Thursday, August 23, 2007

North Country

At last! Amanda had two days off in a row so we actually had chance to get away. The three girls headed for Intervale, New Hampshire. It's just north of North Conway. We have a Rockport friend who has a vacation house in Intervale that we have been able to use whenever we wanted. Problem is, it was just sold. This trip was our last free lodging in NH.

I drove the almost three hours to get to the house. Here's the place. From the front...and.....from the back. Nearly an acre of land. The house is getting to need a lot of work though.

So, what do three girls do on a short vacation? Why, shop, shop, shop, of course. There's an outlet shopping area called "Settler's Green". After we got our stuff in to the house, my Mom drove in to town for shopping. I got a couple three-quarter length sleeved tops, a gray sweater, and a cute, hooded denim jacket at the Eddie Bauer outlet. My Mom got some winter tops and decided to think about a jacket that she tried on. Amanda got a gray denim jacket and a shirt at the Gap outlet store. We shopped around in a few others but didn't find anything that we *had* to have.

After shopping we headed for Scarecrow's Tavern to get burgers for dinner. We decided that although it was ok, it wasn't a place we would eat at again. We got back to the house and a friend that lives in North Conway came over for a visit. By the time we got through chatting and catching up on news, it was time for bed. K went home and we turned in for the night.

The next morning we all got up early to go out for breakfast. While my mother was finishing up getting ready, Amanda and I went out to take the pictures of the house. Then, with Mom driving, we headed further north to Glen. Here's the view of Mount Washington from the road directly behind the house (as we headed north). The top of Mt. Washington is only clear 40% of the time. We had two clear days. We ate breakfast at Glen Junction. This is a nifty little restaurant that has a model train running around the top of the dining room. Amanda bought a T-shirt that has the restaurant logo embroidered on it.

Shop, shop, shop!

We drove back to the house to load up our luggage and bags of goodies, and to make a pit stop! Our morning would be spent.....shopping.

Our first stop was the Crafter's Barn which is three large floors of handcrafted items. This was Amanda's choice for shopping as she likes to look at all the jewelry. She didn't buy anything, though. Next stop was the Christmas Loft. Mom's choice. Yikes, the place was HUGE. All I could think of while wandering around, room after room crammed with Christmas ornamentations was, what if someone yelled "fire"? I found a New York State ornament with the Statue of Liberty so I just *had* to buy it. Amanda bought a very pretty glass peacock ornament. Then we went to the Liz Claiborne outlet. No purchases there. Back to Eddie Bauer we went since Mom had decided to buy the jacket she saw the day before. By the time we were done it was after 12:00 so we stopped to grab a quick lunch at Friendly's.

Guess what I found?

Yep, another Statue of Liberty. $1.00 donation to some charity jar got me a "rubber ducky" Statue of Liberty. So what if the torch is in the wrong wing.........

Time for me to start the 3 hour drive back south. Of course the drive was interrupted with several stops at antique shops. More shopping, no buys.

You may wonder why we didn't do any sightseeing. There is certainly piles of it to do in the area. The reason is that we have visited the White Mountains quite frequently over the past half century. We've done most everything many times over. My favorite is traveling to the top of Mt. Washington. Years ago my Dad used to drive us up. We've taken the "coach" up the auto road as well. I've ridden the cog railway to the top twice. So....no sightseeing this trip. Do check out the links for Mt. Washington.

The webcam from Conway.
More info.
Be sure to check out the webcam links atop the mountain at the site hyperlinked above in the post.
Yep, it's a favorite place for me!
Maybe next time we'll play tourist.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

No wonder u were missing for so long. Must say, looking at Google, seems to me that u were in Canada!
That poor Mandy. Gets 2 days off, and is carted away!

deb said...

yep, it's a ways up there.

Oh poor Amanda. First she says she wants to go *anywhere* for a couple days. Just to do *something*. We get there and she wants to come home. No way after three hours of driving. We stay there overnight and she doesn't want to come home. What a pain. BTW, she'd love you for calling her Mandy. She hates her name and prefers that nickname.

Anonymous said...

Your word pictures brought back so many memories. Growing up and then with my children and now with the grands, going to the Wt Mts is a must every year. Of course now that the Old Man fell down it is a bit sad. Life and rocks do change.

Anyway, I hate to shop but glad that you and your mom love it and that you could have some fun time. Delighted that you mentioned the restaurant with the trains. The third weekend in Sept, we 3 adults and G and D are going to the Scottish Festival - an annual event for our family. Now we will be sure to find this place for breakfast so the kids can enjoy the trains etc. Thanks for mentioneing it.

Welcome back home!

Anonymous said...

oops - forgot to congratulate you on being awarded the second Dickiebouquet!

deb said...

In my acceptance speech I have included the following: "I owe my success to my good friend, Mary, who so appropriately and in a timely manner dialed 911, bringing the cops." lol

Now that you have mentioned the Old Man, I may have to write more about the White Mountains!

Anonymous said...

Tis a funny thing, Deb. I don't particularly like Mandy, but I love Amanda. Odd. Ain't it?

deb said...

Life is.