We started this morning a bit late. I have succeeded in giving my cold to Kim so she and Chris were grateful for the opportunity to sleep in while Cheryl and I took the kids to breakfast, then took them back to our room to watch cartoons. (Last night was a one-night stay at a Comfort Inn. We needed a one-night stay and they are a little tricky in the Air B&B market over Memorial Day weekend.) The dead eventually arose and we got ourselves together, checked out, car packed, and out the door by 10:00 for a trip south to the Moonlight Meadery in Londonderry (New Hampshire, not Ireland). There we enjoyed a mead tasting.
Cheryl and I chose to taste 4 meads each while Chris and Kim opted for the 7 mead package. So by sharing glasses we could theoretically taste 22 different flavors. We didn’t, of course. Some were eliminated by their description. Others were doubled up on. At any rate, we had a much better time than Jesse who was left in the car supervising a sleeping Spencer (and inhaling Harry Potter book 4). Anyway we managed to get out of there with only 4 bottles (that we’ll have to consume during the trip. (These times do try us.) Also, I sprung for a couple of individual tastings of cask-aged product – one in old scotch barrels and the other in old Bourbon barrels. The scotch was OK the Bourbon was exceptional. And now we an say we’ve sampled mead that retails for $125/bottle.
By the way, the mead tasting was the event that we didn’t have time for yesterday. So it took the place of a visit to a shaker community that was originally on today’s schedule. We were fine with that.
Our next objective was to head north to Mt. Washington for the cog-wheel train ride to the top. We needed to be there by 3:00 so we stopped by Concord just long enough to have a brief picnic on the capitol building lawn
And let the boys blow off some steam
Before heading north. The trip took about 90 minutes which gave S some time to catch up on his favorite video game
We arrived in good time and took a few pictures before we boarded the train.
The grade made walking up and down the aisle interesting.
And taking photos occasionally a challenge.
It was fun trip, though loud, dusty, and a little long
As we neared the top we saw some hikers out to find a good patch of late season snow.
We eventually made it to the top where we had ~45 minutes to explore and have our pictures taken.
At 6,288 feet Mt. Washington is the highest point in New England. That puts it at about the same height as Lake Tahoe and Deer Valley Utah (other places Nana and Papa have visited in the past year. Also, for reference, the Simplot Lodge at Bogus Basin is at 6,100 feet. However, because there is nothing else as tall around The summit of Mt. Washington has been described as having the world’s worst weather. With wintertime temperatures often near the coldest on earth and winds that have been known to gust to 231 mph (a record for a manned reporting station) it is a place of weather extremes. Today, however the weather was cool and brisk and the visibility was much better than normal. So we had a pretty good opportunity to check out the surrounding vistas…
And play in the odd snow bank.
Eventually it was time to head back down the mountain. While the locomotive worked extra hard to get us up gravity was the more powerful force on the return trip. So the key player on the downward leg was the breakman who spent the entire trip working the breaks on the passenger car.
And as our seats were on the front row for the downward leg we got an up-close view of his work.
In the fullness of time we returned to base (elevation 2,700 feet – which means we basically went from Boise to Bogus – but straight up the side of the mountain rather than taking the long and winding road.).
From there we headed to dinner and then on to the Air B&B condo we have for tonight. Tomorrow we move to Vermont and we have all day to drive about 2 1/2 hours – which means we’ve got lots of time to stop, look, and wander. I understand there are hiking trails identified and waterfalls selected, so tomorrow could be an excellent day – if the weather holds. We’ll see.
That was today. Now it’s tonight.
Nite all, R
Additional comments: Jesse was terrified on the way up and down. It was rattley like a wooden roller coaster—- which I had forgotten he also doesn’t like. All was forgiven, however, when we got to the top and he got to mountain goat up boulder walls. (Much to Nana’s terror)- he was in heaven.
Wow! Sounds like a great adventure you guys are having! Mount Washington has always fascinated me. Such a cool train ride. Looking forward to your next comments.