summer send off

After an indulgent summer of making up for lost time in the food, drinks, and gatherings department, I headed out on one final tour-de-New-England in September.

First was a work event in Downeast Maine. After watching so, so many episodes of Below Deck, I was absolutely ready to be tasked with helping to plate a charcuterie board.

After a long, dark trek westward to Loon, I crashed at a KOA campsite (thanks Laurie) for the Highland Games. I hadn’t been since I was a wee lass and decided that this! was! the! year!

I declared it was fall and was rocking my flannel and beanie. Fall declared it was summer so I was bought expensive shorts from the ski store.

My favorite event was the caber tossing, which was basically some dudes in kilts throwing telephone poles. The games were fun, but I was secretly there for the infamous Common Man Session. It was toned down and a lil pandemicy, but I will never take playing music with people for granted again… so I was happy as a clam.

The next morning, Rachel and I headed to Franconia Notch for a hike. I have been on a waterfall chasing kick this summer, and this hike had two lil’ cascades. We started at the Basin parking lot and hiked up past Kinsman Falls.

Then we headed to Lonesome Lake, where Rachel got her first AMC-hut-baked-goods moment.

We looped the water and headed down the steep Lonesome Lake trail. From there we found a mostly-trailish-trial next to the river, did some creative rock hopping to get across the Basin, then were back to the car. 7 miles on Strava, and yes I sure did do a lap in the parking lot to make it even.

Overall, a very exciting and eventful end to an exciting and eventful summer. I’ve been pushing the limits on my calendar post vaccine, and while I recognize this pace can’t be permanent… dang it feels good to make some new memories.