10 days in New Hampshire

Bill and I made a trip to New Hampshire and Maine during the last week of May to visit Bill's family and also to see where he grew up. I thought it was going to be nice trip, but it ended up exceeding all my expectations. First- Bill's family is wonderful! I had a chance to meet his immediate and extended family and they were all so kind and generous!!

We had a very busy 10 days and instead of giving a play-by-play, I have uploaded some of my favorite photos in chronological order and will use those to point out highlights.

We started out with a tour of Concord, New Hampshire. This is the capitol of New Hampshire and also where Bill's Mom and Stepdad live, as well as his sister and her family.


We drove to Bristol (the small town that Billy grew up in) and made a visit to the beautiful New Found Lake. This is a pic of where a tree and rope swing used to be.... memories....
So I thought we needed to add the Emergency Room to our New Hampshire tour. Bill was taking me to the vacation village where he became a handyman. I was so excited, I forgot to remove my hand from the car door before closing it. I cut my finger pretty bad. Nice job beth.
My first stitch! It was pretty cool actually.
That is fatty tissue on the OUTSIDE of my finger!
All better, until the pain meds wore off.

After fixing up my finger, we drove back to New Found Lake to have a proper tour of the area. It became clear to me at this time that Billy grew up in an outdoor wonderland. The lake was pretty fantastic!He also took me to the Sculptured rocks area. This was another frequented swimming hole for Billy.

We stopped at this market (established in 1799-holy crap) for a beverage and a keepsake. I also saw my first whoopie pie here.
We finally made our way back to the lakeside cottages where Bill developed and refined his handyman skills.

We ended the day with a trip to the house that Bill grew up in. His Stepmom welcomed us and we sorted through several of Bill's old belongings. I learned so much about Bill and his upbringing just by visiting this super cozy house. I wish we had more room to bring stuff home. These are pics of a table that Bill built several years ago and is gorgeous!

The following day we went to Portland, Maine. This city felt like home, and not just because it is named Portland. It had the same hippie, keep it weird, eclectic feel. I loved it. We visited the waterfront and I had my first Lobster- right off the boat!

We opted to forgo the restaurant for a more authentic experience. It was also a cheaper and more fun!

YUMMO-LICIOUS! Lobster is good, but Dungeness crab is still better. Sorry New England.

I couldn't resist. It was a big claw!

Portland proper.
The wood trim on this church building was completed by Bill several years ago. Impressive detail!
Ha-ha. This sign reminded me of Portland, Oregon. Keep Portland Weird.
Maine also had gorgeous beaches. This little spot was only 20 minutes from Downtown Portland.
Gorgeous rock formations.
New Hampshire sunset on our drive home from Maine.
After traveling during the day, Bill and I spent nearly every night hanging out with his Sister. She lives a block down the street from his Mother. We enjoyed the warm nights outside and Bill also managed to make some major repairs to his Sister's garage door.
Bill's sister, Jill and her boyfriend.
Bill's Mom and Sister live in a neighborhood called turtle pond village. I thought that was just cute name until we found this snapping turtle in the yard! I love turtles!
We also spent some time in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This bridge looked just like the Hawthorne Bridge.
It was a very charming town.

More fun at Jill's house!
We took a 3 day trip to see Aunt Pat and Uncle Harry up north. We drove through the White Mountains on the way and they were impressive. This is also the location of the now destroyed, 'old man of the mountain' landmark.

Bill's Aunt lives in the Connecticut lakes area, which borders Canada. It was a long drive, but completely worth it for the family time and scenery along the way. My main goal on this part of the trip was to see a moose.

There were gorgeous lakes in this area.

And finally..... a moose! Such a cool animal! This moose crossed the street in front of our car and I was mesmerized by the length of their legs!
Bill's Aunt and Uncle lived 10 miles up a dirt road that literally bordered Canada. We saw border patrol vehicles several times a day. There was also a very unique circular house on the road that I was very curious about. Luckily, Bill's Aunt and Uncle are friends with the owner of the house. We attended their 10am weekly coffee and donuts event and Bill and I found ourselves touring every inch of the house and the adjacent 300 acres.
We climbed up onto the roof for a stunning view.
Then, he put Bill and I on the back of his 4-wheeler and basically drove up and down several VERY steep hills to give us a tour of all the water features he had created on his land. It was almost like watching a show on the discovery channel about creating a self-sustaining water ecosystem equipped with trout, beavers, deer and other fascinating wildlife species.
This is a photo from Aunt Pat's front yard. The Canadian border marker is across the street in that small body of water.
Bill with Aunt Pat and Uncle Harry.
Time to plan out our return trip.
This photo didn't really capture how cool the large storm cell clouds were. I tried though.
On our way home, we stopped at a popular vacation spot and found a white moose.
For those who haven't been to New Hampshire, it is a state that is FULL of lakes. Lakes are around every corner!
And..... Back at Jill's for more fun!

Bill and his Stepdad, Steve.

This is Braydon. He is the cutest little guy ever and lives with Bill's sister.

Our last family event was a day at Bow Lake with Bill's Cousins and Aunt.

There were big fish in Bow Lake!
We did a little kayaking.

Sunset at Bow Lake.
Bill and his cousins.
This big guy kept trying to get in through the screen. I thought it was a bat, until I turned on the lights and saw that it was a beautiful shade of green. Google told me that it's a Luna Moth. I couldn't stop watching this beautiful insect. I took about 37 pictures, but thought I would just post one.
We paid our respects on the Memorial holiday weekend.
This is Bill's Mom, Margie. She is a very cool woman and we were fortunate to spend a lot of time with her and Steve. They were also the best hosts I have ever had. Fresh fruit and breakfast were waiting for us every morning. Staying at their place was like being on vacation, so if you are reading: Thank you SO MUCH for having us!

The trip was perfect and I look forward to going back someday sooner than later. New Hampshire is gorgeous and maybe next time I'll see it when it is frozen?? We shall see.

life is so very precious.

My drive home from work last night seemed tedious. People were in a hurry and no one was going anywhere fast. I was feeling annoyed at all the construction because my 15 minute drive took over 30 minutes. My energy level was also at negative 10 because Bill and I had a very productive and exhausting camping trip around Oregon for the last 4 days. I was in a hurry to get home after a long day in the office.

Less from a mile from my house, I was driving through a beautiful park in the neighboring area of Sellwood when I saw something out of place. There was a man laying on his face on the jogging path that runs parallel to highway 99. This man did not look right and I was puzzled because no one was stopping. I drove up over the curb(99 is VERY BUSY and a 50 mph road) and ran to check out the situation. As I approached, it was evident that this man was having a serious heart attack. I had my phone and started to call 911, while I was consoling him and telling him to stick with me. He muttered the words, "help me" before loosing consciousness. It seemed like an hour before others joined me, but it was probably only 10 or 15 seconds. We rolled the man over onto his back and his gasps for air were growing less frequent. His eyes rolled back into his head and he was foaming heavily at the mouth. The 911 operator then told me to start CPR. By this time, an EMT and a PA had stopped and started CPR, although it seemed hopeless. His pulse was gone, and he wasn't even close to breathing on his own. Finally the Fire engine arrived after probably 3 or 4 minutes and the crew took over. I was so relieved, but not hopeful. I felt like I had watched life leave this man's body and I was not confident that it would return. After about 3 or 4 minutes of using paddles and IV's to revive this man, they were able to get a pulse and he was even breathing on his own. I have no idea if his okay now, but I did leave the scene after it seemed that he was alive again.

I've seen many old people pass away. This was different. While we were all waiting for him to come back, all I could think about was his family, his wife, his teenage kids.... Here this guy was trying to get into shape with a run after work and he was in danger of never going home. Life is so precious.

I also felt a huge amount of respect and thankfulness for the job that the emergency responders do. Right after this situation, I was thinking, "maybe I should be doing something like that for a living?" and then I realized that I am maybe not the best candidate because I would be thinking about the families and the consequences of the losses that they see on a regular basis. Not fun. Thank you firefighters, EMT's, Police, ER employees..... Thank you so very much for all that you do.

Life is precious, so tell those close to you that you love them!

Bethany Beach

I'm leaving Bethany Beach, Delaware tomorrow and I'm sad to say good by to Jessica, Robbie(the one kissing me in the photo), and Rob.

The last time I saw Jessica and Rob was 3 years ago at their wedding. Now they have an amazing 2 year old boy! Catching up with the family has been amazing!

Tomorrow I drive back to Washington DC. I'm staying in a swanky hotel for 4 days while attending my Alzheimer's conference. I'm excited to participate, but before that, I need to wrap up grading for this past term.

I'm staying very busy! More later.

blah blah blah....

It was our first taste of summer weather this weekend and somehow my spirits feel very, blah-ish...

I did enjoy the weather this weekend. Yesterday I worked in the yard for several hours and then had a very long and wonderful scenic motorcycle ride in Mt. Hood Territory. I also visited with friends; got in some workouts for a triathlon later this month; made my way to the local farmers market for fresh veggies; and BBQ'd(twice!)

....but the reason why this weekend was blah is because I had to work on, and worry about catching up with my online teaching responsibilities. I can't really explain how this job effects my psyche, but it really does... in a bad way. I think because I love teaching in a classroom, and teaching online is completely different and it seems to be much more time consuming! It's like all the work and then some, without witnessing the instant gratification of facilitating growth in the mind of a student. It is also no fun when you are teaching with another instructors material. Next time I won't be taking on additional classes at the last minute for the $$$. It's not even hardly worth it!

Wow! I'm done with whinefest 2011. I have my eye on prize! All this work will be done a week from tomorrow. This will be a bit challenging though, because I'm traveling to Washington DC and to good ol' Delaware on Thursday for a week. My county job is sending me to a National Alzheimer's Conference and I'm also going to fit in some time with one of my dearest friends, Jessica! I can't wait to meet her little boy!

Really, I have very little to complain about! I have two jobs that pay my bills!

I'm too lazy and tired to write out descriptions of all the events that were fun this weekend. So, for a quick photo journal journal of this weekend, look here. My iphone makes it pretty easy to catalog events in my life with pictures. I had some pretty adorable kiddos for company this weekend.

This is enough for now. More later.

Home and exhausted!

We got home on Monday night after another 20 hours of traveling, on three flights, and over 3 hours in the car. I'm happy to be home, but sad to rejoin reality by going to work and worrying about the same old stuff!

Luckily, I have great memories from a wonderful trip. I really enjoyed meeting all of Bill's family and hope to see them all again soon. The trip also showed me that Billy and I are great travel partners. I will get to posting trip pics, but first- a quick clip from the Minneapolis Airport. It appears that it doesn't take much to entertain these two kids. Good times!

coming home in a few days.

Only a few more days in the lovely state of New Hampshire!

Will blog more when I get home and am able to upload about 600 pictures!

For now, just a quick shot from the deck of Bill's Aunt's house on Bow Lake. Such a beautiful place!

In the North East now!!!

Having a blast! Can't wait to post, but very busy 'touring' and will upload photos when I get home. Here is a photo from my first lobster meal!