Yesterday was predicted to be beautiful and for a change those prescient weather experts were correct.  With that in mind and my better-half having a day off we decided to take a one day road trip.  One of our favorite areas to visit and take photographs is the White Mountain in New Hampshire. We packed up the car, visited a Dunkin’ Donut for coffee and then hit the road. Our goal was to enjoy the day, have a nice lunch, do a little shopping, and take a few scenic photos that could be used as screen savers.

This is the shot looking back towards Maine from the foothills of the White Mountains.  What you can see in these shots is the beginning of our climb into the mountains while working our way west towards Lake Winnipesaukee.

Off course as we travel along my better-half is on the hunt for antiques (junk). She considers it an unsuccessful trip if she can’t fill the trunk with the more interesting New Hampshire junk.  Everyone knows their junk is soooo much better than Maine junk.  She also has a disturbing thing for signs and what did we stumble on but a sign shop.  That’s a half an hour of my life I’ll never get back.

Believe it  or not  this shop  with hundreds of  signs  both  new  and  old, didn’t have that certain special sign she was looking for.  I actually found a couple of things that interested me but since everything is still being priced for the visiting tourists I decided to wait and possibly return when the prices are rolled back to off-season rates.

After a few hours of enjoying the scenery we entered the town of North Conway well known for it’s proximity to Mt. Washington and it’s endless outlet malls.  What a shock, a shoppers paradise in the wilderness.  The better-half immediately became rejuvenated and was smiling a whole lot more.  Here’s their somewhat famous and totally restored railway station. I know it’s boring but it’s the biggest building in town.

It’s hotter than blazes so what do we do? We park the car on Main Street and decide to walk around and visit some shops.  I was sweating through my shirt after ten minutes. Fortunately she made a few purchases and her shopping withdrawal was appeased.  She mulled over the purchase of a cute little cast iron pig soap dish (she has a huge pig collection) at the Naked Bohemian shop but at the last minute decided against it. The Naked Bohemian is a shop full of hippy paraphernalia and I had a flashback or two just walking around. Head bands, tie-dye everything, and peace signs as far as the eye can see.  I lived through the sixties and this reminded me I wouldn’t want to do it again.

You’ll be surprised to hear that she’s been second guessing her pig purchase decision and has been reminding me about it every fifteen minutes all the way home.  Off course I had my own issues.  I found a cool backpack made from feed sacks that caught my eye.  Just what everyone needs, right? Every time she mentioned the soap dish I immediately brought up the damn backpack. We’ll both still whining about it today. 

The trip home was a pleasant drive and we stopped along the way to snap a few pictures at a group of smaller lakes and ponds.  These two were taken at Purity Lake.  A small puddle out in the woods in the middle of almost nowhere. A really beautiful spot.   It has greatly improved the look of my desktop already.

All in all it was a pleasant day except for the good food we never had. We were so busy farting around we forgot to stop and eat.  We decided to stop on the way home but we passed only one restaurant along the unpopulated route we traveled and it was totally unacceptable.  We finally ate late in the afternoon at a place just ten minutes from our  home.  Oh well, nothings perfect.