Bearshorty's musings

Day 4 of New Hampshire trip.

This was really a traveling day since we were on the road for eight hours with all the predicable traffic in Massachusetts and Connecticut. That I-91- I-95 change is always trafficy and annoying.

In the morning, Yeva and I had breakfast at hotel again, while Bear went on the elliptical since he hates sitting in one place for so many hours driving without some sort of exercise. Then I was packing up the kitchen. I went to the hotel again to ask to carry out containers to pack up the leftovers from our dinner to take home. Yeva, Marianna and Adama left around 10:30, since they also wanted to stop by a few outlet stores to shop for sneakers etc. I shudder at the thought of shopping. Bear and I left at 11am, right at check out time. I went to check out, since the place was in my name and I would calculate everything from gas to hotel later.

Other than traffic the ride back was good. We stopped a few times on the road, once for Bear to have the lunch he packed in his cooler. (I just had various things like bread and apples and brownies in the car.) One of the rest stops had some farmer market stalls and I bought this really good raw honey and some zucchini. At another stop, just as I wanted to use the restroom a whole bus of tourists pulled up and waiting time for the restroom became ridiculous, so we just drove to the next stop.

We got home at 7pm and had some dinner. We actually had leftovers that I brought back with me. Then Bear stayed a bit longer before going home.

It was a really good trip and a really nice vacation and I wish we had a few more days there.

( True Blood S3E7 )

Day 2 of New Hampshire trip

While everyone else went to the hotel gym this morning, I went to eat the continental breakfast while sitting in restaurant/bar chair facing the fabulous view of the lake. The breakfast was pretty good too with decent bagels and really great apricot cream cheese. And there was a fruit bowl. I read the National Geographic article on Bahamas’ underwater blue holes and enjoyed my morning. Weight rooms are not really my thing, I prefer more natural workouts like the hike we did later in the day. Instead, after breakfast, I explored the property a bit and sat on a nice chair overlooking the lake.

Later, from 10:30 to 1, while the boys were still on their workout and then late breakfast, Yeva, Marianna and I sat on the little private lake beach. It was too cold to swim – at least for me. Marianna swam out to the floating dock to sun tan for a bit. But the sun was shining and the view was great. After 100 degrees heat, almost all summer, it was very nice to be somewhere where the temperature didn’t rise about low 80s and it got chilly at night.

( beach and hotel pictures )

Then, we all got ready to go on our excursion. Bear made me a sandwich (which I ate before we left). We also put some food together to take with us. We took Yeva’s car for about an hour drive to the mountains. Sometimes Yeva would push the speed limit on the high mountain road and I would tell her to slow down. I really prefer the speed limit that high up on curvy roads!

We went to Flume Gorge – which is about two hour hike to the gorge formation with some very nice scenery. I wore jeans and sneakers and it was really proper for the hike and the temperature. I bought some postcards and magnets at the gift store alone with a picture book about New Hampshire. Turns out Marianna and Adama were there many years before on their first trip together, they just forgot. But they were happy to go back. It was a really nice hike, and since I spent most of the summer seating on my behind because of the heat, it was actually a bit more difficult for me at one point than it would normally be. I really ought to exercise more – especially since I know I need the exercise to control my palpitations. The views were gorgeous. At one point there was a little waterfall where you could see a rainbow. There was also Wolf’s den – really a mini-cave for kids to crawl through. Bear and I crawled between the rocks and it was a lot of fun. Just because we’re 30 doesn’t mean we stop being silly!

( Flume Gorge pictures )

I spent most of the hike playing with my new camera and experimenting with settings. I was trying landscape feature, along with automatic and automatic set on daylight. I also tried portrait at one point. I’m still learning this camera.

At 4:30 we were done and we drove through Kancamagus Highway, which is supposed to be one of the prettiest mountain drives. It was very nice. We wanted to get dinner soon, so we didn’t really stop that much passing through it; we just once on a really pretty overlook.

( Kancamagus picture )

We stopped by in North Conway at a restaurant called Moose’s Place that seemed crowded and popular. We initially thought to go to Indian Place but the directions to it were off on the GPS and the people at the restaurant weren’t that helpful about it. So Yeva pulled into this other restaurant that had a gorgeous mountain view on the terrace where we sat. The portions were huge. There was enough to take home for the next day and then some. They had all kinds of meat choices including buffalo meat. I just went with pasta with chicken, though.

The drive home in the dusk took about one hour and I discovered two things. First, Verizon does have much better coverage and AT&T sucks, which is what I already knew really. And Bear’s GPS was able to cut off 10 miles off the route recommended by Yeva’s GPS.

After we got home, we went to the pool/jacuzzi again for about an hour. Marianna and I got adventurous and were to the outside jacuzzi. The air was pretty cold and it was nice to sit in warmth. I’m not usually a jacuzzi person but it was very nice.

Before bed, we had tea in the living room and watched a “Friends” episode on TV. It is such a Russian thing, to just have tea in late evening to relax. Then long shower and sleep. The bed remains super comfy and the moon overhanging the lake is still the great view to have in one’s window.

I went shopping for ingredients for a meal Bear and I will cook in New Hampshire on our trip and I also bought some things for our trip up like pretzels, tomatoes, cucumber, turkey slices. Mama got me some nice Russian bread too.

I made fat-free brownies (apple sauces instead of oil) this morning too, for our trip. It is my little tradition.

Highlander “The Cross of St Antoine” “Rite of Passage” “Courage”

The latter is a really great episode. It is easy to see how an Immortal could just lose himself to fear. And see the hopelessness of a situation. And after that brutal fight, Duncan was crying (I like that male characters on this show are allowed to break down). I don’t care for Anne too much as a love interest – which seems to be the general opinion.

The other episodes were pretty standard. It is nice to see a young Immortal and Duncan’s realization that he shouldn’t teach her.

Jim Byrnes can really sing. I’m not into blues or jazz that much but I always like his stuff on the show. I’m glad TPTB gave Joe those talents as well. I really makes his character that much more interesting than just exposition fairy.

I started “Catherine the Great” book that I got for my birthday. The intro is meh but first chapter is really good, lots of quotes from primary sources. One thing- no genealogy chart anywhere in the book and that Russian tsars and tsaritsas were very tricky – the genealogy is a bit complicated with cousins, half-siblings, wife’s – I really had to look that up. Internet can be a great thing, the research is so easy.

There was a fair at the beach this weekend and we went for a few hours this late morning. It was really hot with little wind, so Mama couldn’t take too much heat. Still, I managed to see every stall. I got myself a blue anclet. I found a funny t-shirt for Bear but they did not have his size, unfortunately. It is a tea-shirt of Stewie with a quote “I’d love to stay and chat but you are a total idiot” It was only $5 there – I found it online later for $18 Arh. No t-shirt for Bear this time. I also bought Italian sausage.

In the afternoon Papa and I watched the World Cup (USA vs Ghana) while I was cross-stitching. I was mostly cross-stitching and looking up when there was excitement in the air. For the first half Americans were asleep. They are not even playing with the ball there, just defending. Second half, they kept the pressure on and did much better. Finally. It was exciting with Donovan landed the penalty shot. I have much respect for Ghana’s goalie who saved so many shots. It’s too bad that we didn’t make it. Second half and overtime was good soccer.

( Doctor Who S5E13 )

( Doctor Who S5E10 )

There was a bit of drama with NH vacation, but it was sorted, I think, because it is really hard to reschedule five people – it was hard enough to find the time in the first place. So no rescheduling.

I spent the morning in Brooklyn before I finally took the bus home after 12:30. I had scrambled egg for breakfast which made me happy. We don’t usually have milk in our house, since we don’t eat cereal and don’t drink milk on regular basis. So I took advantage of staying in a place with milk and made myself a scrambled egg. Mostly, I kept Yeva company while she did her laundry and we began to think about the New Hampshire trip. Yeva had a general guidebook and a atlas so we came up with approximate places we wanted to go to. Mostly we’ll do nature stuff, although Marianna nixed the camping idea. Still there are mountains and waterfalls and nature and a lake so it should be pretty.

The weather is so pretty and warm and the sun is shining. It is a good day.

( Doctor Who S5E1 )

Pacific Episode 4. A look at the psychological toll on the soldiers fighting in non-ending rain and mud and jungle through the eyes of Leckie. This episode passed by really fast and was very well acted. Still enjoying it; it is something different from my regular TV.