Visiting Friends

What a wonderful weekend we had. We spent time relaxing (maybe not the right word) with friends in the Berkshires. We squished 2 huge suppers, 2 large breakfasts, a campfire, several geocaching expeditions, an ATV ride, a pontoon boat ride plus swimming, a horseback ride, a long stroll around Hancock Shaker Village and cave exploring all into about 42 hours...between thunderstorms!

WOW!

It was relaxing. We were keeping up our usual pace with friends who understand fun.
The first shot is of one of our long conversations on the back porch. The second is to capture a "first" in geocaching. We had 2 GPS units to work with and ours was clearly the lesser of them! This cache was tricky, it's near "Balance Rock and what a beautiful spot.




Night boating between thunderstorms had us a lake to ourselves! The pontoon boat was a highlight for the boys. Our captain, with a little chiming in from the first mate, anchored us over a really cool sand bar. The water was just 2 feet deep over the bar and the kids hopped off to swim and play until the storm started to light up the sky. Then off we headed for the dock with the first fat raindrops hitting just as we tied it up and headed for the cars.



This is a cave with one of the many Hidden Brooks in our friend's neighborhood. The boys are not much on spelunking but they were amazed at the rock formations and seeing the brooks disappear into underground places.


Hancock Shaker Village, the city of peace, was a wonderful field trip. We learned a ton and found it to be a city of peace. We watched their hydro powered mill work and toured many of the buildings. We watched a fabulous thunderstorm move across in the distance with clear strikes seen behind that round barn. Stunning. The gardens were remarkable and we all enjoyed our time at the village.

We all agreed that we needed to stay for at least a week to do all that we really wanted to do. Thanks again to our fabulous hosts. They run the best ever bed and breakfast in the Berkshires!


~Rachel

Busy Fun Weekend

We had back-to-back events this weekend. On Saturday we were at the Moose Mountain Regional Greenways "Trail Day" event. A good time was had by all. I went ahead of the rest of the family as I was volunteering for 1/2 of the day. This first photo is of the boys down at the estuary learning about the wildlife that lives on and in the river. There are fish in that case. It was a neat hayride down to the river too. The boys also saw a wildlife demonstration by Squam Lakes Science Center and went on a tree identification walk too. I was not on those as I was by then in a 2 1/2 hour GPS workshop. I know more about our GPS than I thought I ever would! Very informative.
There was even a little "cookie cutting" going on. The kids activity of painting a tree cookie also involved cutting some too.

The next day had as at the NH Farm Museum for their "Olde Time Farm Days" event. We made little sheep, hammered tin for candles to shine through, husked corn etc. Another good time was had by all. We were out on another hayride here to see the trails and cider mill. We were certainly enjoying the local events this weekend. Back at home we got some more work put in on a few projects. It was a pleasure to be outside in the beautiful fall-like air.

Here's hoping your weekends were as good!

~Rachel