LINCOLN, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Our time in Maine was over, so we moved on to New Hampshire.  When we arrived, it was warm.  We have been blessed with mostly great weather since we started our trip.  We had been enjoying the cooler weather and when we got to "warm", we were starting to whine a little.  I mean after all, it was a balmy 78 degrees! (It is still 96 to 98 at home.)  But, the weather did not disappoint.  Overnight a cool front blew through and the high yesterday was a crisp 65.

There are MANY outdoorsy things we want to do while here.  We are in the middle of the White Mountains and the state park here is like a mini national park.  There are many trails, waterfalls, scenic byways, and covered bridges.  Mr. W is already lamenting that we only have one week here.

Yesterday, the morning started out with light rain, so we decided to drive and visit some waterfalls.  The scenery, as we drove, was very pretty.  There are a lot of viewing areas to pull off the road and take pics.  One of the most well known scenic drives around this area is on the Kancamagus Highway.  It makes a loop through the area and goes through several of the small towns that make up this area.  Fortunately, by the time we got to the first waterfall, the rain had stopped.

We had a map that shows you where a lot of the waterfalls are located and a little bit about each waterfall.  Most of them required some walking to see them.  We did hit a couple that were roadside viewing.  I wish I had done a short video of at least one of them because I love that sound of the waterfall.  Days like this day help you get a sense of where everything is and what you want to go back to.

We picnicked at one of the spots and after we hit the last waterfall that didn't require a walk to get to, we stopped in one of the little towns, North Woodstock.  They have a store there named Fadden's. They make their own maple syrup behind their store. She told us that it takes 40 gallons of sap from the trees to make one gallon of maple syrup.  I had never had REAL maple syrup before and neither had anyone else in our group.  She was nice enough to give us all a sample.  It was really good! There is no sugar, no preservatives, no anything added to it.  It isn't as sweet as the "imitation" maple syrup we buy in the store.  It has a much lighter taste/flavor too.  It was pretty yummy.

We had asked her where our best bet would be to maybe see a moose.  She gave us directions to a marshy area and told us dusk or dawn is the best time.  It was a little earlier than dusk, but we thought what the heck and drove on out.  No luck.

We are staying at a park named Country Bumpkins.  It is a nice, small park.  They have sites with full hook-ups, some with water and electricity, and some with no hook-ups.  A couple of the sites are right on the creek.  It is well worth the cost, which was surprisingly reasonable in this area.  They did not open to start taking reservations (which could only be made by phone) until March 1.  We started calling when they opened that morning and it took us almost an hour to get through with us immediately redialing.  Crazy.