I might have actually slept until 6 this morning! We had a pretty laid back morning. I took a walk around the resort to take some pictures since this would be the last good weather day.
Around 11:30, we called in a breakfast sandwich order for Nick to Bagels Plus for his brunch (I had eaten some leftovers) and we hit the road north, after picking up his food.
Today was one I was really looking forward to. I had heavily analyzed the weather, and on Tuesday booked tickets for a gondola ride at Bretton Woods today. Bretton Woods is a ski area, and it had randomly popped up on my facebook feed that this winter they were selling scenic gondola rides this season. It was an incredibly clear day, and Bretton Woods faces Mt. Washington, so I was anticipating decent views. I suspected it might be a little bit weird, since I was pretty sure that they were also using the gondola for skiers, but I suspected a little weirdness would be worth it.
It was about a 40 minute drive from the resort to Bretton Woods. It’s a very straightforward, and at times scenic drive. Case in point, there’s a scenic view parking area shortly before Bretton Woods that was a) actually plowed and b) VERY busy today. It was immediately obvious why, and we pulled in, for some fantastic views of Mt. Washington and the Mt Washington Grand Hotel.
Mt. Washington is the tallest of NH’s White Mountains in the Presidential Range, and has the distinction of being the tallest mountain on the entire eastern seaboard. It also holds a bunch of records for wild weather. Today it was just stunning.
Once I’d fulfilled my picture taking need, I got back in the car and we drove the last few minutes to Bretton Woods. Eventually we found a parking spot and we took a few minutes to layer on the outerwear before walking over to the ticket counter. Turning my order number into our lift passes was quick, and pretty soon we were debating whether the gondola was the gondola or not. Seems someone that I’m married to thought the only name for it was “ski lift”...
Eventually we agreed that we were in the right place, and got in line. As anticipated, this was a bit awkward, as, for awhile, we were the only non-skiers in line. But, we were definitely where we were supposed to be and pretty soon our tags had been scanned and we were on the gondola for our quick ride to almost the summit. It was a great view both from the gondola and the lodge it deposited us at. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
All told, we were probably at Bretton Woods for just over an hour. We both agreed that this was the highlight of our vacation. And did I mention that we got the same views as the skiers without strapping ourselves onto metal sticks and throwing ourselves down the side of a mountain? And it cost $42 total for the two of us. The adults skiing that day on a single day ticket were paying $115 a person, according to the sign at the ticket window. Insanity. Yes, I do answer my skier colleagues “how do you afford vacations” question with “I don’t ski”.
The drive back to the resort was easy. We made a stop at White Mountain Cider Company on our way. We got half a dozen cider doughnuts and I also got a hot cider. We love cider doughnuts, and they have great cider doughnuts here. The hot cider was excellent, once it had cooled for about half an hour. It was scary hot at first.
We got back to the resort and relaxed for a bit before calling in our dinner order to Joseph’s Spaghetti Shed. We found Joseph’s several years ago, and have loved it since. As the name implies, it’s a hole in the wall place that bases its menu off of spaghetti. Their sauces are delicious, the pasta is cooked perfectly, and when you eat there you get what seems like a whole loaf of (fantastic) bread and their amazing garlic butter. Joseph’s is a small place, so they have remained takeout only. We knew the out of staters were returning in mass quantities thanks to the weekend, so we had decided it was a good time for takeout. Plus we can’t have a trip up there without going to Joseph’s!
I called about as soon as they opened, and then made the 15 minute drive up to pick up our food. It was super organized and completely contact free. I then took the back way back to our resort because...out of state traffic. This actually worked well. Just as I was coming up on the entrance to the lower parking lot of the resort (behind our building), I got a text that parking had gotten WAY worse at our building due to the new arrivals. So I parked in the lower lot and made the walk up to our building.
Dinner was delicious. I had spaghetti and meatballs with bolognese sauce. Nick had chicken alfredo. And when we called they asked if we wanted garlic butter or regular butter with our bread. We got the garlic butter, obviously, and they gave us a whole loaf of bread. It was a huge meal (I got two more meals out of my spaghetti when we got home) and tasted fantastic. We were glad we could still support one of our favorite little spots too.
After dinner, I took a walk around town to take some nighttime pictures.
It was another relaxed and relatively early night.
Today was one I was really looking forward to. I had heavily analyzed the weather, and on Tuesday booked tickets for a gondola ride at Bretton Woods today. Bretton Woods is a ski area, and it had randomly popped up on my facebook feed that this winter they were selling scenic gondola rides this season. It was an incredibly clear day, and Bretton Woods faces Mt. Washington, so I was anticipating decent views. I suspected it might be a little bit weird, since I was pretty sure that they were also using the gondola for skiers, but I suspected a little weirdness would be worth it.
It was about a 40 minute drive from the resort to Bretton Woods. It’s a very straightforward, and at times scenic drive. Case in point, there’s a scenic view parking area shortly before Bretton Woods that was a) actually plowed and b) VERY busy today. It was immediately obvious why, and we pulled in, for some fantastic views of Mt. Washington and the Mt Washington Grand Hotel.
Mt. Washington is the tallest of NH’s White Mountains in the Presidential Range, and has the distinction of being the tallest mountain on the entire eastern seaboard. It also holds a bunch of records for wild weather. Today it was just stunning.
Once I’d fulfilled my picture taking need, I got back in the car and we drove the last few minutes to Bretton Woods. Eventually we found a parking spot and we took a few minutes to layer on the outerwear before walking over to the ticket counter. Turning my order number into our lift passes was quick, and pretty soon we were debating whether the gondola was the gondola or not. Seems someone that I’m married to thought the only name for it was “ski lift”...
Eventually we agreed that we were in the right place, and got in line. As anticipated, this was a bit awkward, as, for awhile, we were the only non-skiers in line. But, we were definitely where we were supposed to be and pretty soon our tags had been scanned and we were on the gondola for our quick ride to almost the summit. It was a great view both from the gondola and the lodge it deposited us at. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
All told, we were probably at Bretton Woods for just over an hour. We both agreed that this was the highlight of our vacation. And did I mention that we got the same views as the skiers without strapping ourselves onto metal sticks and throwing ourselves down the side of a mountain? And it cost $42 total for the two of us. The adults skiing that day on a single day ticket were paying $115 a person, according to the sign at the ticket window. Insanity. Yes, I do answer my skier colleagues “how do you afford vacations” question with “I don’t ski”.
The drive back to the resort was easy. We made a stop at White Mountain Cider Company on our way. We got half a dozen cider doughnuts and I also got a hot cider. We love cider doughnuts, and they have great cider doughnuts here. The hot cider was excellent, once it had cooled for about half an hour. It was scary hot at first.
We got back to the resort and relaxed for a bit before calling in our dinner order to Joseph’s Spaghetti Shed. We found Joseph’s several years ago, and have loved it since. As the name implies, it’s a hole in the wall place that bases its menu off of spaghetti. Their sauces are delicious, the pasta is cooked perfectly, and when you eat there you get what seems like a whole loaf of (fantastic) bread and their amazing garlic butter. Joseph’s is a small place, so they have remained takeout only. We knew the out of staters were returning in mass quantities thanks to the weekend, so we had decided it was a good time for takeout. Plus we can’t have a trip up there without going to Joseph’s!
I called about as soon as they opened, and then made the 15 minute drive up to pick up our food. It was super organized and completely contact free. I then took the back way back to our resort because...out of state traffic. This actually worked well. Just as I was coming up on the entrance to the lower parking lot of the resort (behind our building), I got a text that parking had gotten WAY worse at our building due to the new arrivals. So I parked in the lower lot and made the walk up to our building.
Dinner was delicious. I had spaghetti and meatballs with bolognese sauce. Nick had chicken alfredo. And when we called they asked if we wanted garlic butter or regular butter with our bread. We got the garlic butter, obviously, and they gave us a whole loaf of bread. It was a huge meal (I got two more meals out of my spaghetti when we got home) and tasted fantastic. We were glad we could still support one of our favorite little spots too.
After dinner, I took a walk around town to take some nighttime pictures.
It was another relaxed and relatively early night.
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