Columbus Day/Pawtuckaway

Fall is arriving here on the Seacoast! Or so say the trees, which, despite the recent spurt into the mid-80s, are busily changing colors.

Rather than celebrating the actions (and consequences) of one Mr. Columbus, we elected to take a nice hike in Pawtuckaway State Park in southern New Hampshire instead. In addition to being a gorgeous place in general, it's where many of Charlotte's field samples were collected, and we've been aching to just go for a leisurely hike there without any "to-do" tasks.


We took a trail called the "Fire Tower Trail" up South Mountain, and were shocked by what we found at the top!

Actually, we were somewhat surprised (pleasantly), since so often the fire towers at the top of the mountain are not open to the public for climbing. This one was, though, and the view was primo!


Up on top, STILL conquering my fear of heights, one step at a time...


Up on top, STILL pretty much unafraid of heights...


Anyway, I know that Henry Ford and his ilk get the credit for bringing the 2-day weekend to the masses, but whoever came up with the 3-day weekend is our hero! We were proud to carry on Columbus' legacy of discovering new places today, and best of all, I don't think we brought any diseases with us.


Goodnight!

Quark Fest!

Well, here on the Seacoast proved to be an unseasonably warm day (86 degrees!), but it wasn't enough to keep the localvores, farm folks and kiddies away from their beloved quark! What is quark? Well, you should have come with us today!!! Basically, it's a type of farmer's cheese that originated in Germany and isn't well-known here, so Brookford Farm throws an annual bash to celebrate fall and encourage people to get to know (and buy) this yummy substance.

Fortunately, there's more to do than just gawk at quark, and so we took advantage of the various other fun activities, including eating hot dogs made from the piggies we had visited earlier in the year (nestled on this perch above all the activity)!


A local beekeeper also dropped by with some friends to talk to people!


Happy cows make...happy Charlottes!


And, for the first time (we missed it last year), we were able to snag a couple seats on the hayride to get a tour of the various pastures at the farm.

Chili Fest and Portsmouth Fall Festival

Happily, the gorgeous weather coincided with our favorite weekend of the year here in Portsmouth! Today kicked off the festivities with the annual Chili Cook-Off (local restaurants vie for your votes with huge samples and funky recipes), as well as the annual Fall Festival. As you can see, a decent number of people enjoy eating chili.

After we were stuffed, we headed over to the annual Fall Festival (which, admittedly, is only about 50 feet away from the chili booths, but they're technically 2 separate events). With live music, reenactors, and various demonstrations, we learned a lot about our beloved Portsmouth, and there were lots of things to photograph!

Unfortunately, as usual, we got completely caught up in looking at the fun farm animals, petting them, taking their pictures, petting them, talking to the owners, and petting the fun farm animals...

Above: sheepdog demonstration.

Below: various fun farm animals (we confirmed they were having a good time by petting them)!

Well, we'll try to do a better job taking a picture of things other than fun farm animals tomorrow, but fair warning: we're going to a festival at a farm. Goodnight!

Congratulations to Mike, Esquire!!!

Mike passed the New Hampshire Bar!!! Yay!!!

Freedom!

Hooray! The whole day is not spent working at City Hall!

Hooray! The whole day is not spent teaching labs at UNH (and grading notebooks).

Hooray! We live near Seapoint Beach, which is free, open to Kittery residents, and very gorgeous this time of year!

The days are getting very crisp, but they are also getting very beautiful. We had a wonderful walk around one of our favorite places up this way! Despite spotting a couple dead seals washed ashore (they're a small part of a very large, mysterious, and sad occurrence up this way), there were some beautiful sights to take in this evening, including a gorgeous sunset.

We certainly don't take our location for granted (especially when we're able to do things like this on a work night), but it does make us very happy!

Have a wonderful evening!

Monday=fun day!

Today is Monday, which means that it's a late day of teaching labs (for Charlotte) and an evening of doing laundry (for me)! Until we are able to secure backstage passes to Charlotte's lab, you'll have to settle for coming along on the laundry run. Fortunately, Kittery is blessed to have the latest in state-of-the-art laundry technology.

Yes, that's correct, it's equipt with Maytag washers!

And Windsor I dryers (I believe these are the 2011 model, but didn't have time to check their website).

All jokes aside, I have grown to love this place a ton. Everyone is very friendly, the owner somehow keeps all of these clunky old machines running flawlessly, and, best of all, he offers a TREASURE HUNT (all washers except 2 cost $1.75, and the 2 bargain ones are changed constantly)!

Finally, you should see what I was treated to when I finished doing the laundry!

Goodnight!

Lazy Sunday

The title says it all. This is what we looked like for a good chunk of the day (in case a camera on a timer suddenly decided to take our picture). Hope you enjoyed the cozy weather, wherever you are/were!
In other exciting news, Charlotte's 5-month quest to grow stunted marigolds inside an antique Danish head thingy has finally succeeded!!! The local bonsai society hasn't yet expressed interest, but we know you will!


Don't mind her expression-she's thinking about...well, who knows.