Hubby's Great Adventure

I know that Hubby is not too fond of heights.  So it was kind of a joke when I sent him a link to Alpine Adventures saying, "Hey, let's do this on our vacation!"    He looked at the link and saw this:

He didn't think that looked too bad, so he said yes.  I don't think he realized it was a zip-line adventure.

When we got to the place, they got us all set up with our gear, then got us into a van:

We went a couple of exits down the highway until we got to their base camp and got into a Panzer Tank for our wild and crazy ride up and down dirt roads to the beginning of the zip-line course.

Our guide's name was Josh, and he was insane!  He was having a blast scaring the heck out of us as he drove like a maniac on the dirt roads, saying things like, "I can't believe they let me drive this thing!"

We finally got to the zip-line course and after a very quick lesson, they started sending us down the zip-lines.  Josh once again made the whole thing a lot of fun with his antics.....ie....yelling "oh wait!" just as one of the girls stepped off the platform.  

You were able to "steer" the zip-line.....basically turning the handle to try and keep yourself facing forward.  Hubby said he spent every trip down the zip-line doing a 360!

There was one tree-house

The last zip-line was a free-fall trust drop stepping backwards off the platform!   At the end, they had to wheel out a big ladder to get us down off the line.

We both made it back in one piece!  Huge kudos to Hubby for going along with my craziness.   He did a fantastic job for someone who's not too fond of heights....or scary adventures!

The Kancamagus

Our plan was to spend the whole day cruising the Kancamagus Highway and stopping to hike whenever we found something we liked.

We had just passed a sign saying "Moose Crossing - next 2 miles" and we saw a moose crossing!  

After driving in to a couple of parking areas, only to see the hiking sign say something like "4.7 miles"  - that's ONE WAY! - we finally stopped at one of my favorite places:

There's a really nice pathway that goes about 1/2 mile into the woods along a small river.   It was such a gorgeous day!

Of course, the main attraction is the falls.  There's a long wooden walkway to the top and a bridge to cross to get to the head of the falls.

A beautiful pool at the top invited me to take off my shoes and dip my toes.  Brrrr!

Hubby fits right in.

We continued down the Highway, stopping at some beautiful spots and scenic overlooks.

We did a little more hiking in Rocky Gorge before we stopped at another favorite location - The Lower Falls

Hubby's naptime

Off go the shoes again

A little rock-climbing

And finally into the very, very cold water!

When turned around at this point and drove all the way back across to Lincoln to our hotel where we swam and went in the hot tub. We dined at the Common Man that night - once again a delicious dinner!

Woodward's Resort

Working for AAA gives me so many opportunities to find new places to go and things to do.   Lincoln NH is a place I've been many times before, but always on a day-trip.   Investigating places to stay for a customer is how I found Woodward's Resort, which in turn determined our destination for our spring getaway.

Woodward's is the type of place that reminds me of the old-fashioned type of resort from Dirty Dancing.   There are four or five buildings with every type of room.  The only thing I didn't like about the place was that it is "motel" style with the doors leading to the outside. Other than that the place was a lot of fun.

We had a very clean room - very ordinary - with a nice deck overlooking the pool.

It was very relaxing to sit outside with a cup of tea and something to read.  The place was pretty empty since we were there before the season started.

The best thing about staying in a "resort" is the extra-curricular activities.    Tag and I played shuffleboard the first night....not just an old person's sport!

They had a very nice indoor pool, which we used both nights.  The room was nicely lit with knotty pine wood walls and ceiling.   It was connected to a fantastic hot tub with jacuzzi jets.   Hubby was instantly in love with it and promised to build me one!

The second night we decided to try out the horseshoe pits.   We started out playing with the regular rules, but quickly realized it would take us about a week to get to 21!  So we changed the rules so we got a point just for getting it into the square pit!  We did, however, each get one ringer! 

Usually my other criteria is that a place has to offer a free breakfast.  This place did not, but that just gave us an excuse to try out a breakfast place in town.   My daughter-in-law recommended "Flapjacks", which was excellent!   Hubby says the blueberry pancakes were the best he'd ever had.

The Flume Gorge

For our June vacation this year, I took the whole week off but Hubby has less vacation time than I do, so he only took three days.  Unfortunately for me, the first two days it rained......and not just rained but poured!!  Thankfully the weatherman was right and the next three days were stunningly gorgeous.  Bright blue skies and 70 degrees....perfect for our trip "up north".

We began our vacation with a stop at the Tilt'n Diner.  I've always wanted to go there, and this was our opportunity.  It's an old-fashioned restored diner from the 50's.

They did add an addition onto the back of it, but we got to sit in the dining car part of it.

They also have an old-fashioned counter.

 And the food was delicious!!

From there we went directly to the Flume Gorge.   The last time Hubby and I were there was in 2002.  It was the first year we were going out together, and I took him there for his birthday in October.  On that occasion it snowed!  Luckily for us, we had phenomenal weather for our hike to the Gorge.

Before you even get to the Gorge there's a covered bridge.

Table Rock

The beginning of the Gorge Walkway

Up the Stairs and through the Gorge

Of course, pictures don't do it justice.  After the Gorge there's lots of nice hiking through the woods.

Another covered bridge.....this one's a bit older!

The "Wolf's Den" -  A very narrow cave you can crawl through.  We chose not to crawl!

I had to take this photo as a re-creation ......

of this famous picture of my kids!

You can't go to the Flume without driving up the road to The Basin.  Again, pictures don't do it justice, but this is a perfectly round bowl of water created from years of water pounding into the rocks.

We had a fantastically gorgeous day at the Gorge and were happy to make our way to our Inn for some relaxation.