Like a Sunflower

8/3/22 WEDNESDAY

As we were getting ready to leave our house to catch a 5pm flight out of Chicago, we learned that it was cancelled. So there was a little bit of chaos as we (pretty much Tim) tried to figure out the details of rescheduling our flight and hotel. Thankfully, the new flight was leaving at 5am the next morning so it didn't deter our plans too much. We drove down to Chicago a little later on Wednesday (through the pouring rain), checked into our hotel, and had dinner at Costco. Sonya, Tim, and I played Monopoly Deal for the first time and we all tried to get some rest before a very early morning start.

8/4/22 THURSDAY

We woke up at 2:45am to catch the 3:30am shuttle to the airport. None of us slept really well and this new flight had a layover in Washington DC before heading to Vermont.

Once we landed in Vermont, we grabbed our luggage and got our rental vehicle for the week. Caleb was pretty tired and just wanted to sleep so we checked out a few places without him.

Round Church - Richmond, VT

Stone Corral Brewery - Richmond, VT
My Buffalo Big Bird Taco was amazing, Tim had the best sandwich he's had in a long time, and Sonya got a burrito.

Ben & Jerry's - Waterbury, VT
We checked out the ice cream flavor graveyard and a few other things, but decided we didn't want to wait 30+ minutes in the heat to wait to order ice cream. Plus, we were all exhausted and just wanted to get to our Airbnb.

Capitol Building - Montpelier, VT
We just did a drive by and grabbed a quick photo.

Martin Bridge - Marshfield, VT
Tim & I explored the covered bridge area a little and took some photos.

InnSeason Resort - Lincoln, NH
This was our home base for 3 nights. We grabbed some groceries from the store in town (fried chicken). Since the pool was closed (due to weather), we played some ping-pong, started a puzzle, ate ice cream, and watched part of "Monkey Trouble."

8/5/22 FRIDAY

While in New Hampshire, we spent a lot of time in the different parts of the White Mountains.

Franconia Notch State Park - Lincoln, NH
We hiked to The Basin and a few other waterfalls and then had a picnic lunch by the parking lot.

Then we hiked up to Bald Mountain.

Back at the condo, most of us swam and enjoyed the hot tub while one of us hung back and rested. Sonya and I finished watching the movie and worked on the puzzle a little more. We ordered pizza from GH Pizza in town. Yum!

After dinner, Sonya, Tim, and I drove out to Elbow Pond. It wasn't quite what we had been thinking it would be so we started driving towards Beaver Pond and found an overlook on the way that had some amazing views. So we stopped and took some photos and then headed to Beaver Pond.

Elbow Pond - Woodstock, NH

The Overlook

Beaver Pond - North Woodstock, NH

We watched part of one of the "Harry Potter" movies that was on TV and then went to bed.

8/6/22 SATURDAY

Crawford Notch State Park - between Bretton Woods & Bartlett, NH
We hiked in a different part of the White Mountains in Crawford Notch State Park. The hike to Arathusa Falls was only 1.4 miles, but took us a good hour or more to get there. It was pretty rocky and steep. The view of the falls was worth the sweaty trek. Some of us took off our socks and shoes to cool off in the water.

The hike back to our car was much nicer -- mostly all down hill and not as hot. We still got ice cream at the depot though.

As we headed out of the park, we drove on Mt. Clinton Road towards Mt. Washington. It's the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288ft. You can actually drive up, hike/bike up, or take a shuttle. We just chose to admire it from a distance.

Back in Franconia Notch State Park, we did a short hike to Lower Georgiana Falls while Caleb chilled/slept in the car. There wasn't a whole lot of water flowing through this one and the girls were tired so we turned around instead of checking out the falls further along the trail.

Then we returned to the condo to rest. That morning hike took a lot out of us. For dinner, our plans were to check out the Imperial Palace for Chinese food, but when we arrived, there were no cars in the parking lot and it was closed despite what Facebook and their website said.

Meanwhile, it had been raining so there was this gorgeous rainbow in the sky. (I would've taken a photo of it with the mountains in the background, but we were driving....so I took one from the parking lot instead). The funny thing is we left to go find another place to eat and ended up turning around to return to Merland's, the restaurant pictured. I guess the rainbow was a sign! haha!