New Hampshire!

Finally Friday arrived! Justin and I had really pumped ourselves up for our upcoming vacation to go visit (or in my case, meet) his family that lives in New Hampshire. Excited is not strong enough a word. To help you understand, let me remind you of my undying love for fall -- it is unmeasurable. Honestly, if you forgot just read any of my posts and you'll be quickly reminded! So as you can imagine, New Hampshire on the first weekend of October was bound to be beautiful -- let's just say I may have become weak in the knees and swooned for a while. Knowing that this would probably be the case, I was beyond excited to get our road trip going. 

So, Friday, bright and early, with Justin hovering over my shoulder repeatedly telling me what time it was (aka we were supposed to leave five minutes ago!), I quickly tried to blow dry my hair so that we could climb in the car and head to NH. Hair dry, let's go! 

After numerous Dunkin Donuts pit stops, some gas, and a couple chances to let Nizmo (Justin's dog) stretch his legs, we made it to New Hampshire! 

First stop we made was to visit Justin's cousin and best friend, Ashley. I've met Ashley before when we made a trip to Boston so I was happy to see her again too! 

On our way from Ashley's to Justin's mom's house, Justin drove me through his old college town and the parts of New Hampshire where he grew up. It really was so cute to see him light up and make sure I saw everything that used to be part of his life. "Look over here Molly and then look, do you see that? Molly, look that's... Molly, Molly, Molly!" Loved it! 

Finally, we reached our destination. After the long drive it was nice to just sit and relax, chit-chat, and enjoy Wayne and Pat's (Justin's mom and her boyfriend -- our gracious hosts!) beautiful yard. 

Justin got artsy with these pictures of his mom's sunflowers.

That night Justin and I went out for dinner to an amazing restaurant, When Pigs Fly, in Kittery, Maine with Ashley and her boyfriend Michael. The food was so yummy -- I wish I had pictures! 

Saturday was the big day. Saturday was hike day. Oh my gosh, I can't even begin to explain to you how incredible it was. We started the day off (bright and early) with breakfast at a little local diner-ish type place to fuel up for the hike. Then we stopped at this little lake and took a few pictures before we headed up to where we would be hiking. 

  

Elephant's Head is where we started our hike. Mind you, we took our first steps onto the trail between 10:30 and 11:00 am -- keep that in mind when I tell you what time we finished! Anyway, enough talking, just look. The pictures tell it all. 

  

  

 

  

  

   

Justin and I -- we literally have zero pictures together. This one is a good first! 

    

Funny story about the right photo -- Justin, Nizmo, and I came face to face with a wall of rock. Literally a wall of rock. The funny part about that wall of rock is that we needed to climb it. After channeling our spidey-senses, we eventually climbed up half way and then took a break on a level area to wait for Wayne and Pat. After a few minutes we looked behind us and saw Niz sprawled and passed out. This dog was such a champ. I am 99.9% certain he pulled me up the majority of the mountain. He is crazy strong, but boy was he tired. Still today (Wednesday) he was having trouble keeping his eyes open. He had one hell of a vacation too. 

Then we made it to the summit of Webster! My first 4,000 footer! It was incredible (and extremely cold). 

Then began the descent down -- which is ten million times harder and more painful than climbing up. By the time we walked out of the woods it was dark. So remember when I said to keep what time we started in the back of your mind? (Hint: 10:30 am) We all piled into the car at 7:30 pm. That is one long day of hiking -- but worth every single minute. The rest of the night consisted of a delicious salmon dinner made by Justin and a lot of lounging on the couch and an early night called. 

The next day a bunch of Justin's aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. were coming over for lobster and clams. There was so much food and it was all delicious! Justin headed up the lobster cooking -- of course. 

       

Before everyone arrived though Justin and I took a drive up the road to the local apple farm. It's PYO (pick your own) and I wish we had had enough time to pick some, but the ones already in the farm store were going to have to do. The farm was so adorable and had the most incredible apple cider donuts I've ever had. We even went back that day for more but they were all gone. Probably a good thing! 

On the last day, Justin and I spent the day going around and visiting with some family that Justin hadn't gotten the chance to see the day before. Then we headed to the most adorable waterside town called Portsmouth, NH. Mark my words, I will move there. We strolled around, got lunch right next to the water, and visited the most adorable paper store. If you know me you can be sure that we spent a good amount of time in there. We ended the day with a home-cooked dinner by Justin's Aunt Karen (which was absolutely delicious) and quality time hanging out. 

  

This was the view from our table at lunch. The sun came out just long enough for us to be able to eat on the balcony. So perfect! 

  

Monday we had to leave. If I could have stayed, you can bet I would not be sitting in Manhattan right now. On our way home we stopped along the way at a couple farmer's markets and found lots of goodies. Justin and I are suckers for that type of thing. 

FYI -- that amazing table is for sale. It would have been coming home with me if: 

                 1. I didn't live in a closet.

                 2. I had money to spend.

                 3. I hadn't packed in such a suitcase that took up the entire trunk. 

Fail.

  

I could not have had a better time! Thanks New Hampshire and most importantly thank you to Justin's mom, Wayne, and the rest of Justin's family for making our trip so memorable! 

-- xoxo