Monday, July 9, 2007

Two Awesome Weekends

Two weekends ago, before I started the new job, Kimberly and I went to Keene, NH for exploring, camping, and hiking. We left Friday afternoon intending to camp for one night, but after setting up camp I decided that we needed an extra night there, so we reserved Saturday night as well.

Friday night we ate here:

A seafood place called Nick's. We couldn't resist. The food was actually really good.

The campground was gorgeous. The sites were big, riverside, and clean.


Saturday morning we headed to town and ate at a local diner, then went and did some hiking on Mt. Monadnock. This was the first time I've ever summited Monadnock twice in one week!


After the hike we showered and went back to town for dinner. We ate at the Margaritas in town (shameful that we went for a familiar chain instead of a local place, I know, but it was what we were really craving in the moment). Keene is a very cool college town, with an active main street complete with local shops. We bought a nice art print and some supplies, visited a musical instrument store, and a record store.




a yet-to-be-molded record bowl

Both nights we made a great campfire and had s'mores. Here are some shots from Saturday.




a single star on 8-second long time exposure. These are my hand movements and I tried to hold the camera steady without a tripod.

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This past weekend we went to the annual cookout at Kimberly's parents' camp in Northern Maine and Nathan and Priscila decided to come along with us! We left Friday night, stopping off in Portland for a late dinner, Yarmouth for a visit to Delorme and the world's largest revolving globe, and arrived at Kimberly's parents' house at 1AM.


Her name is Eartha. Kimberly and I always give her at least a nod on our way through in Maine.

Saturday morning we got up and went to Tim Hortons for breakfast. Nathan and Priscila were very excited for the opportunity, since Tim Hortons is a staple in Quebec where they lived previously, and it has expanded all throughout Maine, but there are none near us in eastern Mass. After breakfast Kimberly and Priscila went shopping while Nathan and I hiked Blue Hill Mountain 20 miles southeast of our hometown, Bucksport.


Nathan taking pictures on the summit.

The mountains of Mt. Desert Island

We met back at the house and then continued on an additional 100+ miles to the camp in Merrill, ME. We stopped off at an outlook with a view of Mt. Katahdin on the way. After the party we visited with Kimberly's family, had a huge campfire, and slept in tents.

We buried our ferret, Rocky, who passed away in January. I picked up Kimberly's little cousin's First Act accordion and worked out Amazing Grace for the ceremony.

The Katahdin outlook:




The campfire:





On Sunday we took all day to travel back, stopping at the Kenduskeag stream and our favorite bagel shop in Bangor, visiting my family in Bucksport, eating dinner in Augusta, and outlet shopping in Freeport.

It was the first time we had a chance to show our friends from Massachusetts our home state and it was great to see all the familiar places and people in a vicariously new light.

3 comments:

Shannon said...

Hey Dan, I really dig your extended exposure shots of the star and the embers. Can I steal them for painting? And by steal, I of course mean take inspiration from. :)

Danielle Athanas said...

I'm glad that you guys all had a great weekend! Nick's look like an interesting place... with a very large crab. :)

Kimberly Pye said...

I miss Crabbie. (And that tasty fried shrimp I ate under him.)