Thwarted by Irene

On Thursday afternoon, Kendra and I left school as the bell rang and headed to pick up Addie at daycare. Having packed the car that morning, we were ready to drive up north to Dolly Copp Campground in New Hampshire. Having been spared by Hurricane Irene, we hadn’t bothered to triple-check and make sure the campground was equally unscathed by the winds and rain of the previous weekend. Alas, after almost three hours of driving, we arrived to find the entrance blocked off, and the campground closed. Undeterred, we pulled out our handy iPhones and found an alternative campground – Blackberry Crossing on the Kancamagus Highway. Though initially disappointed in not being able to spend our Labor Day weekend at our favorite campground, we were pleasantly surprised with our fate. (Not to mention grateful – the White Mountains were hard hit, with many of the rivers overflowing and flooding. A huge chunk of the Kancamagus was washed away, and we spoke with several folks who were still without power!)

After driving through the campground, we settled on site 16, a beautiful, HUGE, site nestled in the woods yet close to the pit toilets. We pitched our tent in the dark, and then all three of us went to sleep.

*photo courtesy of the Peach’s website

Friday morning was spent doing one of my all-time favorite activities… shopping! Before we got down to business at the outlets, we had an incredible breakfast at Peach’s Restaurant in North Conway. I had the stuffed french toast, filled with sweet cream cheese and bananas, and topped with strawberries and whipped cream. Kendra had the Asparagus Benedict (shocking!). Addie helped herself to our food, and gulped down her milk. Now that she has four teeth, and another on the way, she seems a lot more interested in eating what we are eating.

Outlet shopping was fun! It was Addie’s first experience watching her Moms try on clothing at a whirlwind pace. We tend to do this once a year, right when school is about to start… basically it’s back to school clothes shopping grown-up style.

After an exhausting morning we went back to the campsite and napped. Eventually, we all roused ourselves and I built a fire while Kendra prepared dinner. After Addie fell asleep, Kendra and I played our usual gin rummy until our friends Marcy, Meg and Tina arrived. We stayed up long enough to help set up tents, and then went to bed knowing that our little alarm clock Addison would get us up by 6am.

Saturday morning Kendra and I took Addison on a short hike across the street to the Covered Bridge campground. We walked along the Swift River, and then up through about 1/2 mile of the Boulder Loop. We wanted to do more of the trail, but we hadn’t planned on hiking and were ill prepared. I was lucky not to break my wrist when I slid on wet mud, and was reminded that flip-flops are NOT ideal hiking shoes! Nevertheless, what we did see was fantastic – huge boulders strewn along the path; some big enough to completely dwarf Kendra… not that that is all that hard 😉

photo a la Tina

As always, Addison fell asleep during the hike. While she napped, we ate lunch, and then decided to go to the Lower Falls not too far from our campground. Addie splashed in the water while we watched a rescue of a boy who managed to get stuck on the opposite shore. It was a good reminder to us that even when Addie gets older, we need to keep an eye on her, and make sure she knows not to stray far from us when we are out and about. As the fire trucks rolled in, we decided to make our exit. On the way back to the car, we bumped into two of our former rowers 🙂 It’s always nice to see our kids – especially the ones who have graduated.

We had a nice evening by the fire, with Italian sausages, beans, corn, and s’mores.

photo a la Meg

Breakfast was at the Conway Cafe in Conway. The food was good, but the establishment wasn’t the cleanest. On the plus side, they had Starbucks Coffee, including cappuccinos, which went well with my egg and cheese on an English muffin.

The drive back was quick – about an hour and a half. I think we may have found a new campsite 🙂 It’s about half the drive to Dolly Copp, and just as beautiful. So, I guess we owe an odd thanks to Hurricane Irene for pushing us a bit out of our comfort zone and leading us to a new campground!