Mount Washington and more

Tuesday, August 4 (part 2)

OK, this is going to be long--just warning you. I didn't feel like making Tuesday into 3 separate entries, so I'm jamming the rest of Tuesday into this entry. (Part 1 is in the previous entry, in case you missed it--I know, I don't normally post on weekends.) You might want to go get a snack or something before you start reading.

Our next stop was Mount Washington, home of the world's first cog railway, opened for the first time in 1869. Last time Tony and I were in NH in 2005, we rode up the mountain. That was a splurge, since it's about $60 a person. It's an awesome trip, and I'm glad I can say I did it, but it might turn out to be a "once in a lifetime" kind of thing, which is OK with me. So needless to say, we did not go up this time. We just explored the base station and museum and watched for trains.

Also, some fun facts... Mount Washington is the highest peak east of the Mississippi. And it's also home to some of the world's wildest weather (there's a permanent weather station up top). The world's highest recorded surface wind speed was measured at the summit--a 231 mph (372 kilometers) gust, in 1934.

OK, OK, I'll stop boring you with the history lessons.

I have a picture from 1997 (the year Tony joined our family on vacation and proposed to me) of me and Tony and all my siblings on this same rock. So, naturally, we had to get a bunch of pictures with it. You can see the beginning of the railroad tracks, and the mountain on the right side of the picture is Mt. Washington. Ari was so not in the mood for pictures at this moment.



So we got rid of her.



Then we got everyone else to pile on with us. (Yes... even Pete!)



And then Miss Thing decided she wanted to be on the rock, since everyone else was doing it.



Tony joined her a couple minutes later, to show her that a train was coming down the mountain.



Matthew!



And here is the train. I was surprised to see what the engine looked like--they used to use only the classic, coal-burning engines, but I guess they've switched some of them to this newer style that's more environmentally-friendly. (And this explains why we saw no smoke as it made its way down the mountain.) I was a smidge disappointed.



But lo and behold, the next train coming down the mountain was what I remembered from my childhood, and from our own trip up the mountain. The engine is purposely tilted like that, to help it be at a better angle when the mountain gets really steep.



So we got a picture with the classic engine once they'd detached and "parked" it.



We had a little bit of time before the trains would leave again, so we went inside to check out the museum. This is a replica of part of the passenger car that takes you up the mountain.



See? I wasn't lying to you--it is the world's first cog railway. And I just noticed the July 3 date. Neat. It opened exactly 137 years before Ari was born.



I thought this was cool. The sign is a bit hard to read from this angle, but this contraption is called the "Devil's Shingle" and was used by railroad workers to get down the mountain in a hurry. The 3.25 mile trip took less than 3 minutes, which means they flew down the mountain at well over 60 mph. Now that's a wild ride for you.



Matthew and Ari, checking out an engine.



Ari, driving the train.



We got so caught up in checking out the museum that we almost missed the trains taking off. I snapped this shot from just outside the door of the station. (Note the old train engines sitting in the grass, too.)



After we left Mt. Washington, we drove for a while until we came to The Basin. We skipped the Old Man on the Mountain, mostly because he no longer exists (the face fell off the mountain several years ago, but that's another story). Anyway, The Basin is a nice walk along a river, ending in... well, a basin. You'll see.

Tony and Ari, checking out the rapids on the way down...



I think I caught her in the middle of a cheesy "cheese" face here...



Pretty water. This is one of my favorite things about the White Mountains... all the gorgeous rivers and rapids and waterfalls and such.



Her pose cracks me up...



My dad and Matthew...



Ari just loved the rivers--she always wanted to get as close as possible, and Tony was happy to oblige, while I was a designated photographer...



Another bridge, at another point along the river...



And, voila... The Basin. Notice the "No Swimming" sign? Notice the kid in the water (lower left corner)? There were a few teenagers there, jumping in from the edge of the rocks above. This guy was already in the water when we got there, and was moving out of the way so a girl could jump in. Took her forever to get the guts, but she did it. You can't tell in this picture, but the water is really deep right there. Anyway, that rock you see at the bottom right of the picture is commonly called "The Old Man's Foot" (as in, the Old Man of the Mountain) because it kind of resembles a foot. You just can't really tell in this picture, that's all.



Our next stop was Boise Rock, famous because of this story... a guy was riding through Franconia Notch when he was overtaken by a vicious snowstorm and couldn't carry on. In order to survive, he killed and skinned his horse, wrapping himself in the skin and spending the night tucked under this rock. When they found him, they had to chop him out of the horse skin, which had frozen... but he was still alive. When you see the rock, you can understand why it was the perfect place to hide out in a storm.

I have a photo of me and Tony doing this same pose from when we were there in 1997. So we had to do it again, with Ari this time.



Then Josh had to show us up and hold the rock up with just one finger. The look on my sister's face cracks me up--she looks much more annoyed than she actually was.



Then of course Tony had to go climb on top of it...



Another cool thing about Boise Rock is that they have this bucket and faucet there, which pours out fresh mountain spring water. We filled up a few water bottles before we left.



After all this, we were all quite pooped, and it was getting close to dinner, so we found a little family-owned pizza joint nearby. This is me and Tony demonstrating how tired we were.



The pizza was awesome... me and Pete shared a vegetarian pizza--broccoli, onions, green peppers, tomatoes. It was delicious. I think I ate 3 pieces.

After dinner, we stopped for ice cream. There was a little ice cream shop just down the road from the house, boasting homemade ice cream in 28 flavors. This was the first of 3 visits. Their serving sizes were incredibly generous, too, which was just one more reason to love the place. And not only did they have awesome ice cream (along with fresh waffle cones and other yummy baked goods), but they had a massive playground out back.



Fun for all ages...



Ari and Matthew camped out in the sandbox area... There's that Matthew-grin I love so much...



And that Ari-kid I love so much...



We got Ari a milkshake, which she had no interest in while we were there, since she preferred to play. We gave it to her in the car, and she had a few sips. (This was a size small--see what I mean about generous portions?).



And that was Tuesday. The next day, the three of us headed out without the rest of the family, for some immediate-family bonding.

To be continued...