality and quantity of shopping options located there. Our hotel for Monday night was located right in the heart of North Conway and convenient to everything. It wasn't quite as comfortable as our previous room, but it served it's purpose as a clean, quiet place to sleep and shower. We spent the rest of our time in North Conway doing a bit more shopping for the grand kids and just relaxing. There was one place that we drove by every time we left the hotel called The Christmas Loft.

It was decorated outside for Christmas with trees and lights galore. What really caught my eye was a huge jolly looking Santa in one of the front upstairs windows. He was just beckoning me to come on in. After several trips by the place we finally said"What the heck!", and pulled in. Now, I love all things Christmas, I mean I really love all of it!! I get sucked into the commercialism of it, I know that it's wrong, and I try to fight it, but I just can't help it. We walked into the store and I was full of my usual amount of Christmas enthusiasm. Our senses were immediately bombarded with everything and anything Christmas  that you can think of. All you hear from every direction are the noises of the holiday, bells and toys, Ho Ho Ho's and jingle bells. It is room after room of ornaments, figurines, gifts, Santas, many motion activated, some animated, and most noisy. I am still not 100% sure if this experience was "Christmas Heaven" or Christmas Hell". Whatever your feelings about the commercial part of the holiday; if you're ever in North Conway you should check this place out just for the experience of it. All in all, we had a fun and relaxing couple of days, the foliage was perfect, and it was nice to have some alone time with Al. With the hectic work days that we keep and weekends that fly by we don't get much quiet time together.

Fryeburg Fair Fun

This past Saturday afternoon Greg, Amanda, and Maddox struck out on the adventure known in these parts as the Fryeburg Fair http://www.fryeburgfair.com (Pronounced "Fayuh" if you are a true Mainer.)

It promised to be cold and breezy night so they bundled up in warm clothes. Amanda even broke out Maddox's  gloves and winter hat. Maddox's theory was that his hat was a snow hat and he would only wear it if there was snow at the fair. As you can see in the pictures somewhere along the way he decided that the hat was a cold, windy, fall night hat as well. This is the largest fair that comes to the area and it is generally wall to wall people from the day it opens until it's closing day. Reports from the kids tell me that this year was no different. Generally, if you don't arrive at the fairgrounds early in the morning you will end up paying a good amount of cash to park on a private resident's lawn. This lawn is usually a good two miles from entrance. The kids lucked out in that they found free parking, but had a loooong walk to the gate. They managed to make their way around despite never ending waves of people, ate ridiculously over priced fair food, and took in the sights. The sights mostly consisted of every possible breed of farm animal along with various home baked goodies,crafts and handiwork all entered in contests in hopes of winning that elusive fair blue ribbon. A good time was had despite the chilly temperatures and Maddox was thrilled that he rode on a real horsie.

Pardon the quality of the pictures, Mandy brought along her camera, and it does not do well in low light situations. :)