Three Days Later

Dear People of the Internet,

I hope that you all enjoyed the lovely three day weekend. Although our plans got shifted slightly (doesn't that always happen? I mean really, why do I bother to make actual plans?), we ended up having a great weekend. In fact, I felt so relaxed after my three days of fun in the sun that I actually didn't mind returning to school. Of course it doesn't hurt that we only have three weeks left here, but whatevs. What I'm saying is: my head is back in it's happy place and all is well. Good one, Memorial Day.

So Saturday I dragged a tired Christopher out of bed bright and early to begin what I thought would be a two-hour drive up to the White Mountains in NH. Apparently I didn't think to factor in holiday weekend traffic, but it took us more like three and a half hours to finally reach the outlets where we were meeting my cousins. It was so worth the traffic though- we had so much fun just hanging out, joking around, and in general being loud. We decided to do a quick lunch at Horsefeathers before heading out for our out-of-doors adventures. I had been there before and remembered it being fairly touristy (i.e. fake white birch trees "growing" in planters, plastic molds of the Old Man in the Mountain), but despite the questionable decor the food was quite tasty. While we were eating we realized that the Flume Gorge that we thought we'd be hiking was actually another hour from where we were and by then we were mighty sick of the inside of my Civic. So we decided to just start driving in the direction of the Alpine Slide and see what trails we came across.

And yay for us, we ended up finding the Arethusa Falls trail. It was about 1.6 miles in to get to the actual falls and we were feeling pretty good by the time we got up there. The trail was great- beautiful and breezy and surprisingly non-bug infested. And the falls were amazing. I mean, I've been to Niagara and it's pretty and all, but you definitely don't get to stand at the bottom and walk around in the misty pools of water. Anyway, we city folk made it all the way up and out unscathed. It was like City Slickers, minus the cattle roping and quips from Billy Crystal. We then headed back to the hotel to reward ourselves with beverages of the adult type. What about the Alpine Slide, you ask? It was closed! I know. We were so bummed. Well, not so much Chris, but the rest of us were.


Anyway, after the seven of us had a lovely dinner (creamy asiago orzo with lobster, anyone?) it was about 10:30 p.m. and while my cousins were all staying the night at the hotel, C and I did not have a room. And in fact, there were no rooms left to be had. So I steeled myself for the long ride home, C bought me a coffee and it was Boston or bust. And hey, I only got pulled over once! (I was speeding. The roads are very winding and the speed limit is constantly going from 35 to 55. It wasn't my fault! Ok, it was a little bit my fault. But I wasn't going that fast! And yes, he made me do the little "follow the light with your eyes" test, and we were totally fine. I didn't even get a ticket.) We made it home by 1:30 and it was lights out.

Sunday we went to a cookout, the weather was once again great and the food delicious. Oh, and we also tried our hand at making ice cream. Let's just say it was tasty enough for us to eat it, but we won't be opening an ice cream parlor any time soon. Monday was pretty lazy as well- we had dinner with friends, rocked some DDR, and I played about three hours of Pokemon Diamond on my DS. I don't know if that makes me lamest librarian you know or the coolest, but I will tell you this: I have never once even seen a Pokemon cartoon but that game is retardedly addictive. In fact, I almost wish I was playing it right now. Work is for suckers.

Weekend in review: complete. I'll post pictures on ye olde flickr when I get a mo' and you can check out the weekend madness for yourself. Hope you're all rested and relaxed.

Fondest wishes,
NPW

Oh, and PS: I was just cataloging a copy of Dear Mr. Henshaw, by Beverly Cleary, hence the letter format. Remember that book? I swear we had to read it like 53 times between 3rd and 5th grades. I had vague memories of hating it, I just flipped through it and realized why: it sucks. A lot.