Grafton Notch & Height of Land

Making the most of our limited weekend days off Kate, Wesley, & I headed out Saturday the 1st of June for a day trip drive up through Grafton Notch and back down through Height of Land.  The route we took from home lead us through Monmouth and Leeds up to Rumford.  Once in Rumford we took route 2 until turning off on route 26 in Newry.

We stopped at the Puzzle Mountain Bakery to grab a couple sweet treats.  It's a roadside self service bakery stand that uses the honor system for payment.  Kate got a strawberry rhubarb pie that she said was delicious and I got a couple of there maple cream cookies. I've gotten them before and they are amazing! two maple cookies with this outstanding maple cream in the middle. They are only $1.50 which is a steal.

We had experiences some periods of rain, nothing major, on the drive and by the time we entered Grafton Notch State Park it had ended.  We decided to stop at Screw Auger Falls because there was only a couple vehicles there.

I'm glad we did because water was flowing well and Wesley really thought the waterfalls were really cool.  I like that you can walk down on the rocks with the water flowing right by you.  I managed to grab a few cool photos.

Continuing north we eventually crossed over into New Hampshire.  We stopped at the Errol General Store which opened 135 years ago.  Kate and I order sandwiches from the deli and they were tremendous.

You take a slip and check off what you want writing you name at the bottom of it.  They slice all the meats and cheeses in house.  I got turkey, provolone, mayo, tomatoes, pickles, and salt & pepper.  Kate got ham & cheese with all the veggies and this hot pepper jam mix that she thought was fantastic!

We went across the street to the school and ate out sandwiches on a bench while Wesley played.  He had been asking for chocolate & vanilla twist ice cream basically since we left the house so after we finished our lunch we drove down to LL Cotes and I was able to get him a kiddie cone with Gifford's hard serve chocolate & vanilla.  I also got Canaan a glass bottle of LL Cote soda.  The flavor was Yup, think 7up.

We've never gotten Wesley hard serve ice cream on a cone before and he's not fond of change so I wasn't sure how he'd react to it. This seemed to satisfy him and he excitedly powered down the ice cream like it was nothing.

We continued north now on Route 16 to head back into Maine.  On the way we drove through Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge.  We came around a bend and there on the shoulder of the road was good sized moose!  We were very excited because in all our trips we'd only seen a moose once before and we drive in the mountains and north country a lot.

I slowed right down but it went into the woods and we got to see it trot through the trees parallel to the road. It was super cool!

We crossed into Maine and a few miles in we came over a pass ahead of us in our lane was yet another moose!  This time we were able to see it really well as it crossed the road and we got a nice broadside look at it.  I tried to get some good pictures but they came out the way they came out.  Pretty cool seeing two moose in the same day not to far apart.

We made a pit stop in Rangeley were they had an even better playground for Wesley.  I had wanted to grab a drink and at first we weren't going to stop, but then Wesley asked for just 10 minutes on the playground.  Half hour later we were back in the van.

We took route 17 south to Height of Land, we hadn't been here in about four years.  It's a wonderful scenic overlook for information signs telling you about the area.  The Appalachian trail runs along here as well and they a really nice marker for it.

In Byron we stopped at Coos Canyon but the bugs were horrific so we quickly left.  We went back into Rumford and took the same route back home.  Kate's mom message that she was having chicken divan for supper and if we wanted to come over.  Of course we did!

It was a great day trip covering just over 230 miles total.  We got a few great sweet treats, some killer sandwiches, saw two waterfalls, two moose, and a wicked nice scenic overlook.  I'm hoping to be able to get in several day trips this summer, unlike last summer when we weren't able to because of my work.

Winter in the White Mountains

In 2018 a variety of incidents prevented us from going on many day trips starting with my medical issues in the Spring to my work being overburdened with overtime since they closed the Gray center and merged it with Augusta.  Yes we were able to go on our camping trip with the kids and our Atlantic Canada vacation in September but no day trips into the White Mountains.
 

In December I asked Kate if she would like to try to get away for a night in January, overtime was letting up (two people put in their notice while we were away) and with me being at work so much Kate was running the household by herself.  We both needed this!  So I booked us a cabin at Pemi Cabins in Lincoln, New Hampshire and before we knew it the day had arrived.

Thursday, January 31st, after dropping of the kids where they needed to go, Kate and I hit the road for our overnight adventure.  The sun was shining and the sky was clear both days so it made for nice driving and we did a lot of driving.  Stopping first at Bova's in the North End of Boston we got stuck in a bit of construction traffic heading into the city.  It only hung us up for about 15 minutes, but it was a bit annoying.

I dropped Kate off so she could go in and procure the cannolis which were magnificent.  I drove around the the one way streets making two laps before Kate was ready to be picked up.  We headed straight back out of town going north back to New Hampshire.  Yes we drive to Boston to buy cannolis and we will do it again.

Next stop was in Dover at Le Festa Pizza.  We were both excited because heading North on 95 in New Hampshire when the road splits to either take exit 4 to the White Mountains on the left or stay the course to Maine on the right, we've always went right, it was excited to go left.

La Festa was tremendous!  We each got a slice and garlic knots, first time we've been not for Mother's Day too.  We next drove to Weir's Beach to play some games at Fun Stop!  I wasn't sure how Kate was going to take wanted to stop at the World's Largest Arcade but I knew they had tickets games and that's like a a gambling addict at a Casino for her.

A $20 bill gets you 125 tokens, most games take 1 token, pinball 2 tokens, and some up to 4 tokens.  Kate's "drug" of choice is the cyclone game.  You drop a token in and a light spins around, the object is to stop the light on the Jackpot, which starts out with 100 tickets and climbs by one ticket for each token played.  If you don't land on the jackpot then the spots around it awards tickets from 10 and decreasing for each step further away from the Jackpot that you are.

I don't know how many times she hit the jackpot, but her haul of tickets was over 2,500!  I know it's crazy but she is just so good at this game.  Called Wheel of Fortune other places this is the sixth or seventh arcade we've been to that she has played this game and made a killing on tickets.

I myself played a whole bunch of pinball!  I even played Hercules the world's largest pinball machine that uses a lacrosse ball for the pinball.  I also dropped some tokens into some classic arcade games like Pac Man, Double Dragon, and Tag Team Wrestling to name a few.

I played my share of tickets games including not hitting the jackpot on cyclone and doing fairly well on skeeball.  After over three hours of gaming fun we decided to cash in the tickets and we got some cool swag.  It was funny because Kate carried around the big bunch of tickets for quite a while because it looked impressive, it really did.

We drove to the Pemi Cabins located on the Pemigewasset River in Lincoln, New Hampshire and got check in.  They had gotten over a foot of snow in the area just two days prior so the snowbanks were impressive, it was also bitterly cold in the low single digits dropping below zero when the sun fell.
  

I had booked cabin number 5 based on the photos and we were not disappointed.  The inside was small but had everything we needed with a queen bed, fireplace, tv, mini fridge, and bathroom.  I bought two bundles of wood and Kate didn't waste anytime starting a fire.  We relaxed and enjoyed it for a couple hours before heading to dinner.

We drove down to Woodstock and to eat at the Black Mountain Burger Company.  We had eaten here a couple years ago for Father's Day so we knew it would be good.  It was pretty darn busy for a Thursday night but we got seated without a wait.

We got an appetizer of mac & cheese bits, which is a breaded deep fried ball of macaroni and cheese, yes it was amazing.  We both got burgers and they were fantastic!  They hand cut fries were splendid and while Kate had some hot tea, I got myself a beer, a rare occurrence for sure but when I saw they had something called Great North Robust Vanilla Porter on draft I had to try it.  It was smooth and worth it.  We both left very pleased.

Back at the cabin Kate got the fire roaring again which heated the place up making it nice and cozy.  The cabin also had a screened in porch that overlooked the river and we could hear it roaring by all night, it was quite soothing.  Turning the TV on we found that The Breakfast Club was playing on AMC and out night was set.  

The bed was actually very comfortable and, it must of been because we slept for almost nine hours.  It was chilly minus two degrees when we started the day and even though there is a heater in the room, it was a bit too cold for it.  

Checking out we headed just up the road to Indian Head Resort because I wanted to take a picture of this landmark sign which is self explanatory.

Next stop was Polly's Pancake Parlor in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire!  I love this place, it has the finest pancakes around without question.  It was our first time eating here since they demolished and rebuilt the dining room.  They managed to keep the charm of the old place but now they are open all year round instead of just seasonally.

I'm not a hot drink type of guy but they had something on the menu called a Maple Steamer which is steamed milk with maple syrup, I had to try it.  The first sip was scalding and being a hot drink rookie I just forced it down and that was a mistake.  Once it was cooled it was tremendously delicious!

Kate got Kathie's Combo, 3 pancakes, buckwheat, two eggs and bacon and I got Polly's Sampler Combo, 6 pancakes with sausage and I got a side of bacon as well.  For my pancakes I got two oatmeal buttermilk, two buckwheat, and two gingerbread with pecans mixed in, all amazing but the gingerbread with pecans was the best on this day.

We went over the hill to Harman's to pick up some of the best cheddar cheese there is.  Sincerely they do make the best cheese.  I got there two and half year old really aged cheddar, a two pound block for only $16.

We took the Kancamangus highway home, which was the plan of the trip to begin with to traverse the road in the winter.  It was beautiful drive and the road was quite sketchy at times but in the end it was uneventful for us, we did see one vehicle that of off the road but they had help on hand.
 

We have been to the White Mountains many times in the past but never before in the Winter so it was nice to see it in a different way.  Round trip we drove 482 miles. 

Later Readers!