The Quintesential North East

 

It has been AWHILE. Felix and I have been a little preoccupied to say the least in these past couple of weeks..which we will explain in more detail in a later blog post but we decided to just play catch up on this current post. 

 The North Eastern States we spent time in during September: 

Vermont - absolutely lovely, quaint and had the BEST apple cider donuts and mountain biking, but no climbing...

New Hampshire - biggest surprise state/area so far with incredible climbing we both though the white mountains were extremely impressive

Maine - technically we can count it because we crossed the border haha but we did not get to explore Maine at all unfortunately

Massachusetts - has some of my favorite people and such a rich history with some refreshing city experiences

VERMONT

We made the obvious stop at the Ben and Jerry's factory..however the line for ice cream was too long and not moving so we didn't even get ice cream (don't worry we bought some at a store later). 

Stowe Pinnacle hike  - per Lindsey Hawkins recommendation and it did not disappoint. 

We think about these apple cider donuts VERY often. 

Bingham Falls, VT as recommended per the apple cider bartender, also did not disappoint. 

Montpelier, VT state house! Felix could not get over this gold roof. 

Kingdom Trails! The BEST place I have ever been mountain biking, I went with my good friend Stacey 6 years ago and we had the most incredible time..I was afraid it was because of the novelty and company :) but I was pleasantly surprised it was equally fun and incredible this time. 

An ode to Stacey, everytime we used to bike together we would pack sour gummies and beer for the mid ride break. 

Felix was mad I ate all the gummies. 

The views here were hard to capture. 

But I tried. 

Some shirtless hot guy made this shot a good one. 

A place I would love to make an effort to come back to at some point in our lives. We actually only biked one day because you have to pay and it was VERY hot and humid the next day. So we biked a total of 20 miles, an 8 mile loop in the morning and a 12 mile loop in the afternoon with a sunset dip in the river in town. One of my favorite days we have had together so far on the trip. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE

We had a few VERY hot and humid days in North Conway when we first got there which are difficulty in a van. So we got creative, went on some early morning hikes, spent time at the libray, hung out by a river all day and obviously night climbed. 

Shockingly it was still too hot and we were drenched in sweat after a single pitch. Thankfully the river was clear for some skinny dipping under the stars afterwards :). 

These ladies knew how to get creative with the sun as well..

The storm that was building the humidity rolled through and finally gave us PERFECT climbing weather for the rest of the week.

Standard climbing pose.

Are our fingers actually touching or no?

Cathedral ledge in North Conway is a very popular climbing area but you can also drive to the top of the ledge. So at the top there is always tourists who are SO excited to see climbers...when I got to the top of the climb where the pictures are above I had a few people clapping for me... I mcan't decide if I loved it or hated it. 

Hard to get a full view of Cathedral ledge because it was covered by beautiful trees. That just means you have to go see it for yourself! 

Had some down time for some games at an incredible rest stop. We had A LOT of people come up and ask about our van in this town for some reason, but we embraced it. 

Snuck in some mediocre mountain biking during the pre-storm weather.  

We spent the afternoon walking around Pourtsmouth, NH as it was still raining pretty consistently. It gave us that quintessential NE in the fall feel. Lots of incredible architecture, historical buildings and small cute alleys. 

The rain finally calmed a little and we checked out Pawtuckaway state park in NH and were again blown away by how incredible it was. There were endless boulders and great problems, the scenery was beautiful and we had it practically to ourselves. We took lots of videos of us bouldering..but not very many photos.

New Hampshire so far has been our biggest surprise state/area that if it wasn't so far from home (and let's be honest this Texas girl can't actually handle a NE winter) we could see ourselves wanting to live there. We do LOL at the live free or die slogan of New Hampsire as they tend to not have some of the standard laws you would expect (like wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle). Felix changed it to live free and die..

MAINE

That's right. We drove .25 miles across the NH/MA border just to say we had lobster in Maine..and to be honest, not worth it haha. Felix and I had to laugh at how expensive the lobster was for so little and honestly not all that great - but hey, we did it. 

MASSACHUSETTS 

Harvard. We completed the mini crossword on the harvard lawn to feel smart, but we couldn't figure out how to spell a dog bark (we were so stuck of woof we couln't think of ruff). So that didn't go as planned. 

Boston Commons, we took our (new) bikes all around Boston and absolutely did not leave them or let them out of our sight..and will never again haha. 

We really loved the city of Boston, rich history, bike friendly and tons of parks. 

Madison and Andrew!! Madison has been one of my best friends since high school. We have seen each other in so many phases of our lives it was so fun to see her new world in Cambridge for a few days. They were incredible hosts and it felt like no time had passed since we last saw each other. 

Their adorable place. 

They treated us to a lovely dinner outside their place and we got to meet their friends. Andrew made an incredible bibimbap which neither of us had had before. 

Felix learned the word "stoop". 

My girl. 

Gave the classic van tour and learned we need the wide angle camera for the inside van photos! 

We went out for Ethiopian food with Madison and Andrew and tried honey wine, it was all so good and such a great time catching up. I spent a lot of my time with Madison and Andrew as a third wheel when I lived in Tennessee with them, it felt complete for them to now get to know my husband! (They said they approved)

One last coffee date before we departed in their cute neighborhood. Already looking forward to seeing these two again. 

We still had some time in the NE that Felix will write about in the next post but we have really come to love it up there. It feels like a different country than the parts of America in the South West that we both know so well. The feel of seasons changing, the quaintness of the towns, the proximity of states, the history of the entire area. There is a lot to love and we have talked about retiring up there as a possibiltiy? Who knows. Next up is our time in Rumney, NH for a climbing festival and NYC!