Vacation (Day One)

    Today marked the beginning of our twelve day vacation to New Hampshire. We actually left on time at 9:00am. After two hours on the highway we made our first stop of the day at the little Mardens store in Gray, didn’t buy anything. Then we stopped in Windham Maine to eat which has become tradition. We went through the Dairy Queen drive thru and it took so long they gave us our food, our money back and a $5 gift card which was perfectly fine with us. Then we went next door to the Taco Bell drive thru but our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. Food was delicious though. We stopped at the thrift store to eat in the parking lot before going in and Jaime bought a pair of brown moto boots and I got a little kids camouflage shirt to cut up for some of my custom clothing.

    Our first hike of the trip was Jockey Cap, a small mountain in Fryeburg we first did last year on our first day of vacation. This time we followed the correct trail to the summit which is short but a little steep. There was a science class going up at the same time as us and learning about glaciers up there so we didn’t stay long. It was way too hot, close to 90, so I decided not to bother doing the Redstone Quarry in North Conway because it’d be in the sun.

    We stopped at TJ Maxx and Christmas Tree Shop in North Conway where Jaime got a couple things, then we headed to our hotel in Gorham. Mom and Dad called to let us know they had arrived. We got here at 4:00, exactly as I predicted. The hotel is kind of dumpy, not awful but you get what you pay for. It was super hot in the room, I later realized it was because someone had turned the heat on, all the way, which would explain why the thermostat on the air conditioner said it was 90 in here. But it’s cooling off nicely now with the windows open and air on, as well as a fan in the window.

    We met up with my parents at their hotel and headed over to Triple Falls on the Dolly Copp Rd. The dirt part of the road was fine but the paved portions were extremely bumpy. Since there’s been no rain the falls were pretty much non existent but it was fun anyway. We climbed the steep trail to the first two falls but didn’t bother with the third smaller one. At the bottom of Proteus Falls I tight roped along a log to the base of the falls to get some cool pictures. On Erebus Falls I went down the ravine again and was able to walk out to the slabs of rock directly beneath the falls and got some nice photos. I’m proud of myself, I didn’t bring back a single rock, despite wanting all of them. We checked out the stream below the falls on the other side of the road but it was nothing spectacular. I went down to the water again to get a picture. During higher water these falls would be amazing.

    We went to Mountain Fire Pizza for supper. It was incredible, probably the best pizza ever which is why we keep going back. The service was slow as hell though with a waitress who didn’t know what she was doing, and the crust was a bit burnt but its all good. We got half bbq chicken, half maple pizza and the mozzarella sticks appetizer. My parents got half sausage, half 4 cheese pizza and loved it.

    Me and Jaime went to Walmart a little later to pick up a few groceries and a hamper bag since we forgot ours at home in the dryer. It’s 10:30 now and the room is down to 67 and feeling quite nice. The internet barely works which I remembered from last year so no surprise there, so I won’t be posting this to my blog tonight. And only basic cable, also something we knew from last year, basic like only up to channel 13 basic so nothing to watch. But I’m getting tired already after having some of my dessert and True Moo chocolate milk. There’s a fold out couch in here so I’ll sleep on that as the bed is pretty hard and won’t be good for my body. The couch seems like it’ll be fine so we’ll see in the morning. Tomorrow we’re going out to Grafton Notch at 8:00. That’s super early for me but I want to get an early start so we’ll see how I do.