Autumn

I may or may not have bought some Autumn decorations at Michael's last night. Usually I try to wait until the end of the season when everything is on sale, but the things I bought were already on sale. Take that, Jason's frugality!

I bought a couple things to put together a very simple wreath to hang on the front door. I'm hosting a ladies' craft night tonight and plan to work on the wreath. Then I need to figure out a way to hang the wreath without hammering anything in the door. If it was my house, I would probably put a nail in the door, but since it's not...

Despite caving a bit, I think I showed remarkable restraint in the face of Michael's seasonal aisles. We have a front door and two side doors and don't think I wasn't decorating the side doors in my mind. Not to mention the inside of our new house. I have a few Autumn decorations already, and I need to find them and get them ready for display post-Labor Day. The good thing about our new house is that since there are lots of closets and storage that means not every flat surface will be covered with clutter (ostensibly). So if I put out a decoration, we'll actually be able to notice the decoration, rather than it just being one more thing on the table.

New Hampshire/Maine Weekend

I'm working on the rest of the Hawaii posts right now. Jason and I have agreed that the next time we go on a trip with 8 adults there will be one designated photographer and no one else will be allowed to take pictures. I spent a couple of hours yesterday just going through hundreds of pictures of Day 5, which was admittedly a big day what with the VOLCANOES! and LAVA!, but still.

In the meantime, last weekend Jason and I took a quick jaunt up to New Hampshire and Southern Maine, which apparently is what the rest of Massachusetts and Rhode Island decided to do last weekend too. Seriously, the crowds at the beaches were ridiculous.

Our first stop was at the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, New Hampshire.

The tour was kind of ridiculously long because the tour guide loved telling little stories about the family. Frankly, it was great!

Elinor Frost's Royal Doulton china. Lovely.

After years of neglect and being used as a car salvage yard, the farm was bought and restored with the help of Robert and Elinor's daughter, Lesley. Although most of the furniture and other items in the house are not original, Lesley worked diligently to fill the house with items reminiscent of the house she grew up in. However, she did say that the red wallpaper in the kitchen was the exact same wallpaper that was in the kitchen when she was a little girl.

I loved looking at the kitchen implements laid out in the pantry.

Old stove.
Only $13.95!

The phone connected to 10 party lines. Apparently Rob liked to listen in.

Robert Frost's chair. I can't remember what kind of chair it was, but apparently he always had one of these chairs wherever he lived.

Bedroom.

The little cabinet to the left of the bed is a discreet chamber pot holder. Clever.

After the tour, we walked around the field and into the woods, along a portion of the trail that used to be one of the main horse trails connecting the farms to the town. Robert Frost later said it was at the edge of his farm on this trail where he wrote "Stopping by Woods on A Snowy Evening".

The field. Robert Frost liked to cut the grass with a scythe.
A pond filled with so much life. Turtles:

And many, many frogs.

Once we noticed the first frog, we realized they were everywhere.

Afterward, we headed to Lake Pawtuckaway in Nottingham, NH and our campsite for the evening. The beach at the lake was bursting with people, but it was lovely all the same.

(This was a less crowded part of the beach)We went canoeing, but don't have any pictures because Jason didn't want to get his camera wet. As soon as we pushed off from the dock, we headed away from the crowded beach and wound up outside of the state park lands, gliding by a bunch of huge, beautiful lake houses. (One that we loved in particular was for sale and I looked it up online when we got home. Only half a million. No problem, right? However, during my perusal of the Nottingham, NH real estate market, I was delighted to learn that there is, in fact, a Friar Tuck Lane.)

We wound our way all over the lake, with only the occasional jet ski disturbing the peace. I have to say, I'm not a jet ski fan. I'm sure they have their place, but when I'm peacefully canoeing, they kind of ruin the mood. Jason said I only say that because I'm not the one having fun on the jet ski. Maybe.

Next time we go to Pawtuckaway, we want to reserve a lakefront campsite. We kept seeing all these people with prime sites just leaping straight into the lake without bothering to go all the way to the official beach.

The next morning, we packed up camp and headed for southern Maine. The plan was to go to Ogunquit, walk along the Marginal Way and go to the beach. I had a feeling there might be a flaw in our plan when we hit a wall of traffic a couple miles outside of Ogunquit. We snaked through town and drove by the beach and decided we really didn't want to pay $15 to park and go to an insanely crowded beach. I don't think I've ever seen so many people on a beach. We headed further north on 1 and pulled off at Footbridge Beach, where there was a parking spot with a 30 minute limit so we decided to stop and check it out before committing (with a hefty long-term parking fee). We walked on the footbridge, over a peaceful canal, and hit the beach.

Which was insanely crowded.

On the footbridge. So. Many. People.

Nevertheless, we decided to make the most of our 30 minute parking limit and walk up and down the beach a bit. Now here's what I found hilarious. For about 100 yards from the beach access (read: parking lots) on either side, the beach looked like this:

To our left:

To our right:

However, this is what it looked like where we stood. I guess 120 yards is just too far to walk...

After 30 minutes, we got back in the car and continued north. We made it to Kennebunkport where we stopped for lobster rolls and chowder at the Port Lobster Co. It's not a fancy place. There's not even a place to sit down. But we read about it on yelp.com and decided to try it.

The food was fantastic! I have eaten a lot of clam chowder in my years in New England, and I have to say that it was honestly the best chowder I have ever had. If you are willing to wait 20 minutes, they'll even steam a lobster for you (at only $4.99 a pound as of last weekend).

We got our food and drove around the corner to the dock where the lobster boats come in.

Lobstah roll!
Watching the boats

While we ate, we eavesdropped on a local telling his buddy all about clam digging. He told his buddy if he's ever driving by and sees his car in the driveway, to stop in and he'll give him a bucket or two of clams. I asked Jason if he thought we could stop by for some clams too.

After lunch, we walked out to the end of a breakwater and watched boats coming in and out of the harbor (including this HUGE yacht that I was a little concerned would take out some of the lobster boats).

Then we continued north, only we decided not to go back to 1 (the main road) and went down 9 instead. 9 eventually turned into a two-lane highway with not much to see, but for about a half hour outside of Kennebunkport, it was a lovely, windy road through lovely little towns. Since it's not the main drag there was hardly any other traffic.

We made our way to Ferry Beach State Park, but balked at the $12 parking fee to access the beach. Little tip: outside of the park and actually next to the beach (the park is across the road from the beach) is FREE beach parking. And because the beach is so far (relatively speaking) from the most popular beaches, there is hardly anyone there. We splashed a bit in the 61 degree water. (I had to keep getting out because the cold was making my feet ache).
Jason made friends with a little 4 year-old boy and they ran from the water as the waves rolled in. Adorable.

We headed home after that, stopping in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for dinner at The Friendly Toast on a friend's recommendation. Great food and funky atmosphere. Jason fit right in with the servers with his beard and post-camping messy hair. (And now I've just discovered there's one up in Cambridge. How did I not know about this place? I know where we're going for dinner the next time we're in Boston.)

Girls' Camp

So I didn't go with our Young Women to girls' camp. I tried to get them ready the best I could. We cooked over fire (in my fireplace because we're urban, yo) and reviewed some basic first aid. I tried to teach them knots, but failed miserably, probably because I haven't tied any of those knots since I was a 12 year-old prepping for my first (and only*) year of girls' camp.

However, our YW president, the other counselor, and another lady in our ward did go. Annie, the president, oversaw the 14 year-olds, for which I give her a HUGE amount of credit. She is a rock star. She posted pictures of camp and our adorable girls on her blog.

*After that first year, they kept scheduling camp during my annual trip to visit my family in Florida. Sorry, Florida wins over girls' camp.

Sweater Results

I know you all were waiting with bated breath.

Based on my fancy blog poll and a tally of Facebook comments, I think Green Gable and February Fitted came out about even, though the Vintage 3-Hour got a lot of shout outs as well. So I'm going to make the February Fitted with the terracotta colored yarn and make Green Gable out of some very soft green yarn I originally bought for an afghan, but then got bored with after making 5 squares. Since the afghan called for 30-something squares, I ditched the project. But now I have a bunch of super soft yarn in 4 colors that I really like, so I need stuff to make. And since I'm a big Anne of Green Gables fan, I think I should go with the original color for the Green Gable.

I'll post the finished sweaters (or my frustrations with the process. Either way, you'll get updates).