Yorkie part 2

After putting in 5 miles on our cliff walk, we headed to Stonewall Kitchen ("SK"). SK is known for its jam and jellies. I'd never been to such a place and had a MAJOR incident where I put a cinnamon containing jam in my mouth. It was an ugly scene. Really. It was. 

Something that was not ugly? The grounds around SK.

We loved the gardens. It was kind of like a winery.  

 Yes, that is cinnamon apple jelly. I saw the little SK reusable bags on our way in and came up with the idea to make them into gift baskets. I picked up the blueberry jam (amazing) and thought my Mom (for whom I made this basket) would enjoy the cinnamon apple jam, too. (She loves cinnamon. Sick-o.) The people at SK were kind enough to turn my idea into reality with decorative packaging which I thought was really kind. The people there were super helpful (minus that misstep of the lady saying, "there is no cinnamon on that jelly" when clearly there was!).

We left SK to get a lobster roll for Jackson. He's obsessed.

We ate at this cute little place and dined outside on picnic tables to enjoy the nice day. 

 The innkeepers mentioned a "great hike" so we headed over to Mount Agamenticus to hike. (AFTER we'd already gone 5 miles. AFTER.)

It was a gorgeous and deceptively difficult hike.

I kept thinking the signs were lying about the distance we'd covered. This was nearly a straight up climb. If we were mountain goats it would have been easy.

 The view from the top always makes it worth it.

This dog looked as tired as I felt. I loved him for it.

 They cleared all the trees so that the view wasn't obstructed. I wouldn't have done that personally, but so be it.

 Ah, I love nature.

 It was a really fun hike and we were glad the innkeepers wouldn't just let us sit around after our long morning hike. We promptly left the hike and went back to the B&B for a nap. That evening we grabbed a quick dinner at...McDonald's. Yep. Jackson had a craving for it. Who am I to deny a boy his food wish on vacation? Weirdo.

After our fancy dinner we did stop in for the world's best ice cream at Brown's. It was kind of chilly that night so I couldn't get all of my ice cream down before getting tired of being cold, but it was sure good. That's right. We covered over 7 miles and then ate McDonald's and had ice cream...and I wonder why I'm fat! ;)

Travel tips from this trip...

Remember socks- airport security is dirty and my feet are now, too. Also, the plane is cold and so are my tootsies

Bring a refillable water bottle. I paid $4 for a SmartWater today. That isn't smart. Do you know how long it takes me to make $4? I don't either. Still.

DO NOT store two things in the overhead bins. Share!! We learned this in elementary school. Pack wisely. Check a bag if you must (amateurs) but DO NOT store two things in the overhead bins.

Cash in your miles for magazine subscriptions. You'll save cash by not buying the magazines at the airport and who has time to read them besides when they're traveling?

 Always pack a jacket. Even if you're going to Vegas in July because you just never know when a place will abuse its AC.

Rent a fancier rental car than you need. Treat yourself. You won't regret it. (Ok, ok, just ask for an adjustment when yet junk you pay for doesn't have cruise and get upgraded. Winning.)

If you think there is a gift shop with syrup off of a Vermont exit- STOP. You're right (naturally).

DO NOT do indoor activities on nice days. It maybe sound tempting to taste jellies and jams for two hours while the sun is shining. That would have been a lot better than driving aimlessly in the rain the next day. (defense: we still walked/hiked SEVEN miles that nice day, Jackson!!!)

Do not forget your toothbrush. The hotel says they have replacements. I call that replacing a diamond with a pebble.

Longchamp bags are the BEST CARRY-ON I've discovered thus far. Does Louis Vuitton make a better one? Probably, but if I bought LV I would not be on my flight right now. Choices. Choices.

Opting out of the people imaging device at security may not be a great idea. Sure, you've missed stepping into the biggest carcinogen known to man, but is a public groping much better? Yes. So I'm going to continue opting out much to Jackson's chagrin. I knew having too much life insurance would entice him to try to off me one way or another. It seems he wants to me to walk through a cancer booth.

Mapmyrun can be bought. Clearly the engineers there were out to get me during my mountain hike by telling me that a 399 miles distance was only .3 miles. Uphill. At at least a 40% grade. I was climbing up rocks like a mountain goat. A sick one, but a mountain goat no less. (Jackson's neck may break one day from shaking his head at me. Read that how you will.)

Don't check your work email. They're not paying you to do that so just don't. Also don't check in with coworkers. Let tomorrow's troubles be handled tomorrow.

B&B's typically have foreigners staying there. It is fun to interact with people different than yourselves sometimes. The Germans with whom we ate breakfast were aghast at the fact that college costs money here. It was a lively conversation where I got to sound very well informed and then got knocked down by the innkeeper announcing that their daughter went to Cornell on grants and didn't have student loans. Annoying? Yep. (I'd still wager a bet that my mom is prouder of me than they are of their daughters so there, Ivy Leaguer!)

Buy two iPads because Jackson shares about as well as the people on this flight share overhead bin space. (Or as well as he shares chicken wings, desserts, drinks, really any food that is not a vegetable or golf balls at the driving range. He just doesn't do it well.) I'll give back HIS TOY now.

Yorkie

This morning we woke up to a gorgeous day. Hooray.

Jackson enjoying coffee on the front porch of the B&B.

The breakfast was amazing.

 

The jam was blueberry. Yum! The egg dish was insanely good. We loved it.

The best part of staying at a B&B is that the proprietors give the best tips on things to do. They gave us turn-by-turn directions to a cliff hike this morning. It was one of the most gorgeous hikes we've ever done.

GORGEOUS!!!!!

The hike was 5 miles (!!!!!!!) total and wound us through the cute part of old town York.

York isn't a new place- 1719!

 

 

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VT/NH

Oh my goodness. I made the poor decision to not pack my laptop and to blog from Jackson's iPad. This is awful. I had to buy an app to do it and it uploaded my photos in reverse order. Wow. I'm over it. I'm doing this post in reverse. 

We ate dinner at a kitchy little place in New Hampshire. If the hotel has free coupons for recommending a place DO NOT GO. It is a trap! They've got an arrangement to send people there. Someone somewhere gets a bonus. That person was not me. I was lead astray! Astray I tell you. In exciting news, we got a Toyota toy car (OK, it was a Yaris) when we first rented. We drove it through Vermont so that no one would try to vandalize a non-green car. We then realized that driving a toy car stunk and got upgraded to a new (fully-loaded, non-toy-car) Chrysler 300. Amazing what that Jackson can do when I request him to fix something. ;)

We were nearly out of Vermont when we realized that we'd forgotten to get syrup for people who requested it. As we passed a random exit I turned to Jackson and said, "do you think they have a little gift shop near here to get syrup?" He first looked at me like I was crazy and then said NO! I pulled off the interstate anyway and THERE STOOD A SYRUP SHOP!!!!!!! I'm not kidding. I was elated. If I am honest, I was more excited that Jackson was wrong than getting syrup but whatever. ;)

Vermont looked EXACTLY like I expected it to: gorgeous. The capital is Montpelier so we headed there. The steeples were amazing. We stopped on the 16% grade road to our hiking spot to snap the photo above. That's right, 16% grade. It was insane!

We went hiking at Hubbard Park right in the middle of Montpelier. It was a beautiful area. The weather was perfect for a quick 2 mile hike. I wanted to say quick and easy but that is a lie. The hills were killer on my already sore from working out legs!

 There was a tower in the middle of Hubbard park with stairs going up to an observation area. The place would have been awesome except for 5 kids screaming. I hate bad parents.

Jackson going down the stairs. See? This is in REVERSE ORDER! Stupid iPad.

 The view from the top of the tower. We still have no idea why the tower was there. It was a beautiful place to take in the landscape, though.

 Oh, look! Jackson at the BOTTOM of the tower. Wouldn't that have been cool about 5 photos ago?

 Again, it was a gorgeous day. As I post I still do not know why the tower was there. Can you tell that it is bothering me? I'd better google it.

 I honestly googled and still cannot find a true purpose for the tower. I give up!

Dartmouth College- an Ivy League school. We've now hit 6 of the 8 Ivy members. Watch out Penn and Cornell. Well...don't watch too closely. I have no idea when we'll hit your campuses. Darn. Penn- if our flight through Philly on Tuesday gets delayed I'm cabbing it to your place. ;)

 The center of town in Hanover, New Hampshire. It was seriously the cutest town. It was vintage.

 Jackson laughing at me trying to get a photo of town center WITHOUT dudes throwing the Frisbee in it. That was NOT an easy task.

 We stopped for lunch at a little bakery in town called Umpleby's. The chicken salad was amazing. Amazing. The bread was sourdough- so good. The lettuce was fresh. Oh, it was so good! 

 I made Jackson pose with my lunch for our TripAdvisor.com review. In case you didn't know, I'm a top contributor on the site. Does that make me a big deal? Well, no. But I like saying it. (They did send me a luggage tag to thank me for all my reviews. What now?!)

Well you went through our day backwards- hooray! Thanks for sticking with me through technical difficulties. I hope to learn this stupid app a little better before posting again. Sigh. Technology.

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"The Name Game"

My parents told me a lot of little lies while I was growing up. All parents do. I present the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. Ok, I didn't get to believe in Santa, but still. Imagine my horror when a lady in my office started singing, "Jenna, Jenna, Bo Benna..." to me the other day. I said, "That's my mom's song! How did you know that?!" I was beside myself. As it turns out, this was not a song that my Mom made up. She must have forgotten to tell me that when she forgot to tell me that, though I was born on Flag Day, people didn't put their flags out JUST to wish me a happy birthday. (I'll always love flags, though, because they made me feel special when I was little and they stand for something pretty important, too!)

You can see me asking my Mom about this omission above. She is quick to take credit for making the "stinky song." A song that went, "pu-wee, Jenna Leigh, pu, pu, Kylie stinky, too!" Yep. I guess that is why she didn't tell me that she didn't make up the Jenna, Jenna, Bo Benna song...because it was a lot better. HA! :)

Weekend...

Saturday morning was gorgeous and we took MacKenzie to the Fishers Farmer's Market before I headed to Carmel for reformer pilates. MacKenzie loved all the attention that she got from other shoppers. We were so surprised. ;)

We tried out a new church, Northview in Carmel, and loved it! It was HUGE...just the way I like my churches.

We went to dinner afterwards and saw this gorgeous sky.

Sunday we spent time at our neighborhood pool. It was awesome because there were NO KIDS! Not a single child was in or around the pool. We had the whole pool to ourselves.

Ok, there was one big kid. ;) It was so nice to catch some rays as the summer winds down.

MacKenzie borrowed my new visor to remind everyone that the BMW Championship is coming to Carmel in a couple of weeks. TIGER WOODS WILL BE (basically) PLAYING GOLF IN MY BACKYARD! YESSSSSSS!

MacK got in some ball games.

There is not a single thing better if you ask her. :)