February 2021: Winter Vacation in NH: Day 6

Day 6: Friday 2/26/21

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.

February 2021: Winter Vacation in NH: Day 5

Day 5: Thursday February 25, 2021

Thanks to the late evening I actually slept until 5:30 this morning! Go me! I facebooked, watched my guilty pleasure show Outdaughtered, and eventually got ready for the day. Thankfully, as I was getting ready, Nick woke up, and we could hear that his parents were awake downstairs, so he got ready too, and we headed downstairs to get moving towards breakfast.

After hearing that the murphy bed was surprisingly comfortable, we headed for breakfast. Knowing that we would be eating really good (and kinda terrible for us) food, we walked the roughly 8 minute walk to Peach’s.

Peach’s is a teeny restaurant with amazing food, so we weren’t really expecting to be able to get in without a wait. We even had a backup plan. As it turns out, our wait was less than 10 minutes.

Breakfast here was excellent, our food arrived quickly and was delicious, and service was great. Nick and I both had apple butterscotch pancakes, John had some sort of omelette, and Kim had some sort of stuffed french toast. Everyone was VERY happy with their food.

Once we’d eaten breakfast and all but rolled ourselves out of the restaurant, we headed down the other side of the street, to check out store windows and such. And we found another “almost like being at Disney” view. 

Surprisingly, as we approached Zeb’s, there was no line, so, we made a return visit. I bought some more junk food (chocolate covered animal crackers guys!) and such. Kim bought some candy or something. And then we finished the walk back to the resort. Side note...walking into the wind in 20* weather taught us the biggest benefit of masks yet...our faces didn’t completely freeze!

We then visited for another hour or so, before Kim and John headed south around noon. They both had meetings late afternoon/early evening. Nick and I then headed back to Settler’s Green, in search of some Boston Cream cupcakes. White Mountain Cupcakes is a small place, so their flavors tend to sell out as the day goes on. Their Boston Cream are our favorites of theirs, but we were there late afternoon the day before, so they had already sold out. We wanted to see if visiting earlier would yield us some Boston Cream.

It did! We got some Boston Cream cupcakes, then visited a few stores we had missed the day before. Didn’t really buy anything, until we found the ice cream store. Since it’s not a vacation without ice cream, we got frappes (black raspberry for me and peppermint stick for Nick) from Trail’s End ice cream. I mean, it’s almost 30* outside!

We headed back to the resort where we relaxed for a bit, and then we headed to Delaney’s Hole in the Wall for dinner, about 3 minutes from the resort. This place is another one that we’ve never been to, but it’s always busy, so we figured we better try it.

When we got there, we were quoted a half hour wait, and they took my cell phone number and sent us back outside. We went back to the car and waited less than 15 minutes before the host called. We headed back in and were seated immediately.

Dinner here was delicious! I had a chicken and broccoli pasta in a parmesan cream sauce and the “lonesome lemonade” (Tito’s and Newman’s lemonade). Delicious! Nick had a lobster tortellini and some sort of Mule drink. He also really enjoyed his meal. We would eat here again, and definitely understood why Delaney’s always looks busy.

After dinner we returned to the resort and relaxed before I crashed early.

February 2021: Winter Vacation in NH: Day 4

Day 4: Wednesday February 24, 2021

I was awake early again...SURPRISE! I did a bunch of facebooking, and then got my day started.

It was another beautiful day, and Jackson Cross Country has literally miles of trails in their network all around town, so I had decided to take advantage of my stupidly early wakeup times and get a bit more time in on my skis. I think I was buying my trail pass (these I don’t mind buying, since the trails are actually groomed) by 8:45, and I was way up on a hill in Jackson at the parking lot for the “Woodchuck Trails” by 9:00.

The Woodchuck Trails are also easy trails, this time through a pretty flat field. It’s a bigger area here, so the trail loop is longer. These trails have a view of Carter Notch. Because they’re not in the center of town, they’re less busy than the loop I had skied on Monday. And by that, I mean I saw a grand total of 4 other people using them in the time I was there. The weather was perfect, the conditions were great, and the views were stunning. I would drive the 4 hours round trip just to spend a little time skiing here, as a day trip. 

Once I’d finished my ski loop, I headed back to the car and found that my in-laws were already halfway to Conway. So I headed back to the resort, woke up Nick, and we cleaned up a bit. Kim and John would be spending the night.

Kim and John got to the resort before 11:30. We visited for a bit and then decided we were all in need of lunch, so we walked over to the Met. We got a bunch of fancy sandwiches and hot beverages (thanksgiving sandwich with a hot caramel cider for me), and brought them back to the resort to eat.

After eating, we sat around chatting some more. Eventually Kim and I went outside to see the train come in. And then we went to the outlets (both LL Bean and Settler’s Green for the localish) for a bit of shopping.

NH is a sales tax free state. As such, our outlet malls are a true destination. I usually have to pay various outlets a visit on the weekends or holidays, so it was really nice to be able to visit midweek. We hit a select few stores, probably most importantly our second favorite cupcake place in the state: White Mountain Cupcakery. They’re no Cake Fairy, but they were on Cake Wars or something on the Food Network so...they’re pretty good.

Shopping done, it was time to figure out dinner. This is always a bit more of a process with the in-laws in tow. Add in the fact that it was midweek and a lot of restaurants were closed midweek and we still hadn’t finalized a decision as we got back in my car.

Thankfully, as we headed out of the Settler’s Green parking lot, Kim announced she wanted to go to Sea Dog. Ok, we have a decision!

Sea Dog seems to be a small brewery restaurant chain. I’d never been, and frankly, I associate a place with that name with the ocean, not the mountains but...here we go.

Dinner was good. They were a bit short-staffed in the kitchen; their head chef had gotten in an accident on his way to work, so a few things were off-limits for the evening on the already kind of limited menu, but we all found something to eat, and we all liked our meals. I had a burger, Nick and Kim had fish and chips, and John had a cheesesteak. And of course the boys had beers. We all were happy with our meals, and despite being short on kitchen staff, service was still efficient. I struggled a bit, however, with the fact that this place is a restaurant and brewery now. The last time I was in this very same storefront, I was a teenager, and it was an Aeropostale outlet. And by that I mean, it was a “store” filled with folding tables, covered in boxes of clothes. You could get some epic deals (sweatshirts for $3), if you had the patience to sort through those boxes.

Once we finished dinner, we headed back to the resort. We visited and played a few rounds of Scrabble Slam (I recommend it...it’s cheap and fun and great for short attention spans). It was a nice evening, and the latest night I’ve had in months! I think we went to bed a little after 10.

February 2021: Winter Vacation in NH: Day 3

Day 3: Tuesday February 23, 2021

Once again I was awake way too early, at 4:30. I facebooked and snacked and killed time as much as I could, before waking Nick for breakfast. We had decided to try a new to us place today.

We got ready and drove to the Sunrise Shack in Glen, less than 15 minutes up the road. This is a place we have driven by dozens of times and always noticed that the parking lot is full. So while it doesn’t look like much from the outside, we decided we needed to try it.

We were glad we did. Nick had stuffed french toast that involved raspberries and cannoli cream and I had a seriously delicious breakfast sandwich. The food was great, service was great, and Covid standards were top notch. There is a reason this place is always busy! We would happily eat here again.

We then returned to the resort to read and nap for a bit. I know, polar opposite of my typical vacations, but after the last nearly a year, it was so nice to sit and read.

Eventually we (ok, mostly me) decided it was WAY too nice outside to sit inside (seriously...40* in northern NH, in February!), so I ate the remaining portion of my sandwich from the day before, and we got ready for some snowshoeing.

Our resort had a “nature trail”, so that’s where we were heading. Neither of us are strong snowshoers (it’s exhausting!), so I have an incredibly difficult time with the concept of paying to use (ungroomed/minimally maintained) trails, when we aren’t going to snowshoe for long at all. So...out back behind the resort seemed like a great option!

We both got a good laugh when we got the snowshoes out of my car. Several years ago I replaced my previous pair of snowshoes (yay for LL Bean’s crazy warranty/return policy), which had straps that wouldn’t stay secure for more than about 8 steps. Well, those replacement snowshoes hadn’t yet been used. They’d been hanging in the garage for 4 or 5 years. When I pulled the plastic pieces off of them that keep them together, I found a hornet’s nest on one of them. OOPS. Guess I should use those more.

We walked down to the trail and got set up on our snow shoes. Since it was my first time strapping into this pair, it was a process, but eventually all the straps were set, and we were off. This nature trail was nice. It ran along side a field and the river. It was probably about a mile loop, and reasonably flat. It was a gorgeous day, and thanks to periodically stopping for pictures, we were able to complete the whole loop. Seriously guys, if you haven’t snowshoed, it’s exhausting!

We returned to our unit for a bit, and then decided to head over to the Met. The Met is a coffee shop (and during non-Covid times, an art gallery too) in downtown North Conway. It was less than a 5 minute walk from our resort, so we walked over there. I got a thin mint hot cocoa (as in peppermint hot cocoa...not lowfat) and Nick got a chai latte. We then snagged the open igloo outside to enjoy our beverages and people-watch. 

Once we had finished our beverages, we wandered a bit, checking out the views and the shop windows. The downtown North Conway shops decorate their windows seasonally, all year. 

As we approached Zebs, we realized there was no line! So we headed inside. Zebs is a super popular country store, and with social distancing in effect, the line just to enter the store can get quite long. I hadn’t been in Zeb’s since October 2019. This is particularly unfortunate, because right before lockdown started, I had a serious craving for their fudge. Obviously that craving had gone unanswered. So I was particularly excited to have found the right timing to get into Zebs without a wait.

I’ve never walked out of Zebs empty handed and today was no different. I got cookie mixes, chocolate covered animal crackers, did some birthday shopping, and...I got my fudge! Cookies and cream and peanut butter fudge for the win!

And yes, Zebs had gotten in on the decorating, and even left up their Christmas decorations outside.

We walked back to the resort and relaxed and read for a bit longer, before it was time for dinner. Tonight’s dinner was at Moat Mountain Brewery. This is one of our favorites, and, sadly, is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays. So, if we were going to stick to our plan of doing takeout on the weekend, which we knew would be busy in town, tonight was our night.

The Moat has consistently awesome food, a stout that Nick loves, and they have had some of the best Covid precautions in the industry since restaurants were allowed to reopen. They’re always busy, so we got there shortly before 5. This worked well. As part of their procedures, you wait outside until they’re ready to seat you, or process your takeout pickup. The line was already several deep when we got there. For proof of how busy they can get, note the markers way down the sidewalk, and the benches. 

The line stayed appropriately distanced and moved quickly, and pretty soon we were seated in our favorite room. Moat is in a giant old house, and our favorite (and seemingly most frequent, despite never asking) place to sit is on the closed in porch. There’s a pellet stove out there so it’s always comfortable, and it’s great for people watching.

Dinner was fantastic, as always. Nick had a brisket meal, which is what he always gets, and a stout. I had a Mexican bowl (chicken, rice, beans, guac and cheese) and the night’s drink special, a Hawaiian sangria. It was all great.

After dinner, it was back to the resort, where I actually finished my book (The Midnight Library by Matt Haig...read it), and we just generally relaxed (and took extra long showers because we could!), before crashing for the evening.

February 2021: Winter Vacation in NH: Day 2

Day 2: Monday February 22, 2021

There’s no glorifying it...after a night of tossing and turning, I was awake by 4:30. Happy first real day of vacation? I spent some time reading and enjoying the almost-like-being-at-Disney (ha) view.

Around 8 I woke up Nick enough to get a breakfast order and then I headed about 3 minutes up the road to Bagels Plus. When I got there I discovered signs everywhere and an outdoor menu. Oops. Turns out I needed to call my order in, or order online, and then drive through or walk in (barely) to pick it up. So I went back to my car and called in the order: sausage, egg and cheese on an asiago bagel for him, egg and cheese on a three cheese bagel for me. Did I mention they make their bagels in-house?

About 7 minutes later, I stepped just into the foyer of Bagels Plus. Payment was quick and I was back in my car in minutes. Unfortunately things had picked up and the lot was full of skiers in massive SUVs, one of whom pulled up to the drive through window right as I was ready to leave. The driveways here were never designed for a drive-through with room to pass, so I was stuck until the out of state snow-bunny got back in her car with her coffee and drove away. Then it was a quick drive back to the resort, where I woke Nick for breakfast. We had our seriously delicious breakfast on the couch upstairs and then got ready for the day.

This morning was a divide and conquer morning. Nick had to do a webinar for work on Toyota’s hybrid system. Since it was a two hour webinar, I had made my own plans.

As he settled in for his webinar on the not-so-comfortable downstairs couch, I headed back to Jackson. Destination: the Jackson Cross Country Ski Center. Jackson, NH is an absolutely adorable town that I fall more in love with every time I visit. So since they have literally miles of cross country ski trails, many of which are very easy, this was the place to go. I learned to cross country ski as a 3 year old and skied every winter with my parents and grampa as a kid, but prior to about a week before this trip when I tried out the grooming at a local golf course, I hadn’t been on my cross country skis in probably 15 years. So it’s super easy trails for me for the time being.

I bought my trail pass, switched boots, and headed for the trail loop right behind the center. This is a very short loop, but it was ideal for today. While my loop at the golf course had felt awkward the week before, this one felt good. I started to get my ski rhythm back and figured out my hill strategy as a much heavier than 15 years ago human on skis. Apparently cross country skiing is like that bicycle riding analogy. Despite the thinner than expected snow cover, conditions, and particularly the grooming, were good, and it was an enjoyable morning, despite the falling snow. 

Once I had finished the loop, I made my way back to the car. Changing boots and removing snowpants that were purchased pre-pandemic was a process, but pretty soon I was on my way to my next stop, a country store I had not been to before called Flossie’s. Flossie’s was just down the road, still in Jackson. It turned out to be a great little country store and I did not leave empty handed.

Shopping complete, I headed back to my next stop, this time the J-town Deli and Country Store for some lunch to take back to the resort. I ordered us some sandwiches on locally made sourdough and browsed while those were being made. Ended up leaving with sandwiches, sodas and whoopie pies.

Back at the resort, Nick’s webinar was nearly done and we dug into our lunch. The sandwiches were huge and fantastic, and Nick declared his whoopie pie the best he had ever had. They were excellent whoopie pies! I would go out of my way to get food from the J-town deli again. Definitely fresh sandwich fixins and locally made baked goods. Can’t go wrong.

After lunch we moved upstairs, where Nick napped and I read beside the fireplace/heater, on the more comfortable than downstairs couch.

It snowed all afternoon. As it approached dinnertime, I decided that the snow would make for some fun pictures as the last train of the day approached the station, so I went out and stood in the snow for longer than I care to admit and took some pictures. 

Then we got ready and headed for dinner. I enjoy margaritas. Today was National Margarita Day, so although it was not easy to find an open Mexican restaurant in this area on a Monday night, there was one, and this is kind of an important holiday, so Fiesta Jalisca was our destination.

It was snowing like crazy, but we made it, and after a bit of parking lot confusion, thanks to the active snowplowing happening, we parked and headed inside. We were seated promptly and salsa and chips appeared almost immediately.

Dinner here was affordable and better than anticipated. It had been recommended by a friend, but the salsa and chips left a lot to be desired, so we weren’t so sure about it. We had a pitcher of margaritas (as the driver on a snowy evening, I promise I only had 1 ½ margaritas), I had a grilled chicken chimichanga and rice and Nick had some enchiladas (beef maybe?) and a pork carnitas quesadilla. Our meals were excellent and affordable and so were the margaritas. And yes I have a margarita mask.

Once we finished dinner we paid a visit to the grocery store that was right behind the restaurant, and then made our way back to the resort, where we relaxed and called it a night.