Day 2 in New Hampshire

Before heading to New Hampshire for our vacation in May, Joel and I conducted research on-line into what activities were 1. open and 2. affordable. In case you're interested, we googled "NH tourism" and found their official tourism site. We found our cottage and activities from this site. You can laugh if you want, but I've learned when traveling with little people it's best to have a relaxed agenda for each day.

I also ordered the NH Guidebook which came in less than a week (remember I'm only a hop, skip and a jump from them). The Guidebook and website are organized according to region. This worked well for our research. We decided to visit the White Mountains (specifically Mount Washington) region. There are tons of hiking trails and other activities you can do, even in the off season.

Joel and I have concluded we're outdoor-wannabes. = ) We weren't interested in the two amusement parks in the area. We wanted to be outside moving and seeing the world God created - but I don't want to get TOO tired or hot doing all that moving and seeing. Which is why I call us "wannabes."

We knew that all the hiking from Wednesday would have everyone (that would be everyone over 36 inches tall!) a little tired and maybe sore so we planned to take it easy on Thursday. After a leisurely morning spent watching all manner of cartoon programming on cable, we ate our peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch and headed out for another adventure.

We drove over to North Conway and took a ride on the Conway Scenic Railroad. They had two different rides to choose from. We picked the afternoon ride that only last an hour. Again, admission cost us less than $40 (it helps to have children small enough to be free). We arrived in plenty of time to purchase tickets, visit the bathroom and look around the gift shop (amazingly I bought no souvenirs the whole trip! Not for lack of looking though.).

Here are the boys waiting for our train to arrive.
There were several other engines and passenger cars sitting on the tracks.

Our knowledge of trains comes mainly from Thomas the Tank Engine books and videos. We have a book where Thomas checks the safety signals on a new line but gets distracted by a carnival. We THINK the large balls on the poles are safety signals for the trains. The boys found them interesting no matter what they were.

A side shot of the train station. The inside is still set up as it was years and years ago. There are displays of various items used on the train through out the years. Sort of like a mini-museum to train travel. To the left of the station you can see our train arriving.

"It's a diesel!" "I'm not afraid of a diesel engine." (For those unfamiliar with Thomas, he and most of his friends are steam engines and tend to be bullied by some diesel engines.) "There's a snow plow on the front."

Waiting for the train to come. Doesn't she look like such a big girl?!

The train is about even to us and whistling. She did NOT like the loud whistle!!

Here we are in the coach car waiting to leave. Our car was the first behind the engine and at every road crossing the whistle blew. The whistle scared Ellie who clung to me each time. I didn't mind the unexpected snuggles. After about 5 miles we came to an unused station. They unhooked the engine and ran it down to the back of the train, re-coupled it and took us back to our starting point. This meant we were the last car on the train so the whistle wasn't as loud

and the boys could look out the back at the tracks.

After our train ride we drove a different road home - the Kangamacus Highway. Beautiful and worth the drive if you are taking your time. We stopped at one Overlook point that had a sign showing how rain/snow falling on one side of the mountain range flowed into one river and rain/snow falling on the other side of the mountain range flowed into a different river. Sort of a New Hampshire Continental Divide.

We arrived back at our cottage a little less tired than the day before but still declaring Thursday to have been a good day.