The Salad Days

Vacation 2012 – North Sugarloaf

I climbed up North Sugarloaf - at the northern end of Crawford Notch - while we were up north this year. On the way up, I looked around for the old, open-pit mine up there. I had brought along a brick hammer, and managed to find some nice samples of both white and smoky quartz, as well as a couple of nice pieces of feldspar. Pretty fun! I also found somewhat down the hill a ways off the trail a big chunk of solid white quartz as big as my torso! It would have been awesome to bring that thing home to put in the garden, but it easily weighed a few hundred pounds - so not likely to fit in my backpack. :)

Vacation 2012 – Echo Lake

This year we went to Echo Lake a couple of times (first year we've tried it), and really enjoyed it. The scenery is intense, with that giant cliff face right behind the lake. The water wasn't very cold at all, either. I kept letting Sean stand on my shoulders, then I would crouch and stand up quickly, and he would try to jump off at the peak of my push. It was sending him really high into the air sometimes - I'd swear he was at least 6 feet off of the water on a few of best ones!

Vacation 2012 – Red Bench Overlook

Last week we took a short hike up in Crawford Notch, to something called the Red Bench Overlook. Which it turns out really is a Red Bench, and it really does overlook something. Mount Washington to be precise. At this point in our vacation the kids were getting a little tired of getting the camera pointed at them, so we all just started making goofy faces.

Vacation 2012 – Santa’s Village

Dad, Tracy and Ryan joined us for our trip to Santa's Village while we were on vacation. We got a great day for it - not too hot, not too cold, clear skies, and the park was half-empty.

Vacation 2012 – Saco River

While on vacation, we spent a day down at the Saco River. The water was too cold for the grown-ups to swim, but the kids had a lot of fun. Sean and I built a knee-high wall out of river rocks before he got too cold and was ready to go.

Vacation 2012 – Windy

Here's another one from up on Black Cap. I just like the way the wind is blowing her hair around. It was nice and windy on the summit that day, which kept us cool and kept away all the bugs. As an added bonus, the summit was covered with wild blueberries!

Vacation 2012 – Black Cap

While on vacation last week, we all (dog included) climbed up Black Cap. We have so few photos with all of us in the picture (usually it's Lori or I taking the shot), that we tried to capture one while up there. You can barely tell where we are, but I still think it came out sort of fun.