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What a great mini vacation!
Halloween night was a fun time, where we gave candy to kids with the Tiggerette and Brian both scared and amazed little kids in his Sandtrooper costume. One little boy remarked that he remembered the trooper from 2 years ago, and one parent was just in awe, and said he recognized who the 501st was.
On Wednesday we used a gift certificate Brian had for The Tea Leaf http://www.teamap.com/tearooms/the_tea_leaf_2027.html and he had his first experience with afternoon tea. It was a nice way to force ourselves to slow down and just enjoy the day, though Brian had a difficult time getting into the groove. Post tea we ran some errands (including getting a new washing machine to be delivered by Sears on Monday sometime), visited the kitties at Pet World (where we adopted Mal and Jayne) and gave them an update on how the guys have been doing, and had a leisurly drive home along Rt. 135/16 to the tunes of King Diamond (go Satanic falsetto!). After stopping by Costco so that Brian could get another memory card for his camera (so cheap) for the trip we hit Anna's for our buritto fix. Its been a while! We spent the night hanging out with the bunnies and watching the 6 hour Ghosthunter's Halloween marathon.
After sleeping in a bit (for me) and breakfast we headed up to the Mt. Washington Valley area. We had lunch at Cafe Noche in Conway center http://portlandme.citysearch.com/profile/6566640/conway_nh/cafe_noche.html for the first time since our honeymoon in 1999, and we browsed at the Pawn shop across the street. Brian then hit the massive Army Barracks, and bought some black BDUs (size medium, I may add) and a new smaller belt. Given that Friday would be the good day weatherwise, we did our outlet shopping on Thursday, mostly so that Brian could buy some things that fit him after his massive shrinking efforts. The OVP mall is now known as Settlers Green, but was still quite helpful with Old Navy Outlet, and hot drinks from The Dancer's Cafe. We hit a few more shops and continued to North Conway Center where we made the obligatory stop at the Barvarian Chocolate Haus (Brian for 2 truffles, me for 2 peppermint pattys) and White Birch Books. We skipped the stores in the center (Zebs, The Penguin), been there, done that. After checking into http://www.stonehurstmanor.com/ we had time to kill, so after dropping off our bags and checking out the room (ooh) we did some hiking out back until dark. Its the first time we've managed this - and it only took us till the 4th trip to pull it off. Dinner was heavenly as usually (Brian got some meaty thing, I got the gorgonzola ravioli) and we spent the night enjoying our hot tub for two, fireplace and flatscreen TV.
The free breakfast was yummy (Brian got bananna bread french toast and me a greek fritatta) and then we were on our way after visiting with the house cat near the fire, Mrs. Bigelo #2 (and, after letting the SNOW melt off of the car via the defrost). Heading down Rt. 16 to 302, we passed many scenic vistas and the Mt. Washington Hotel (where I so want to stay sometime, price aside . . . its very "The Shining"). It was noticibly colder higher up and closer to the mountains than it was in the valley (duh) and they had more accumulated snow on the sides of the road. We picked up 93 to head north a couple of miles to Littleton. This little town where Blondeamazon grew up is a favorite of my parents, but Brian and I had yet to explore on our own. After poking in some shops http://www.chutters.com/, trying to get some pics out at the mill and some hot drinks http://millerscafeandbakery.com/, we were on our way for more nature spotting. It was snowing along Franconia Notch, but we still stopped to do a short hike to The Basin, and we had the place completely to ourselves which was really odd - a first for me. Continuing along Rt. 3 we figured we'd see what was still around over near The Kanc - the last few times we've gone by its been a bit of a ghost town. The Millfront Marketplace http://www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgresults.cfm?destination=white_mountains@203&cur_section=sho&property_id=45522 continues to be more and more desolate, but we found some neat things at some stores in the plaza next-door. We also learned that the cool bookshop that used to be in the Mill moved down the street http://directory.nh.com/Innisfree+Bookshop.393208.814369.home.html and we picked up the Amy Sedaris "I Like You" Entertaining book on CD for the ride home. After lunch at Cafe Luna we were on our way.
So now we are refreshed and ready for hosting tons of geeks this weekend for a photo shoot extravaganza. Phew! Its nice to get away from things and spend time with your partner in crime in the quiet and in nature to kind of remind yourself of what's important. :)
Halloween night was a fun time, where we gave candy to kids with the Tiggerette and Brian both scared and amazed little kids in his Sandtrooper costume. One little boy remarked that he remembered the trooper from 2 years ago, and one parent was just in awe, and said he recognized who the 501st was.
On Wednesday we used a gift certificate Brian had for The Tea Leaf http://www.teamap.com/tearooms/the_tea_leaf_2027.html and he had his first experience with afternoon tea. It was a nice way to force ourselves to slow down and just enjoy the day, though Brian had a difficult time getting into the groove. Post tea we ran some errands (including getting a new washing machine to be delivered by Sears on Monday sometime), visited the kitties at Pet World (where we adopted Mal and Jayne) and gave them an update on how the guys have been doing, and had a leisurly drive home along Rt. 135/16 to the tunes of King Diamond (go Satanic falsetto!). After stopping by Costco so that Brian could get another memory card for his camera (so cheap) for the trip we hit Anna's for our buritto fix. Its been a while! We spent the night hanging out with the bunnies and watching the 6 hour Ghosthunter's Halloween marathon.
After sleeping in a bit (for me) and breakfast we headed up to the Mt. Washington Valley area. We had lunch at Cafe Noche in Conway center http://portlandme.citysearch.com/profile/6566640/conway_nh/cafe_noche.html for the first time since our honeymoon in 1999, and we browsed at the Pawn shop across the street. Brian then hit the massive Army Barracks, and bought some black BDUs (size medium, I may add) and a new smaller belt. Given that Friday would be the good day weatherwise, we did our outlet shopping on Thursday, mostly so that Brian could buy some things that fit him after his massive shrinking efforts. The OVP mall is now known as Settlers Green, but was still quite helpful with Old Navy Outlet, and hot drinks from The Dancer's Cafe. We hit a few more shops and continued to North Conway Center where we made the obligatory stop at the Barvarian Chocolate Haus (Brian for 2 truffles, me for 2 peppermint pattys) and White Birch Books. We skipped the stores in the center (Zebs, The Penguin), been there, done that. After checking into http://www.stonehurstmanor.com/ we had time to kill, so after dropping off our bags and checking out the room (ooh) we did some hiking out back until dark. Its the first time we've managed this - and it only took us till the 4th trip to pull it off. Dinner was heavenly as usually (Brian got some meaty thing, I got the gorgonzola ravioli) and we spent the night enjoying our hot tub for two, fireplace and flatscreen TV.
The free breakfast was yummy (Brian got bananna bread french toast and me a greek fritatta) and then we were on our way after visiting with the house cat near the fire, Mrs. Bigelo #2 (and, after letting the SNOW melt off of the car via the defrost). Heading down Rt. 16 to 302, we passed many scenic vistas and the Mt. Washington Hotel (where I so want to stay sometime, price aside . . . its very "The Shining"). It was noticibly colder higher up and closer to the mountains than it was in the valley (duh) and they had more accumulated snow on the sides of the road. We picked up 93 to head north a couple of miles to Littleton. This little town where Blondeamazon grew up is a favorite of my parents, but Brian and I had yet to explore on our own. After poking in some shops http://www.chutters.com/, trying to get some pics out at the mill and some hot drinks http://millerscafeandbakery.com/, we were on our way for more nature spotting. It was snowing along Franconia Notch, but we still stopped to do a short hike to The Basin, and we had the place completely to ourselves which was really odd - a first for me. Continuing along Rt. 3 we figured we'd see what was still around over near The Kanc - the last few times we've gone by its been a bit of a ghost town. The Millfront Marketplace http://www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgresults.cfm?destination=white_mountains@203&cur_section=sho&property_id=45522 continues to be more and more desolate, but we found some neat things at some stores in the plaza next-door. We also learned that the cool bookshop that used to be in the Mill moved down the street http://directory.nh.com/Innisfree+Bookshop.393208.814369.home.html and we picked up the Amy Sedaris "I Like You" Entertaining book on CD for the ride home. After lunch at Cafe Luna we were on our way.
So now we are refreshed and ready for hosting tons of geeks this weekend for a photo shoot extravaganza. Phew! Its nice to get away from things and spend time with your partner in crime in the quiet and in nature to kind of remind yourself of what's important. :)
