That’s a Truck Load of Dock…

We continued our vacation adventure with Dad spending a few more days with us.  Early in the week  Cheryl's friend Carolyn joined us for a day and evening at the cottage. Since we had four people that also meant we could spend some time playing cards in the evening. 

The end of vacation and then the end of the summer began in earnest after guests left and we began perennial event of removing the dock and preparing the cottage for hibernation over the winter.  This year my time involved with end of season activities was both good and less so; depending on how you look at it.

The next morning I made myself scarce by taking a golf lesson and then playing eighteen holes with my brother Bill.  What I didn’t realize was that while I was out playing around Cheri and Papa were busy pulling out the boat and cleaning the bottom—although the pictures seem to show that someone worked while someone recorded the event, I was told that everyone helped clean the bottom…you draw your own conclusions.
 
 

But then on Friday Cheri headed for the coast of Maine to spend several days partaking in the annual Basket Ladies’ Ritual on the Beach—a good heading for a separate posting by a guest blogger.  That left me alone for a final sail—with a fair wind—a swim and bringing the float in to shore.   

  

Later I taxed myself with some reading, a quiet dinner, a beach fire, attempts at night photos of the moon over the water and of course a little college football on TV.

   

Saturday morning I was up fairly early, and after a cup-o’-joe started moving floats, tubes, chairs, ski-vests, and the sunfish into their winter resting places.  It wasn’t too long before Papa showed up with his truck and we used a little engineering and brute truck strength to get the dock onto land.  

We were less gentle this year since we had earlier made a decision to in the spring, replace the existing 30 year old, pressure-treated lumber structure with a newer and lighter aluminum dock complete with cedar inlays.  In addition to “pulling the dock”  we used my chainsaw to segment the pieces, loaded up the truck and disposed of the evidence in the construction debris section of the Andover Transfer Station—forcing us to get a new dock…takes any questioning of the decision out of the equation.

After a few more hours of laundry, cleaning out the freezer and refrigerator, and general straightening up of the cottage I gathered up Calvin—yes he made the trip with us to the cottage—strapped my bike onto the car, and headed south to Connecticut.

The summer chapter of this year’s adventures drawing to an end…on to autumnal adventures!

…one last look…

Why Would You Take an Old Bride on this Path?

Our vacation adventures continue with us spending some time at the Cottage and simply enjoying time away.  As I shot the photo below I thought, “why would I take another picture of the same thing?” and then I said to myself, “…it’s because I never get tired of this view…and every time it is a little different.”

 

We have enjoyed some time by the quiet lake, having some beach fires and enjoying each other’s company.

Every year we say we should take the time to hike in the White Mountains and this year we made a point of setting a day…of course it rained on that day so we moved our plans to the next day—as if the weather forecasters really knew what they talked about. 

Our mini-adventure meant heading out from the cottage at 9 am and heading north to Franconia Notch.  We parked at the Lafayette Trailhead site and bundled up into our long sleeved shirts and sweatshirts.

As a teenager I hiked this area and this trail many times.  In those days we often found that by the time we reached the summit, the conditions we experienced at the base had cleared out completely.  Our thoughts were along those lines…if only the same were true now.

I did take the opportunity—or actually the result of my not packing my boots—to get a new pair of hiking “shoes”.  These are really more like very sturdy running shoes with a vibram sole, waterproofing partially up the sides and very light.  They are very comfortable and ended up being a great investment for future adventures.

In the photo you can see that some water was on the trail.  Actually, when hiking in a cloud, what is often not considered is the simple physics of being in an environment of fully saturated air…100% relative humidity.  All that is needed to create rain is a temperature difference that super-saturates the air (the temperature drops) or particles and objects that are at a slightly lower temperature than the cloud…for example trees and leaves that were out all night and have not had sunlight to warm them.

 

In effect, we were hiking in very cool but humid air—that is sweating from the humidity while leaving a base camp that is only 51 degrees—and being dripped on by the trees…and the random passing rain shower.  Within 30 minutes I had the sweatshirt off and sweat was running down my back under the backpack. We were damp…somewhat warm (except for Cheri’s hands)…and actually having a good time…even if we had no scenic vistas.

The trail we were taking from the base to Greenleaf Hut is called the Old Bridle Path.  It was around this time that I asked Cheri, “Why would you bring an old bride up this type of path.”

“That’s not what they mean,” was all she said.  So, being rather glib—as I am told I can be—I came back with, “if you can have bridal parties and bridal showers for brides, then why not a bridle path for brides?”

"It’s not that kind of bride!”…accompanied by some rolling eyes.

I should have stopped there, but instead said, “maybe it’s the same thing…only they haven’t taken to the bit yet…”.  This is when the stern look was shot my way…along with, I’m sure, a few comments from others regarding this post.

Either way, we were still talking and in good spirits when we arrived at Greenleaf Hut—an hour and a half after we started…not too bad for 2.9 miles on a wet trail. 



The hut was still in the clouds when we arrived and their weather station indicated it was 38 degrees with the wind at about 15 – 20 knots.  This was a good chance to get in out of the clouds and wind, and put on some of the dry clothes we’d carried in the backpack.



We also brought a lunch of fruit, peanut butter crackers and sugary things along to enjoy at this point.  Cheri’s hands were so cold that she had trouble opening the zip-lock bag for the crackers.  The dry clothes, a little snack, some warm cocoa and coffee…it was all enough to tell us that we shouldn’t attempt the 1.1 mile trek to the top of Lafayette—the hut is at 4,200 feet and the summit is just over 5,200.  It wouldn’t be a tough climb, but we’d see nothing but the trail, we’d get our dry clothes wet with nothing else to change into, and looping around the ridge to go down the Falling Waters Trail in this kind of weather didn’t make sense.

Once we felt warm and rested enough, we donned our sweatshirts (did I mention it was 38 degrees) and headed back down the Old Bridle Path.  The trip down looks about the same as the trip heading up…only it was slippery enough that Cheri took one spill (you can see her shorts are a little muddy). 


   
It took us almost two hours to get down…although it takes less energy, you have to concentrate more on almost every step.  We made it back to the cottage a little tired but warm and ready for another day.

Saturday my dad joined us for a few days at the cottage and he brought with him the best weather we have had so far on this vacation.  We were able to sit in the sun for quite awhile, do some sailing and then as the sun went down we started a beach fire to keep any late summer chill away.


We then tucked into a little surf-and-turf and you can see the before and after pictures below.


Then it was back out to sit by the fire for just a little longer…a pleasant end to this part of the vacation adventure.

Laboring on Labor Day

As we start some vacation time I struggled with the thought of doing a day-by-day synopsis of our activities—a la our trips to London and Ireland—or wait until the end for an all encompassing post—another 39 Feet of Separation.  Day to day without some major travel or sightseeing involved seems a little narcissistic…I mean who really wants to read about what is happening every minute (for that you can go to Facebook or join Twitter)…and writing at the end may result in my forgetting something (or someone), or through procrastination not happen at all.


So, narcissism aside, I am attempting to hit somewhere in the middle…a little bit about our Labor Day weekend and then…who knows what.


Saturday was a good day to get some things done around the house—pick up chainsaw and hedge-trimmer from the service shop, trip to the transfer station, start filling in foundation holes before small animals attempt to move in for the winter, detail the outside of Cheri’s car.  But, the real highlight of the day started when we were joined by Steve and Lindsey Tosi for a trip out to the Golden Lamb Buttery.



The Golden Lamb has been a bit of a tradition for us—although we seem to have skipped a year until this weekend.  We often go there with our friends Jack and Stephanie Gosselin, but it is always fun to expose new people to this experience.

When you arrive at The Golden Lamb you are met by a hostess who introduces you to your waitress for the evening—they seem to always know where you are and literally wait on you ‘hand and foot’.  You are then free to explore the large post and beam barn that has been converted into a restaurant, lounge, museum and gift shop.

Another guest offered to capture a photo of the four of us…for posterity.

We had a cocktail out on the deck overlooking a portion of the 1,000 acre farm that makes up the estate.

Then we went on a hayride along with an accompanist…since there is only one seating for dinner the hayride is used to spread out the guests and helps to allow the waitresses to time their services.

The table was ours for the evening and we slowly worked our way through soups—corn chowder, borscht, chilled pear & pineapple—and salads before we got to the main course.  There are only four entrees to choose from and you can’t go wrong with any of them—slow roasted duck, chateaubriand, rack of lamb, salmon—but it seemed that Steve, Lindsey and I were on the same page with the chateaubriand and only Cheri stepped out with having the lamb.  Accompanying vegetables are served more family style and we tried them all.  Desserts went the way of entrees with the same three of us having the apple/blueberry crisp and  Cheri having a lemon tart-like dessert.


It was a wonderful evening of conversation, food, and the accompanist from the hayride made the rounds performing requests table-side.  She was very good and topped off the evening.  In the past we have often finished the evening with a nightcap back on the deck, but we thought it made more sense for us call it an evening—we did have wine with dinner and we all had to drive back home—and what a great evening it was.


Sunday we laid a little low.  My back was bothering me from some of the ‘around the house’ work on Saturday, so we limited activities…or at least I did.  Cheri had many activities she wanted to get done before we headed out to the Cottage later in the week.


Monday, Labor Day was our day to work at our church’s Chicken Barbeque booth at the Woodstock Fair (held every year over Labor Day weekend).  This year I was breaking in as the Day Manager—overseeing the Booth for supplies, heating and serving, and the pit crew for chicken preparation and timing—under the tutelage of John Cimochowski and Bob Donahue. 


Cheri worked for an extended shift in the booth serving barbeque chicken, potato salad, pulled pork sandwiches, pulled chicken sandwiches, foot long hotdogs (and some people wanted to know the exact length), and drinks.  It was a full day of activities and judging the flow of customers and food preparation. 


Sometimes a flurry of action followed by lulls of conversation…a great time.



The Woodstock Fair is what most New England Fairs have become—moving from diary, agriculture, 4H events with a midway to large midways and vendors with some agriculture and dairy events.  We didn’t see much of it…actually I stayed at the Booth and Cheri got around a little bit…but it still had a fair feel to it.  From our position it was fun to just do some people-watching as well.



It was a full day and a wonderful way to spend time with friends.  We were tired by the end and knew that we would wake up to actually be on vacation….


More adventures to follow….