The dogs were kind enough to not beg to go outside until 6:30 am, but thanks to their habits lately, I was awake by 5. Once the dogs were up, I started the last minute prep to get them ready for their week at the pet resort. We were not in a hurry to start our road trip today, because it’s only a two hour drive and we wanted some of the Massachusetts end of vacation crowds to leave before we got into town, but drop off at the pet resort on a Sunday is only from 9-10, so some progress had to be made this morning.
With food bags filling and cinnamon rolls for the humans in the oven, the dogs showed off their spirit and Nick started waking up. We had breakfast, got ready and made the short trip to the pet resort, where Gizmo happily greeted the employees and we headed back home to finish getting ready.
What this really meant is Nick packed his suitcase while I did the last of the few dishes. Our water restrictions mean we aren’t supposed to run the dishwasher, so we have switched to disposable for everything except actual cooking. Yup, we are looking at 7-8 months of disposable utensils and plates and cups before this is done. I’m not impressed either.
The dishes got done, Nick finished packing, and we sat down to lunch. While eating I got a text from the resort that check in could be delayed 2-4 hours because of current cleaning procedures, and they would text me when my room was ready. Normal check in time is 4. So there goes the idea of checking in and getting pizza to eat in the room for dinner tonight!
We made some slight adjustments to our plan, and then I started packing the car. How this visual-spatially inept person ended up with that role, I do not know but...it got done. And I will just say again...FL for a week in February only requires a suitcase and a backpack each. For this trip, we had two suitcases, a backpack, a bag of games and cleaning products, a winter gear bag, a bag of shoes, 2 sets of snowshoes, and a set of cross country skis. Plus a case of water, a case of juice and some snacks. The fact I got the car organized is a miracle! And clearly we can never have kids if that much stuff is required for just two of us!
With the car packed and a new plan in place, we left the house a little after 1:30, beyond excited to be getting away.
The drive north was easy, since most traffic was heading back to Massachusetts. Since it was a beautiful day, I decided a drive across the Kancamagus was in order.
There are three primary ways to get to North Conway from the south. One goes through the lakes region, one goes through two Notches (Franconia and Crawford), and is super scenic but forces you to go north of Conway and then drive back south, and the third is the Kank. The Kancamagus cuts across the mountains and basically connects one ski town to another. It’s twisty, complete with hair pin turns, has massive elevation changes, is home to some seriously wild weather, and can provide some good views. I will not drive it if the weather is anything less than perfect, or if I am traveling in the same direction as the primary traffic pattern. The trip across the Kank should take about 45 minutes, but I know people who have been stuck in traffic and had it take 4 hours. Today was favorable for a good drive.
There are three primary ways to get to North Conway from the south. One goes through the lakes region, one goes through two Notches (Franconia and Crawford), and is super scenic but forces you to go north of Conway and then drive back south, and the third is the Kank. The Kancamagus cuts across the mountains and basically connects one ski town to another. It’s twisty, complete with hair pin turns, has massive elevation changes, is home to some seriously wild weather, and can provide some good views. I will not drive it if the weather is anything less than perfect, or if I am traveling in the same direction as the primary traffic pattern. The trip across the Kank should take about 45 minutes, but I know people who have been stuck in traffic and had it take 4 hours. Today was favorable for a good drive.
As anticipated, it was pretty smooth sailing, with some good views. It really was an ideal day for driving the Kank.
We drove into North Conway just about 4. With (unsurprisingly) no room ready text, we pulled into the Settlers Green outlets for a bathroom break and some route recalculating. We decided to drive up to Jackson, see what Jackson Falls looks like in the winter, and have dinner at the Red Fox Grille.
Jackson is about 20 minutes north of North Conway, so, although the falls ended up totally snow covered in a manner that was not picture worthy, it killed the time we needed. We got to the Red Fox Grille about quarter of 5. Kind of early but we were hungry and by the time our food appeared at our table it would be an acceptable eating hour.
The Red Fox has been one of our favorite pre-covid places for brunch. Back in the before days, they had an amazing buffet that was $9.99 a person on Sunday mornings, with a huge variety of food that’s truly good. Obviously brunch isn’t a thing there these days, so we decided to try dinner.
Despite the number of cars in the lot, we walked in to find no wait. After providing our contact info for contact tracing, we were seated in a room kind of near a fireplace. Ah that stress is melting away already! For dinner I had chicken parm and a Citizens hard cider and Nick had steak tips. Dinner was delicious, service was great and, as always, the restaurant was super clean. We left very content.
Then we drove to North Conway. Since it was now 6, and all the stores and such were closing, we decided to pay a visit to the front desk to inquire about an updated estimate of when our room would be ready.
Chelsea at the front desk was lovely. Turns out our mega “one bedroom” was actually two units. One unit was ready but they were still actively working in the second unit. So after promising to only enter the ready unit, I was checked in and Chelsea promised to call when the second unit was ready.
We headed back to the Carriage House, right behind the main Inn. We were in units B4 and BH. B4 was ready, which worked well, since that is ground floor. We were able to unload the car, while listening to them vacuum upstairs in BH.
How to explain this unit? B4 is the living space. There is an almost full kitchen, washer, dryer, full bathroom and living area complete with sofa bed and murphy bed. We got the call by 6:45 that BH was ready, which connected by inside staircase (but also had an exterior entrance on the second floor). This unit has a king sized bed, sofa bed, hot tub, bathroom and kitchenette. All together it makes for an absolutely huge unit!
We unpacked somewhat, wiped down some commonly touched surfaces, settled in, and each took longer showers than we have in MANY months, because we could. Then we crashed early.
