New Hampshire

Time to hit the snow. Off to New Hampshire we go. 

This last adventure is going to be a biggie. We are heading 3.5 hours north to an place called Brettenwood Ski Resort. 

We have hired a huge chalet to accommodate us all and so we packed our cars and headed off. 

Amongst the 3 toilet stops enforced by BOTH Tracy and Dylan, was a top at a loval liquor outlet after we crossed into New Hampshire. 

Oh my Lordy Lord. 

I was in alcoholics heaven here. The price of booze was ridiculous. A 1.75 litre bottle of my favourite Bacardi was only US$20. That’s about $29 AU..... so I had to do the right thing and grab one. As it was only a 4 day trip, I controlled my urges and stuck with just the one bottle. 

We eventually made it to our humble lodgings and the place was amazing. Split over 3 levels, surrounded by snow and icy roads, we were going to be in the perfect spot. 

Right on cue after the sun set, the snow started and fell and fell and fell 

The sight of snow covered trees and cars and roads and hills as we woke up was truly an experience that we will never forget. Especially those of us that have never seen snow before!

After a quick breakfast, we got our gear on and headed out to the ski fields which were about 3 minutes drive away. 

It was at this moment I realised having a front wheel drive vehicle isn’t the best option for snow covered roads. I managed to make it to the top of the driveway, but made the silly mistake of stopping at the top to check for oncoming traffic. No more going forward and for a moment, no more going backwards. I did finally manage to get back down the short driveway and tried again. This time, just like Thomas the Tank Engine, we made it “right over the top of the hill”. 

We navigated our way through the maze of hiring ski boots, skis and helmets, found a table amongst the chaos of thousands of other people and hit the slopes. 

We were super lucky that Jay is a very advanced skier and has offered to spend his morning training the kids and getting them on the slopes. It took all of about 30 minutes for the two boys to “get it” and a little bit longer for Kayla to get over the “I can’t get back up the hill” issue she was experiencing. 

Then there was no stopping them. A few falls as expected coming down the first couple of times, and then it was on. 

Despite the blustery weather and continuous sleet falling throughout the day, it was a great day. 

We had a great night relaxing in our accommodation, drinking, eating, playing some games, drinking some more, and scanning through 180 pay tv channels to find nothing worth watching. 

Day 2 was much the same, but with vastly improved weather. 

The kids were Pro’s now and trying different courses, weaving in and out of flags and towards the end of the afternoon  coming up over a small jump. 

Tonight was New Years Eve. 

We headed back from the Ski Lodge to our accommodation and set ourselves for a night in. 

Tracy, Dylan and Kayla spent the afternoon outside making what turned out to be a perfect snowman. Jen had what only Jen could have, and that was a “snowman outfit” kit to ensure he was nothing less than perfect. 

We did our best to stay awake until 12:01 to greet 2020 and then all crashed, ready for a much more relaxing day tomorrow. 

After the hectic previous days, today was much more relaxed. 

After snowing again overnight, it was broken blue skies today and the ground had a beautiful layer of snow for us to walk on and explore the area. 

We also went to visit the amazing Mount Washington hotel to see what our budget could never afford. 

Tomorrow we go home. We have a few more jam packed days and nights before this amazing dream holiday is over. 

Tubing

Christmas has been and gone, and we are in search of our next USA adventure. 

Today we decided to go tubing. 

We all bundled into our hired minivan and set off down the wrong side of the road again 

It was just less than an hour and a half North of Warwick where we are staying  and was the first real sign of snow since that original fall experienced on our first night. 

We donned all of our newly purchased gear, paid our fees and grabbed a tube each. 

As simple as this concept was, it was a great fun experience. 

We had a 2 hour time limit to get up and down the hill as many times as we could, and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. 

Jen’s love of  the cold became quite obvious today, however she also had a great time despite not being able to feel her hands! 

On Saturday, we made the drive out to Jen’s home town and visited her Aunt Aura. 

Aunt Aura is 98 years old, still living independently in her own house, and looks like she could still run a marathon. 

We were greeted with some freshly baked cookies, a pot of coffee and had an hour or so catching up, along with a few other friends that knew Tracy from her American days in the early 90’s. 

We then went driving around the local area where Tracy showed us where she used to work at the local hospital, and some of the other shops and areas that she remembered. 

This afternoon, Tracy and I bundled the kids back into the car and headed off to the local beach - as you do when it is 6 degrees outside. 

The boys grabbed their ball, put their shorts on (- as you do when it is 6 degrees outside) and off we went. This particular beach is only about 15 minutes drive away and is one of the fee freely accessible beaches in the area. Many beaches can only be accessed by paying, and even those you must be a local resident. 

Whilst this was no South Australian sandy beach, it was beautiful and was a welcome sight for us to spend an hour exploring. 

Christmas Day

The weather is near perfect. It is Christmas Eve and the girls have taken off to get their manicure & pedicure done, leaving the rest of us behind. Dylan, Tyler and myself ended up throwing a Lacrosse ball on the street in our T-Shirts and enjoying the sunshine and the warm 11 degree weather. 

In the afternoon once the girls had returned, we made a quick trip to Walmart. Mainly to see if we could spot some of the weirdos we always see on Facebook, but also to see if we could find some ski pants for us all. 

Unfortunately, the only weirdo we saw was our own son. 

Christmas Eve arrived, the cook-up began and so did the shenanigans. 

First up was a Brady Bunch style family photo. 

Can’t wait to get this printed onto a 1m x 1m framed canvas at home 😎

Jen somehow convinced us all to wear our early present of our Christmas pyjamas. It is apparently a tradition in their house that we are all to wear the same pyjamas all evening and all day tomorrow. When in America, do as Americans do (even you Tyler). 

The night progressed, dinner was served, pyjamas remained on and the drinks flowed. It was a great evening and many laughs were had with the Cicerone family. 

Father Christmas managed to find us ok despite being on the other side of the world, and we were all truly spoilt with the generosity of Jen and family. 

The entire morning was spent laughing and carrying on in our  pyjamas, eating and watching Christmas movies. 

Why is it that when there is so much food and nibbles around that we feel compelled to try a bit of everything ( and sometimes a bit more of everything)???

They day ended and we were bursting out of our pyjamas - which I can promise you is a sight that you don’t want to, nor will be seeing. 

Happy Holidays every one (That’s American for Merry Christmas)

Jamestown and Newport

Another beautiful winters day with a maximum forecast of 6 degrees meant another perfect opportunity to go to the beach. 

This time we headed back to an area that Jen took Tracy and myself when we last visited in 2003, called Conanicut Island in Jamestown. 

It was not a sandy beach like we are blessed with in South Australia, rather it was bordered with some massive rocky ledges and looked to be the envy of any fisherman who comes from a land of sandy beaches. 

We spent close to an hour here clambering over the rocks, testing whether the ice pools were frozen enough to hold our weight and generally just enjoying the scenery. 

We then headed into Newport which was a further 15 minutes away and was a quaint little town that reminded us of a much busier Goolwa from back home. 

We agreed to head into a favourite eating place called The Brick Alley pub for an early lunch. 

This had traditional pub burgers and similar meals that we all ordered and devoured. 

The pub itself was decked out with a huge range of motoring artefacts. I never got an answer as to what the significance was, but it made for a very interesting experience. 

We realised just how smart it was to go in for a pre 12:00 lunch once we had finished. The place was now jam packed with people lined up and waiting for up to half an hour for a table for lunch. 

Not bad for a Monday that is not even a public holiday or traditional annual leave day here. 

The next few hours was spent exploring all the local shops, searching for public restrooms and just wandering around as though we were tourists. 

We then headed down Ocean Drive which is a very well known road otherwise known as Millionaires Mansions road. These houses and properties were ginormous. 

Starting price is somewhere around the $5million mark. I only have $4.999 million to go. 

From the Italian connection to the beach

After 2 very well deserved lazy 2 days where we hardly got up off the couch and just “caught up”

We didn’t realise just how much we all needed this after the last 12 non stop days. 

With cooking, drinking, laughing and reminiscing from 13 years ago, the days passed quickly and gave us time to recover 

Saturday arrived and we all bundled into our cars and headed to Federal Hill. This is one of Jen’s special places and has lots of Italian shops, eateries and other cultural experiences. 

We looked around a bit, stopped for lunch at a pizza place, and looked around some more. 

There was ice still everywhere from the recent snow, which kept the kids entertained as we wandered the streets. 

The following day, Tracy and myself bundled into the car and went visiting the port of Providence whilst the kids stayed behind with Jen and Jay. We went for a walk through the town, then down the back streets to the waters edge where we were lucky enough to see an eagle devouring what looked to be a squirrel it had caught.  

There were some huge mansions along the waters edge, some of which looked like they had been converted into multiple dwellings, whilst others seemed to be still sole occupied residences. 

One of the strangest things we have discovered throughout America - and especially back in NY, is that there are NO public restrooms (toilets for us Aussies). It is the weirdest thing for so many people to not have access to basic amenities. Many of the cafes, Starbucks etc have them, but either can only be accessed by a code on your receipt after buying something, or have a security guard stopping you using them if you haven’t bought something from the store. 

This little seaside was no different, and despite pretending we were shopping in various stores, there was not a restroom to be found - not even at the fuel station where I did fill up the car. 

So we raced back home, did our business, had lunch with the kids, then went back out again to a local beach only 15-20 minutes up the road. 

It is kind of weird seeing a beach with great big areas of ice on the sand and rocks, however this simply gave the kids an extra bit of fun seeing as their boring parents wouldn’t let them go into the sea (something to do with the 2 degree air temperature, no towel or bathers and a bit of common sense).

 

We found some public toilets but this time they were locked. We later found out this is because during winter the water pipes freeze and burst and the patronage is low, so the council just locks them. 

To avoid any embarrassment, we chose to frequent one of the local cafes and buy ourselves a bag of donuts and use their amenities as part of the price. Worth every cent I say. 

This evening then became the night we all decorated our own stocking ready for Christmas morning. This was simply using a range of glitter glue in a bottle from the dollar shop and squeezing out whatever came to mind and was within our non-arty ability. This is far from any activity we would normally choose to do ourselves, however with the strong American influence from Jen, we found it to be a really fun time together as a family, albeit a little competitive between whose looked the best. Not sure how that argument started as mine was always going to win 😎.