Pirate Hideout and Ocean Waves

Ahoy! This is where the pirates be hiding!

And this is the beautiful ocean, full of big waves today!

Morning Beach Walk

If I actually manage to get back to regular blogging, it will most likely seem very boring and monotonous.  Because I imagine it will begin to look the same each time I do.  Here is our morning beach walk, at 6:15 am.  Compliments of God and Ava.

We did manage to leave the beach for a short while today.  To go and buy beach chairs, sunblock and sunhats.  We joked that it was our entire entertainment for the summer.  That's not entirely true since I will also hoop, read and scrap.  At the beach.  While using the beach chairs, sunblock and sunhats.

Ok, so we might also need the sun umbrellas that we have been dragging around for three years and only used once up till now.  What can I say, we were hopeful this time would come where we'd need them every single day.  And now that time is here!

Living the life at the beach!

More New Hampshire From My Window

Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge

I couldn't visit the New England area without taking pictures of at least one covered bridge.  Unfortunately, we only saw one that I could take a picture of.  It was an awesome one though!  If you click on the picture above, it tells how it is the longest wooden bridge in the US and some other history.

This alone made the visit here worth it!  The river separates Vermont and New Hampshire.  

I love what it said above the bridge too.

 Isn't it just beautiful here?  It's like a fine painting everywhere I look.  I am enjoying our time here so much!

Living the life in Vermont!

Vermont and New Hampshire Barns From My Window

And my favorite barn that we've seen so far.  It wasn't the prettiest, but I loved its endurance and character!

And while I'm writing, can I say how good it is to be back?  When we were in PA, we had no cell phone service and very limited internet.  As in, I could not even read Pioneer Woman's blog.  So I didn't bother doing much posting there.  I'll have to see if I can go back and cover what we did see and do there sometime.

I have missed blogging so much though.  I told Nathan tonight that it truly helps to cultivate gratitude for my life when I blog.  When I'm going throughout the day, I can easily fall into a mindlessness about what we are doing.  When I look at the pictures and write the words to capture the day, it makes me stop and be very mindful of this wonderful life we are living right now and all of the neat things we see each day.  It's good for my soul!

Living the life in Vermont!

Vermont and New Hampshire Landscape From My Window

The landscape is just stunning here.  There is green, green and more green everywhere.  I found myself snapping like a mad woman today while driving away.   I love it here!

South Hampton NH to Hershey PA

Today we headed out to begin our quest back to the south otherwise known as the warm and SUNNY place, and drove from South Hampton NH to Hershey PA. It took way longer than we would have liked. Normally we try to keep our driving time down to six hours or less, five or less being even better. We went well over that and we were feeling it by the time we arrived at the Thousand Trails. We have not stayed at this TT yet, and were sorry to only be there one night as the staff was once again so friendly and the reserve looked gorgeous. Some pictures taken through the car window while driving so forgive the cruddy quality:

Things that Go Bump in the Night

Nathan went out to fill the car tonight before we head out tomorrow and I get a phone call that is one of those you never want to get. It starts with, "I just hit something" and ended with "It's ugly". It meaning the damage to the truck. I won't tell the details since it is his story to tell. I will say he didn't really hit something, more like bumped into it, but it was big enough that a bump did significant damage to the bumper. The other "it" is just fine by the way. Not even a scratch. Here's the poor truck:

Skate Park Fun

A sneaky shot of Austin at the skate park today. He was concerned before we went on the road that he might not be able to do things like this. He has had no problem doing all of his regular activities and a few new ones.

Karaoke Revolution Quest

The kids decided that after days of rain that sometimes we might need indoor activities. So they got on a XBox train ride that included remembering how great it used to be when we played Karaoke Revolution together. Problem is, that is one thing that did not make its way into the RV with us so we had to find another if we did want to play. Many google searches and car drives later, we were the proud owners of the game and one microphone and one head set.

Since gas and toll road prices had us considering our trips carefully, it was comical the conversations that happened this week over this. Ok, you found a microphone-where is that located at? What is near there? What else?

It has rained every.single.day.all.day.long since we left Maine so we needed something to occupy our attention and this was a good distraction.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I still remember all the words to Madonna's "Material Girl". I did get an almost perfect score on it when I sang it though. Not that I was playing it. That much at least.

Mall Fun

Since we went on the road, we haven't had a day yet where we went shopping all day. Today we drove up to Portsmouth to hang out at a mall. It is so interesting to me that even though malls can look very different, they mostly have the same generic feel to them that is just so, well, mall-ish for lack of a better word. I was shocked to see Christmas decorations already up at this mall. It isn't even Halloween yet! We had a great day and found some good buys for a few cold weather items that we don't normally own. We like the feel of New Hampshire. It is pretty close to Maine in many ways which we enjoyed also. One complaint though, paying tolls to drive on I-95. What is that about?

Bar Harbor Maine to South Hampton NH

Today we scooted out of Maine bright and early. Actually it was more like we fled, due to the hurricane threat. We woke up at 3 am and were ready to leave by 6 am. It was dark and raining hard when we left. We drove through rain all the way to New Hampshire, but it was a smooth drive otherwise.We stopped at an outlet mall on the way to see if I could find a particular jacket I have been searching for, but no such luck. We had some silly fun there though that I'm guessing we'll remember for years to come.

We are now at Tuxbury Pond resort. I almost feel as if I should say, "This post has been brought to you by Tuxbury Pond" because they have free wi-fi that works great. After almost a month of slower than dial up if any connection, I feel down right spoiled.