A Few Days Away

After celebrating the start of vacation at State Park, it was time to hit the road.  No big road trip for us this year, but we did spend a few days in New Hampshire.  The weather was gorgeous for our hike up Mt. Rattlesnake.  It was a fairly easy hike, just over 1.5 mile round trip but a great warmup for the hiking season.  I have a big hiking goal for this summer's trip to Yosemite so I have to start training.  The views were spectacular and the hike was a lot of fun.

 After the hike, we had dinner at Lago with JO's family to celebrate his brother's birthday.  Lago is near Mills Falls and offers great views of the lake.  The food was yummy and the company great.  The tiramisu dessert was pretty delicious.   After dinner we hit up FunSpot before heading to our hotel.

The next day, we made our way to the Omni Mount Washington Resort in Brenton Woods.  I have been wanting to stay here for a while and I'm so glad we did.  I love the old fashioned feeling to the resort and the grand rooms with super high ceilings and lots of open space.

We checked out the "Cave," an old speekeasy in the basement floor.  It was cool, but so loud.  I thought they would keep it a bit calmer there but I guess it is a nightclub.  After drinks we wandered around, checking out the fire pits, and other fun parts of the resort.  Nothing says vacation like a fire pit!

We woke up fairly early the next morning so that we could go hiking.  We had found a 4.5 mile hike that looked good and we wanted to get it in before the rain came.  We fueled up with the breakfast buffet in the main dining room, which was absolutely beautiful.  It's a round room with tres ceilings and huge windows so you can take in the mountain views no matter where you are.  The made to order omelette station was my personal favorite.

The hike took about three and half hours and it was a lot tougher than we were expecting.  We had to navigate some "scrambling" sections, cross a couple streams, and deal with some ice and mud on the trail.  Despite those obstacles the hike was awesome and the Arethusa Falls was pretty cool.

We hiked by some train tracks

Some of the obstacles

The falls

One of the streams we had to cross 

Ice on the trail

After the hike we were starving so we stopped at a little diner and ate a lot of steak!  After a quick nap, we checked out the whirlpool, before getting ready for dinner.  We ended up eating in the Rosebrook Bar just off the main dining room.  This was the only bad part of the hotel.  The service was lousy and the food was just ok.  After dinner we had drinks in the Princess Room, an small bar and lounge off the dining room.  The bar area was dimly lit, and consisted of only the bar.  The attached lounge featured a lot of funky, eclectic chairs and furniture.    We had a lot of fun at this bar and spent a lot of time talking about our next road trip adventure this summer.

The next day we headed home, well rested and relaxed!