Acadia is Awesome

Monday morning at the crack of dawn, woken already by the sun and oppressive heat in our room, we drove 5 hours up the coast of Maine to the greatest National Park on the East Coast: Acadia. Grumpus drove the whole way and was a true tough -- he averaged 70mph, aided in large part by "Car Talk" and "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" (yes, we really are elderly people).

It was a 100% traffic-free drive (wah!) and we got to Bar Harbor in time for lunch. Oddly, since all we did all morning was sit and drive, we were both starving. After some searching, we decided on dark tavern where Mumpus got a lobster roll and Grumpus got a haddock sandwich and clam chowdah, although he was distracted by the news that Coach Tressel (of THE Ohio State University) resigned. He was -- and is -- very sad about it. It is terrible :(

Lunch was great, and we wanted ice cream as we wandered around the town, but it was all too expensive ($5 a cone!!), and we were being cheap.

So instead, we decided to go for a hike in the park. The weather was BEAUTIFUL- mid-80s and sunny, after weeks of heavy fog and cold here. Our hike started out along an easy stretch of coastal road with beautiful views of the ocean and mountains. Grumpus decided that he wanted more than beautiful views, so we scrambled down a wooded path to the rocks and walked along the rocky coast. We headed back up to the road, crossed it, and moved on to Gorham Mountain Trail.

Let us pause to tell you something about Acadia: a "moderate" trail in Acadia is about a thousand times harder than anything in the Boston area. We didn't know this when we started.

We hiked up what we considered a "strenuous" trail (until the next day's hike). But it was awesome. We took a detour at Cadillac Cliffs, which was very cliffy, and eventually were rewarded with panoramic views of the mountains and ocean from the top. Since we didn't expect to go on such a tough hike, we didn't pack enough water, and Grumpus was a true gentleman and made sure that Mumpus was well hydrated even though he was very thirsty.

We then drove to the other side of the island to our B&B, the Kingsleigh Inn, in Southwest Harbor. (Thank you D- and A-Lipps for our graduation present!!!!) We definitely recommend this place -- it's really nice and the owners are great. We headed out for a quick run, showered and then partook of the complementary wine and hors d'oeuvres. After several glasses of wine we headed out for a surprisingly good pizza dinner and returned to our room for complementary port and chocolates. Grumpus has always had a taste for port, and he really wants to learn more about it so that we can drink it back in Medford. Following a long day of adventuring, we fell asleep embarrassingly early (hint: it was still light outside).

From Minutemen to Acadia

This past Saturday we went to the Minuteman National Historic Site. Grumpus bikes past it on most of his rides, so he figured that it was about time we explored it. Our adventure started at the visitor center, where we watched a surprisingly good video that retold the events of April 18 & 19, 1775 in a multi-media theater (the narrator appearing as a man-sized video apparition in a doorway). For those of you who aren't from Boston, April 18th was the night of Revere's ride, where he rode past our house in Medford to alert the militias that the Regulars ("British") were coming. One of the things we learned in the video was that Revere wasn't the only rider heading to Concord -- William Dawes took the southern route from Boston and both men ran into a third rider, Dr. Samuel Prescott, neither of whom get much credit.

Boston back then looked way different -- the Charles River was huge, and we felt sad that so much land around the city has been reclaimed since then. Anyways, we learned that Revere got caught, and Mumpus even got a picture at the very spot! (They let him go again after a few hours, silly Regulars.)

The real reason for checking out the area was the reenactment that the Stow Minutemen were putting on. The South has Civil War reenactments, Virginia has Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown, Cleveland has nothing and Massachusetts has the Minutemen. The Stow Minutemen were spending the day cooking, playing fifes, trying to amuse kids with lame games from the 18th century and firing guns. Now as you might imagine, people who dress up on heavy wool outfits for fun 20 times a year are a little weird. The Minutemen were all friendly, but odd, very odd.

We learned that each company had a fife and drum; the fife can be heard above the guns during battle, while the drum can be heard below. The fifes and drums were used to signal retreat, fire, cease fire, time to pray, time to wake-up, etc. The music wasn't great, so we were happy when it ended after 15 minutes. Next came the best part -- the guns! The minutemen fired several rounds, and it was awesome. After the guns we decided that it was enough, so we headed off to a farmers' market in Natick.

It was the lamest farmers' market ever, so we had to scavenge for food. We finally settled on Chinese and learned an important lesson -- never, ever trust a Chinese place that doesn't have Chinese characters on the menu. Ever. Instead of delicious Chinese food, we had a mystery meat egg role and some terribly heavy pork. It was sad. After lunch, we headed to a Wholefoods parking lot to buy a bike rack we found on Criagslist. The best part about Craigslist is that you meet people and exchange cash in a manner strikingly similar to the way high school kids buy drugs. Loot in hand, we continued on to Callahan State Park for a hike.

The hike wasn't all that special, but Grumpus finally saw a snake eat a frog-- something Allie saw last summer and that Grumpus had been jealous of for a long time. The snake was over three feet long and the frog was the size of a kiwi. The frog was struggling hard, but the snake had him good. While we were watching the snake must have sensed us, because it managed to hide under the leaves while the frog was fighting to break free for its life. We wanted to help the frog, because nature can be sad, but we didn't, because it wasn't our place to intervene. And the frog was going to die anyways.

We woke up at dawn the next day and began our journey to Acadia, ME!

Adventures in NYC

Good news! we both successfully graduated last week- and as a reward Mumpus got to go down to visit Naomi in Connecticut/NYC for a few days. Grumpus was supposed to come, but had lots of work to do, despite having successfully graduated.



First, our plan was to go see The Book of Mormon, the new, hot Broadway show by the creators of South Park, but sadly, being so new and hot means that it is impossible to get tickets. So instead we planned to get up at the crack of dawn (5:45 am) to drive to the city and wait in line until the box office for "Anything Goes" opened (at 10 am)- to get rush tickets. Believe it or not we were NOT the first in line! or even the second or third in line! We were 7th, and by the time they came to tell us there were sold out for the matinee (at 9:35 am), there were about 30 people behind us in line.

As we wandered into Time Square, Naomi suggested that instead of trying for a third string choice, we could explore the city all day--- which, being sunny and in the 70s after being rainy and cold for a week was a SUPER great idea.

Shack Shake burger, dog and fries

Just our luck, the first thing we discovered was a big PR gig set up by Walgreens to donate to the American Cancer Society--they had all sorts of steps set up so that for each one you walked, Walgreens donated a penny to the cancer society. That was great and all, but the REAL cool part was we got free pedometers that we used to calculate all of our steps and mileage for the day.

We first wandered to Madison Square Park to eat a burger, dog and fries at Shake Shack. We picked up some free Sobe drinks on the way (another PR campaign; not delicious), checked out Mario Batelli's Eataly, and 15 minutes after Shake Shack opened (at 11am!) there was a line of maybe 60 people waiting for burgers! It went pretty fast and the food was delicious and cheap.

Homemade pistachio cherry ice cream sandwich

Cooling off our feet in a flat "waterfall" on the High Line

Then we wandered down to the High Line- the renovated elevated railway line above Chelsea- now a beautiful urban park and walkway with fantastic views and nice, windy paths through the wildflowers.

On the way there we stopped in Three Tarts for a homemade cherry-pistachio ice cream sandwich and a mini kumkuat tart. Yum.

After that we walked through Chelsea market, got an Americano and Machiatto, and ended up trying on fabulous (although expensive) clothes at Anthropologie.

Coffee break in Chelsea market

We both almost got something, but didn't want to walk around with bags, so we decided to go again in Connecticut, and we hopped on the train to head uptown to the Met.

View from the terrace of the Met

At the Met we saw: (1) the new Alexander McQueen exhibit (crazy, lots of fashion students), (2) Diane Keaton (as she walked by us in line for the exhibit), and (3) the view of the city/Central Park from the rooftop terrace (very green, cool skyline). Then we got street food on our way towards the Plaza Hotel: (1) a garlic pretzel, and (2) a mini Belgian waffle with Specaloose spread (made from Belgian gingerbread cookies) and bananas.

Belgian waffle with Specaloose and banana!

Garlic pretzel

THEN, because a day exploring with Naomi always includes a culinary feast of epic proportions, we had wine and appetizers at the Food Court at the Plaza. This is a very cool, very elegant restaurant where you sit at counters at one of half a dozen food stations - pizza oven, seafood, sushi, etc. We chose the pizza oven, had a proscuitto and fig flatbread, and got the sous chef's tips on the best spots to eat in Manhattan.

Procuitto and fig flatbread

After wine and flatbread we walked over to Totto Ramen to meet our good friend (and former roommate from Beijing) Gideon. Grumpus was most sad to miss this dinner. We had biiiiig bowels of ramen and homemade tofu with fresh ginger, and heard all about how much more hip Gideon is than either of us (no surprise there). Apparently the new hip thing is this interactive play in Chelsea - Sleep No More-- based on MacBeth, that takes place in a creepy house that you walk through while the play takes place with you/around you. According to Gideon you can go into the kid's bedroom, pull back the bloody sheets, and that is fun and not scary. We both disagreed. But then again, we're not very hip.

Housemade tofu at Totto Ramen

Finally, after a wonderful dinner, another walk back to the car, and two very sad, black and bloody feet (I stupidly wore plastic flip-flops), we drove back to Stratford.

All in all it was a super fun day. TOTAL STEPS= 21,697, TOTAL MILEAGE: 9.457!

Island Hopping off the Boston Coast

Half-hidden view of Boston from Spectacle Island

This week were lucky-- we got to have 2 adventures in two days! After a great day of hiking and exploring in the White Mountains with friends, we decided to stay local for our Saturday fun-day. JR suggested the Boston Harbor Islands, where I wanted to go to all last summer, but never actually made it to. So even though the weather was a little cold we jumped in the car, jumped on a train, and walked through the city to the dock.

Now, I will admit, I was a little apprehensive, and I almost wimped out because the weather was cool and windy, and I hadn't worn warm enough clothes, but I toughed it out and we got tickets for the boat out to Spectacle and Georges Islands.

We decided to do 2 hours at Spectacle first, which is smaller and less interesting than George's, although we had high hopes that we could find adventure wandering the bare humpy hill island. We read about the history of the island first in the small museum and learned, much to our dismay, that the island was not always the seemingly pristine nature preserve it is now.  In fact, it is an old dump site for all of the trash in Boston with 80 feet of toxic trash that is covered with 15 feet of Big Dig dirt and a little top soil today. They admit this to you after you've read about the romanticized history of Native Americans living here, back before the ocean levels rose and this was just a hill and not yet an island.

Goldfinch in a tree! We finally got a shot of it

The island had definitely lost some of it's magic, but we decided to explore it anyways. It turns out the most exciting part of the trash island is the birds that now inhabit the place. And, being Junior Ornithologists, we were happy to tip-toe around the island looking for new birds. It was exciting. We saw some bright yellow American goldfinches that we kept just missing whenever we tried to take a picture, lots of red-winged blackbirds.  The red-winged blackbirds were very nice to watch as they sat perched on treetops singing their very agitated and chirpy songs.  The most exciting bird was a big female turkey! There are many stories related to how the turkey, which can't really fly, ended up on an island so far from the mainland.  Grumpus favored the "it just got on a ferry and went for it" analysis, although the park rangers and Mumpus thought that it got carrier over to the island in a big swell.  Either way, it was really cool to see.  Despite the fun, Mumpus was freezing, so we had our picnic lunch in the museum, where the park ranger lent us a birding book and helped us identify our birds. Then we played around on the dock while we waited for the boat to take us onwards and outwards. Oh and Grumpus blew hot air onto my head to keep me warm.

JR balancing at Fort Warren on George's island

George's Island is slightly more interesting for non-birders. There is a bigger museum, dedicated to the history of the civil-war era fort/prison Fort Warren that covers the island. The most famous prison was Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy during the Civil War.  He got better food than most, and access to the library -- a rare treat for a prisoner in those times.  There was also a nice little video and some awesome plastic displays of dinner food that various soldiers/prisoners apparently ate.

Exploring the fort

We explored the old fort- which is in pretty good condition, goofed around, and decided we had had enough of these windy, cold islands. Then the sun came out, just to spite us, because we had already decided to leave.

It was a good, albeit chilly, adventure.  Our parents are coming in town for graduation next week, when they'll meet each other for the first time...

Adventures in the White Mountains

The spectacular view from Cathedral Ledge

Exploring Diana's Baths

Last Friday we headed up to New Hampshire with a few friends to celebrate the end of school and arrival of Spring. Brandon, the team leader, decided that we were going to drive to the White Mountains, summit Mt. Chocorua , and then come home. The only problem was that he didn't really know where Mt. Chocorua was, nor did anyone else. We were lost. And it was sad.

Our waterfall lunch spot, hidden off of the trail

In a moment of despair, I (JR) spotted a hopeful sign: an Ohio license plate. I figured that nice people from Ohio would be able to help us find the mountain, so I knocked on their window. They rolled it down, and it was then I realized that they weren't from Ohio -- they were British! They were an old couple from the north of England and they couldn't believe that a bunch of Americans were lost. Thankfully, we had an Irishman and Aussie (Stewart and Arthur) with us, so it was a total national humiliation. We all chatted for a bit, they gave us a map, and we headed back the way we came.


Soon we pulled off for a path that would lead to the mountain. After about an hour of hiking we came upon a series of beautiful waterfalls, where we stopped for lunch. We scrambled up a large bolder and ate in the sun with some of the spray from the waterfall cooling us off. It was great.

After the waterfall we continued up the path and our team leader Brandon spotted a snake! It was sunning itself and we all stopped to admire it. It was the first snake that Stewart had seen in the wild. We kept going and going over tree roots and up and up and up until we were tired. Then we stopped for a chat. The top of the mountain was still a long hike away, and we were nervous that we wouldn't be able to make it up and down before dusk, so we turned around. On the way down Grumpus found another snake! I was so excited because Mumpus has found so many snakes in the past and it was the first one I found. But the snake wasn't the end of the adventure -- it was just the beginning.

At the top of Cathedral Ledge

JR and everyone resting at Cathedral Ledge

Armed with the map the British gave us, we headed into Conway in search of Diana's Bath, which someone had told us was an amazing set of pools and waterfalls. We had to ask for directions several times, but eventually we snaked our way near the Bath. Unfortunately, neither the map nor the directions were very good, and we ended up driving to a place called Cathedral Ledge. We could see the climbers from the bottom, way up high on the open rock face- true toughs -- and we kept driving towards Diana's Bath (or so we thought) and went up a huge hill. When we got to the top there was a dead-end -- definitely not Diana's Bath -- but it was an amazing scenic overlook.

We jumped out of the car and headed toward the edge, which had a great "Do Not Throw Objects Climbers Below" sign on it. It reminded me of the "loving life, please stay away from the edge" signs that are prevalent on Chinese mountains. The view was great, and the Fletcher folks, being international policy nerds, pointed out Bretton Woods and were all very excited (for those who don't know, this is where the international monetary system took shape). We also met a really nice couple who told us that hang gliders liked to run off the ledge a few hundred yards away and coast head down to a golf course in the valley. We headed over to the ledge and marveled at the beauty of the valley. Stewart, who has a history of vertigo, took another step towards overcoming it as he crept close to the edge.
We piled back into the car and continued on our quest for Diana's Bath. When we finally made it, it did not disappoint. We got to the first set of waterfalls and baths and we wanted to explore, so Allie led the way across the rocks and pools to the other side. It was great jumping from rock to rock, over the rushing falls, but not everyone was so happy about making bigger jumps across narrow rapids. Eventually, we decided to go back, but finding an easy path back wasn't so easy.

Leann trying to decide whether or not jumping here was a good idea (it wasn't)

We found a crossing, but it required jumping across a 3 ft. chasm about four feet above the rapids. Most of us got across, but Leann and Olya, feared that they could not make it, and the team was split up. We continued on two paths up the Baths looking for a place to cross without the jump. We headed further and further up, trying to stay together with our team split on two sides, and eventually, after some heroic jumps and no serious falls, the team was rejoined. Having conquered the baths, we headed back to the cars and started on our journey home.

Dinner at Flatbread in Portsmouth

Starving, we decided to stop halfway home in Portsmouth, NH for dinner at the Flatbread Co. which had fantastic flatbreads, beers and homemade sundaes. Also, it turns out Portsmouth is super cute (we will back for another adventure soon). Alas, the city closed by the time we finished dinner at 10:20pm. (We barely made it into the garage before the iron gate came down!)

We finally got home at 11:30pm, after a truly wonderful 15 hour adventure. We were happy to share an adventure with friends, and as we got into bed we started thinking about the adventure we were going to have the very next day... (to be continued soon)

Mumpus finishes a Half-Marathon! (And Alpacas)

Mumpus sprints past the man in green and towards the finish line.

Yesterday -- believe it or not--we completed the Big Lake Half-Marathon in Alton, New Hampshire along the banks of Lake Winnipesaukee!! We decided to do the race about two weeks ago after JR got an e-mail about it from someone at Fletcher. It looked like a lot of fun and a good training run, so he decided to sign-up.

The more that Allie looked at the race course and all of the perks of running -- people cheering you on dressed up at 9 aid stations, free massages, ice cream and beer after finishing, etc. -- she decided to be a tough and sign up for the race. When she signed up, she had never run more than four miles. We only had 10 days to train.


We took one training run -- a six mile trip to Winchester and back -- but that was all. Allie was pretty nervous about the race, so we kept the whole experience a secret -- until now.

The weather was perfect for the race -- sunny, lower 60s with a nice breeze. I (JR) decided to run 7:30 miles until I got too tired, but was able to finish right on target, although the last two miles hurt a lot. A guy in his 60s and a 13 year old punked me, which was rather upsetting.

Allie had a plan. She was going to run slow and steady until mile 8, at which point she would start to run hard. Unfortunately, the biggest hill on the course was on mile 8, and the second she hit the mile marker something in her brain kicked in and she sprinted up the hill. She passed a lot of people, but it made her tired, so she had to slow down again.

JR and Allie, and their medals, after 13.1 miles.

The last mile she was hurting, but near the end she started to run so fast! The picture above shows her passing the guy in green and being a true tough! And she finished right on target!

After the race we ate some free ice cream and bananas, stretched and then headed back to the Super 8 hotel to shower and get on the road.

We headed to one of the most bizzarre -- and amazing - places: Camelot Alpaca Farm and Gilmanten Winery! One of the maps we got during our recent adventure in Haverhill was of all of the farms in New Hampshire. After spending hours looking at the map, Allie decided that we should go to the Alpaca farm after the race. And we loved it.

First, we learned all about how to make wine from a high school science teacher-cum-wine-maker. He was busy doing titrations when we arrived, but he was kind enough to walk us through the wine making process. We tasted the fresh juice from the Malbecs and Cabernets, then tried some of their finished wines and decided to buy a bottle of the Malbec.

Grumpus and Alex, with the bucket of just-crushed chardonay grapes ready for pressing

Next, the co-owner Sunny took us to meet her Alpacas. Alpacas have big eyes, long lashes and a soft. Very, very, very soft. We fed the baby alpacas, did some petting and learning all about the animals. They are very nice, not much work and too much cute. Allie's sister Carrie has been talking about working on a farm, and we think that she should become an Alpaca farmer so that we can play with them.

Alpacas

After the farm we drove through a big big rain to a recommended lunch spot in Concord, The Common Man, a New Hampshire staple. Although our service was terrible, the place was very cute and there was a huge group of ladies who lunch drinking martinis and wearing funny hats in preparation for the Kentucky Derby. Amazing.

Following more driving and another big big rain, we made it home and crashed. It was a great day and a true adventure!

The Blue Hills

Springy view from our balcony

This Fun-Day we ventured south to the Blue Hills Reservation to climb to highest peak in the Blue Hills chain (not the highest peak on the East coast south of Maine, as JR thought he read). It was a perfect day for hiking-- mid-60s and partly sunny with a slight wind. The trees around Boston have finally decided to bloom, and the hills were a gorgeous spring cornucopia with bright shades of green pink, white and purple.

Our adventure started with a quest to find ingredients for a picnic lunch. We wanted a fresh, crusty loaf stuffed with good quality cheese and maybe some sliced turkey, and so we went to a nearby fancy grocery store to seek something out. While we didn't end up getting that, we tasted some delicious samples
(including a vichyssoise soup and blueberry/peach tart), and we got some fresh fruit and potato salad.

Then we found a very old and special place called Bent's Cookie Factory. G.H. Bent, it turns out invented....... CRACKERS! Incidentally, Bent also created and supplied the Union Army with their delicious (or maybe nasty) hardtack crackers. We got a HUGE roast beef sandwich and a box of Pilot crackers-- apparently traditional clam chowdah crackers. Even though hardtack crackers brought us the word cracker, they honestly looked pretty unappetizing.

Mumpus at Bent's Cookie Factory

Grumpus pointing toward the Bay 

Beautiful leaf JR found

We made it to Blue Hills-- which for thousands of years were the home of the local tribes that give this state its name- Massachusett means people of the hills. Parking was tight, and it was definitely the most crowded we've seen any trail so far, which is understandable as most of our hikes have been in sub-optimal -- but adventurous -- wintery and muddy conditions, but today it was actually nice.

Unfortunately, Allie had the old lady legs from a yoga-class-turned-boot-camp Thursday morning, which meant that she walked with a stick and a distinct hobble that elicited comments of encouragement from several fellow hikers. Many of the hikers issuing words of encouragement were on the older side with pot-bellies, which made us realize just how painful Allie's gait looked. Of course we tried to hike the "strenuous" skyline trail-- which was gorgeous, especially when we picnicked on one of the peaks, but it probably wasn't the ideal path for the temporarily indigent Mumpus. Nonetheless, she persevered like a true tough and adventurer - and as a reward we saw several really cool birds and Allie even found a genuine clear quartz crystal !!

My crystal!

wooooow

We spent a long time observing various species of birds, leading us to fear that we are becoming Junior Ornithologists, just as Allie is becoming a Junior Geologist. We know it sounds really lame, but birds are cool!

After reaching the peak, we ran into a very cute Chinese family that was somewhat lost. Feeling chivalrous, Grumpus tried to help them figure out how to get off the mountain, but without his compass we was of little help. A few minutes later we encountered a woman who was afraid of heights and stuck. She needed help, so JR pulled her up a steep part of the rock face and she continued on her way.

Allie's old woman legs started acting up on the way down the hill and both of us began to loathe the day when we walk like old people because we are old people -- not because of a yoga class. We had to devise a method, so JR ended up going down first and then gently helping Allie down by holding her under her armpits (think a parent helping a child jump into a pool). Eventually, we finished the hike!

After the hike we went to Fresh Market, where we are becoming regulars, and bought some delicious burgers. A little drive, a little burger eating and a few glasses of wine later, our adventure had come to an end.