adventures of mumpus and grumpus

Sunday, May 1, 2011

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.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Stranded

The day started out with big rain, which meant that JR's fun-filled birthday adventure plans had to be postponed. Instead of a long outdoor romp in the woods we decided a cold, rainy Saturday afternoon was a perfect opportunity to explore a new town and brewery our friends Stewart and Ryan recommended last night: s Haverhill, MA.

Haverhill (founded 1640) was once the gem of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it did have a big-time shoe-making industry, and was known for a while as Queen Slipper City, which is a pretty sweet, if weird, nickname. Another fun wiki-fact is that Haverhill was the site of the Haverhill Fever, also known as Rat Bite fever, in 1926-- something the Haverhill history museum failed to tell us, believe it or not!

Our primary interest in Haverhill, besides being told it was a very cool historical town on a river, was the Haverhill Brewery, which came highly recommended (and was in fact fantastic). Before making it there, we stopped at the historical society/Haverhill Museum to see if we might hear some interesting history or get some good local tips on places to explore.

We ended up talking to Wilbur (name changed to protect his privacy) for about an hour-- because Wilbur it turns out is a one-man New England travel agency and he had all sorts of great ideas about where to go in MA, NH, VT and ME. My personal favorite was Adventure Suites in New Hampshire which has exotic and enticing rooms one can stay in such as "The Cave", "Love Shack", "The Tree House", "Motorcycle Madness" and "Dragon's Lair". According to the Boston Globe "it's like sleeping in a theme park". We love it.

After looking through Wilbur's historic New England travel book collection and with armfuls of travel brochures, we ventured out into the rain. We headed to the nearest riverside trail, which turned out to be a walk along what we christened "trash trail". It was very romantic. We were below the level of the road beside the river, mostly walking on wet branches and trash. But we saw some birds, and there was a nice river, and, you know, it was only raining lightly.... We were glad that we didn't have anyone visiting us this weekend.

After our nice nature hike, we decided it was time for the brewery. It was interesting walking through the old shoe factory district - we found cool murals in some alley-ways, which seemed a bit of an odd place for historical murals, but whatever.

The Haverhill Brewery, which is located in a pub called The Tap is fantastic-- and we had several pints and some great homemade chilli. The place itself was old and cosy, and we flipped through some of our new travel brochures. After two pints for Grumpus and one for Mumpus, we decided that it was time to call it a day, so we went back to the car. When we got back to the car we couldn't find the keys. Anywhere. Not on the ground, not in our bags, not in The Tap -- nowhere. It was terrible.

We called AAA, and 20 minutes later the dude who uses a balloon-link tool to unlock car doors showed up. He was able to open the door but, alas, the keys were not in the car. Even more terrible!

We then learned about the most wonderful person in the world: the cut-a-new-car-key-in-a-van-so-idiots-like-grumpus-can-drive-home-man. After waiting for 45 more minutes, the key-man showed up, drilled a hole in the side of our door, read the key code on the inside and went back to a machine in the van that cut two new keys in about 5 minutes. He gave us the keys, we paid him, and then we were gotta there.