That Tricky Appalachian Trail

So..Cindy already put up a post about our Appalachian trail experiences, but I would like to do one too. So first of all, You need to know that one of the primary reasons Cindy and I went to New England was to do some day hiking on the Appalachian trail. I had always thought it would be a neat thing to do.
First of all here are some don'ts for the Appalachian Trail:
1. Don't think you can just follow the obvious trail. There always seems to be a Big trail in the area that is NOT the Applachian Trail.
2. Don't think that you can get away with regular "tennis" shoes (there is this wet stuff called mud that shows up with great regularity along the way).

Do look UP at trees for the white rectangular blazes that mark the trail. (Who knew?)
So here are Cindy and I at the Appalachian trail sign to commemorate this memorable occasion.

So as we start walking, we are so excited to be here. We are enjoying all the leaves underfoot. Although I did wonder aloud to Cindy how come there were so many less leaves on the trail than next to it. In some places there were almost no leaves at all. Does somebody come along with a leaf blower? Who knows. Anyway, I was amazed to notice apples on the trail as I was walking! This is certainly not something that I would ever see in Arizona, unless it was some careless persons discarded apple core. There were a couple of apparently wild apple trees that were dropping fruit at different places along the trail. How fun!

The farther we went, it started looking more like a road. I was thinking we were pretty lucky that it was so easy to follow. And it was nice to be able to walk along side Cindy instead of behind her, which is my usual place. And it was certainly lovely! But we weren't seeing the things the guide book said we were supposed to see. We began to get a little suspicious.
Here was a minature stop sign on our trail. Cindy is standing right next to it, it wasn't in the back ground. It was kind of cute. I figured it was minature for hikers. Who ever saw a stop sign for hikers before!

The trees were gorgeous though. After about a couple of miles in, we finally ran into a nice man and his dog. He told us we were way off from the Appalachian Trail. We felt pretty silly and disappointed, but enjoyed our walk anyway.

We got quite a laugh at our B and B the next morning telling them how silly we had been! They all knew that we were supposed to hike the trail and had asked us how it went.

So the next day we were all ready to try again. This time in Vermont. (The first time was in New Hampshire)


Here is the sign, so we know we were in the right place.

And here is another, sign as we started so we were absolutely sure we were on the right path! Plus the book described the suspension bridge we would cross. We certainly couldn't miss that!
Here I am on the suspension bridge, so we knew we were in the right spot. It was cold when we started, so I am all bundeled up. Not too much later, I had shed all of the outer layers and was carrying them.
So we head off on the big path again. Before long, it turns into a road and then dead ends. We knew we had some how goofed it up again. Could we be any dumber about this?

When we got back to the bridge area, we saw some "real" hikers (back packs, poles, etc). We asked them about the trail. The one guy thought we were really dumb, and pointed out the white blazes that were painted on the trees. We felt really dumb. So we DID hike on the Appalachian Trail, just not very far. It was still beautiful and we still had a great time.

When we got to the parking lot, we saw this adorable girl. She was a "Through Hiker", going the entire distance from Main to Georgia, 2025 miles!!!! Notice how differently she is equipped than we were! I was concerned about her safety. She said she checked in with her folks daily and had a GPS device with her so they could track her. How interesting it was to talk to her though!

So at least we have a funny story to tell! What else is a trip for than to acquire funny stories to entertain others!

Ferry Point House

Well! Cynthia and I just got back from a glorious trip to New England for the fall and hiking. There will be many posts to follow. First, I want to thank Dave and the kids for loaning Cindy to me for the week!
The one place that we were in the longest was our B and B, Ferry Point House in New Hampshire. I had stayed there about 20 years before with my friend Michelle. It was the highlight of the places we stayed then and they are still a wonderful place.
Cindy and I stayed there 3 nights. This plate of hot spiced apple cider and fresh baked cookies on the front porch is how they welcomed us! We had been at the King Arthur Baking Center during the day and arrived with bags full of fresh baked flat breads. We stopped at a grocery store and got fruit, cheese and chicken salad. We had a wonderful picnic supper on the 60ft. front porch. Ferry Point House used to belong to the Pillsbury family. The family who owns it now has done very extensive restoration work. It is both beautiful and comfortable.

This is on our way to Ferry Point House. We had not had anyone take a photo of us together yet. We finally asked some poor lady who was eating her ice cream cone. She was willing to leave it to take this for us! These gazebos were in most of the public squares of any small town we went through.





This is a photo I took out of our bedroom window at dawn one morning. Ferry Point house is located right on Winnisquam lake. They have a little point with their own beach, gazebo and adirondack chairs.







This is slightly later and you can appreciate the beautiful red tree.

Here is a photo of the fabulous porch.

This is where we had dinner and the view we enjoyed.

Here is the house the upper right hand window is open. That is right next to my bed and I kept it open as much as possible!


Here is the gazebo at the lake and some of the chairs.

Cindy and I at the Flume. We found someone else to take a photo of us together.



Here is the dining room where they served us breakfast. We met several really nice people. One lady who lived in LA, grew up right where we live and attended Camelback HS and Rose Lane Elementary! We also met a couple from Mesa. We met two young couples, one from Ireland and one from Austrailia. The Australian couple had been in South Africa and were on their way to South America. This was just a stop on their way! They were on a 5 month trip! Talk about being jealous!

Here is an example of some of the food they served. There was always a plate of sweet breads. They had a fruit course and a main course.

This is the mantle place in the breakfast room.






The frittata they served one day.

A view across the lake of some of the lovely trees.

Full moon rise on Lake Winnisquam.

Musical Trivia

I love my ipod, as many of you know. And one of the things I really like about that is all the different ways there is to listen to your music. Amy, who sometimes travel with me for work, says that is one of the things she loves about traveling with me.
1. First, there is this Genius setting on itunes. You can turn on the genius setting, click on a track in your music and tell it to create a playlist. It makes up a play list out of the music in your collection. So I have several of these Genius created playlists. Amy and I will listen to them and try to figure out why they put those particular songs together. It's kind of funny. Sometimes, it seems obvious, like all vintage rock, that kind of thing. Other times we have no clue. I did it once when my friend Helle was traveling with me for work. Now Helle is a dancer, a major dancer. And so she was looking at it from a whole different viewpoint. She was thinking that maybe it had to do with the rhythmn or beat. I love it when somebody makes me think of something in a different way!
2. Here was a funny way of listening recently: alphabetically. I have a LOT of music on my Ipod. It's funny to see how many songs begin with the same word. Or trying to guess what the next one would be. Amy and I did this on our last trip to Prescott.
3. Then of course, you can listen my genre, artist, album, or just shuffle. I used to listen by shuffle mostly, but I am finding these other ways so interesting! And I end up listening to some of my collection that I might not listen to in another way.
Right now, my Ipod is on the p's. When I left for work this morning it was playing "Please Read the Letter that I wrote" by Roger Plant and Alison Krauss from the Raising Sand Album. A great album by the way.
So, does anyone else have any interesting methods of listening to your music?

Kreativ Blogger Award

Well Joyce! Thank you for this mighty fine award, although I also very sure it is undeserved. I am one of the most UNCREATIVE bloggers there are. But I will comply with the conditions anyway. So thank you! That is number one. I am retarded and don't know how to link the logo to you! I am sorry. (See? I told you I wasn't creative!)
Next: Name 7 things about myself that people might night know...Hmm
It seems like everyone knows everything about me, but I will try.

1. I know only one person who knows this, because I haven't had time to tell anyone yet! I am going to work the overnight shift for the first 3 weeks in October. Not just until midnight, like before, but 6pm to 6am. We'll see if I can still function when it's all overwith!
2. I just started seeing someone. The first someone in about 13 years. So that is definately new! Don't know if it will go anywhere or not, but it's fun and so far so good!!!
3. I have had a black eye 3 times in my life, the first one when I was 6 years old. A victim of a pinata party.
4. A lot of people know this, but I am an earring-a-holic. I have more than most people ever dream of having. I can't imagine how people get by with 2 or 3 pairs of earrings. I have a whole case just with earrings. It is my favorite souvenir to bring back from a trip. I can't beleive I didn't bring any back from the Spam museum, but I didn't see any.( I didn't think about it either).
Gosh this is hard. Everything I think of, I know people already know or I don't want to tell. Hmm
5. I used to like F Troop when I was a kid. I don't know why anyone would care about that, but I am getting desperate.
6. My first kiss was by Jimmy Langley, who lived down the block. He was swimming in our pool with me an he told me to go underwater and close my eyes. It wasn't too excited about the event and I think I was 6 or 7. (It would be interesting to hear about everyone's first kiss! I didn't have another REAL one until I was in my 30's for pete sake. I seem to have a lot of LONG dry spells in this area).
7. My first crush was on a boy named Jody in first grade. I don't remember ever speaking to him or even knowing much of anything about him! I guess I just thought he was cute!
There!! Seven! It was painful.
Ok now I am supposed to tag seven other bloggers to do the same thing.

Cynthia at Party of Six
Cathy at My Own Opinion
Lezlee at Bandanamom
Michelle at The Dahl Family
Janet at Janet in MN
Emily at Jenkins Family Antics
Lindsey at Nuclear Family Meltdown

I'm looking forward to seeing your Creative posts ladies!

Scenic Minnesota photos

This is actually on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi river. Kelly drove across this bridge so that I could say I had been in Wisconsin!
We thought this guy fishing was a nice photo op.
And here is the bridge.

This is me in Wisconsin.

And this bridge with the lovely blue lighting is the new bridge that replaced the one that collapsed. Remember THAT bridge? Well Kelly drove across it and hour before it collapsed. Scary, huh?

The new bridge is a lovely and romantic site at night.


And you can't see this very well, but this was a really interestingly designed building, the Guthrie theatre. I'll have to get another photo sometime during the day.

The Spam Museum

In Austin, Minnesota, across the street from the Hormel plant, is the Spam Museum! Who knew? Here is Kelly, in front of the Spam Museum.

And this is a wall of Spam cans with a globe in the middle.

It is mostly an ad for all things Spam, kind of cheesy, but fun. There is lots of singing about Spam by the Spamettes, the Hormel Girls and the Monty Python folks.

The most fun though was the Spam gift shop with the logo on just about anything you could possibly imagine! I got a couple of things to commemorate my visit!

The Arboretum at the University of Minnesota

When I was in Minnesota the last few days, Kelly took me to the Arboretum. There were some beautiful flowers, like these morning glories.

And there were dahlias. And very picturesque farm houses in the distance!

There was a hedge maze and sea monsters in the pond.

A maple tree that was turning beautiful colors a little earlier than the rest.

And some really nice flower beds with lots of play on color and scent.

Look at all the shades of blue and purple in these beds.

It was a huge place, with a lot of naturalistic plantings. I think it would be a really nice place to go for some hikes or walks in. Apparently a lot of people snow shoe and cross country ski there in the winter. I'm not sure I would be up to that, but it was fun and thoughtful of Kelly to take me there.