Andrea and Andrew, and the epic search for a new car

Andrew and I started our search for a new car several months ago. I can't say we've been continuously researching and testing new cars weekly since May, but it's definitely been at the back of our minds all this time. As much as we loved our Smart (and I will do another post about it) it simply does not baby. Back seats, and at least some stowing capacity are required.

We started by checking out the Chevy Spark. We went to the Best Chevy dealership, which we'd actually heard discussed on Under the Influence (Mike O'Rielly, CBC), as a place with exemplary customer service. We headed out one fine Saturday afternoon, drove the Spark around and talked to a sales representative. We liked the Spark. It was cute, still fairly compact, seemed comfy to drive, and was relatively inexpensive. We knew we weren't ready to purchase just yet, but put the car down as a definite maybe.

Then we started to worry, the Spark only has four seats, and the trunk space...well, we'd actually be able to get less in the trunk than we could in the Smart (assuming at least one of the back seats were occupied by a human and couldn't flatten them). We thought we better try another car for comparison.

The next on our list was the Ford Fiesta. Well, you readers might remember what happened there.

After that we decided we would try a Honda Fit based on recommendations from a friend, some of the key pointers being that Hondas tend to be sturdy, dependable cars that hold their value better than other vehicles. Also, Andrew's sister and brother-in-law purchased a Fit when they had their son, so we knew it could handle the extra space required for travelling with an infant.

Mistakenly, we went to test drive a Fit at one of the big car dealerships in town owned by Herb Chambers. Although their billboard ads are rather clever, we received terrible service. Where to start? Well, even though I called ahead and made an appointment, the person we were supposed to see wasn't there. Their offices were bland and depressing, with no music playing and limited windows, which made it extra oppressive when we were left waiting at our salesperson's desk. Two different sales people talked to us, both of whom took the exact same information from us. Even though we stated upfront that we weren't interested in buying that day, they tried to pressure us into a sale (and then continued to call me for weeks afterward). All told, that visit took us close to 2 hours, and it sucked.

That's not to say we weren't interested in the Fit.

We held off on our car search for a few weeks mid-summer as we waited to hear the results of an interview Andrew had attended back in Canada. Unfortunately that position fell through, so at the end of August we resumed searched for a car, determined to get something ordered. This time we opted to go to Honda North Danvers based on good Internet reviews, and guessing that a place outside the city might be have better customer service and fewer high-pressure sales tactics. We visited the dealership on a rainy Wednesday evening at the end of August, and met with an unassuming and soft spoken salesperson by the name of Nagi. We discussed what we were interested in a vehicle, and got our name on the waiting list for a Honda Fit (there were several people already ahead of us).

Six weeks passed.

Due to some minor car troubles of our own, we allowed the time to pass without following up with Honda North, but once the Smart was running smoothly again we thought it was time to find out when we might expect to see a Fit with our name on it. Originally we'd hoped to purchase a car with a standard transmission (both Andrew and I learned on standards), but as there still wasn't one available (the beginning of October), we were happy to take what was available. So, on Saturday afternoon (October 11th) we drove out to the dealership, expecting to finally purchase a new car.

Sadly, we were wrong.

Each time we visited a dealership we asked about the trade-in value of the Smart, making it clear each time that the car was purchased in Canada, and the speedometer and odometer only read in kilometers. Best Chevy said they could give ups $4,000 with the possibility of negotiation, Herb Chambers tried to offer only $2,500, but when we said we'd been offered $4,500 they quickly retracted their offer and said they could give us more (another reason we didn't like them), and Honda North also said they could give us around $4,000, again with the possibility of negotiation. Ideally, we would have liked something closer to $5,000 (after all, the car only as 50,000 km on it), but for the convenience of not having to try to sell the car ourselves (for which we would have had to get it back to Canada) we were willing to take it.

On Saturday, Honda North said they could give us a maximum of $2,500. What? But that's not what you said last time. Perhaps now that our trade-in and purchase were at hand they actually took a closer look at the car and realized what we meant by saying the car was Canadian. We wanted more for our car and felt we couldn't go through with the deal, and we left the dealership shortly there after. For the drive home, and much of the remaining evening we bounced around ideas of how we could sell the Smart and still get the Honda Fit we'd been hoping for. Could we get the car back to Canada? Could we just sell it here in Massachusetts (which we understood to be illegal)? Could we do without a car altogether when there were other options like Zip Car?

This was also when that 20/20 hindsight came into focus:
Maybe we should have investigated getting our car switched over to Imperial measurements as soon as we moved to the US.
Maybe we should have sold the Smart before we left Edmonton.
Maybe we should have never purchased a 2-seater car in the first place.
Should have, would have, could have, all too late.

Our bad car mood continued over to Sunday. Eventually we decided we should go back to Best Chevy (hoping they could still give us the $4,000 they'd originally quoted us) and investigate the Sonic (the step up from the Spark). The decision to go back to a Chevy was partly made because we could get last year's model, but also because we hoped we could negotiate a better deal than what we'd get with Honda. So, first thing on Monday (Columbus Day in the US) we headed off to the dealer, hoping by the time we returned home we would be driving a new car.

When we arrived at Best Chevy we were quickly put into a 2014 Sonic (I called ahead) and we took it for a short test drive. It probably drove as well as any other car we'd tried, and it fit our baby seat (which we'd decided to bring along). It was nice enough, but we'd definitely be settling. The console and the interior were much nicer on the Fit; however, with the pending arrival of Root we had to get a new car and soon. So, once we returned to the dealership we entered into negotiation for purchasing the Sonic--or rather Andrew did, and I sat beside him and nodded. Considering we made no attempt to haggle for the Smart, I think Andrew did a pretty good job. He got them to honour the lower price advertised by another dealership, and when the trade-in value for the Smart was offer (the same abysmal offer made by Honda North) he got them to agree to the upper range value of $2,500. I put my signature down on the first set of documents to get things rolling.

Then the crazy thing happened.

Can you guess?

Don't worry, I'll tell you.

Honda North called us. The GM had reviewed sales that hadn't gone through over the weekend and they were willing to offer us more for the Smart. Still not quiet as much as we would have liked, but better. After a series of quick phone calls and back of the envelop calculations we determined that the final price of the Fit would be $500 less than the Sonic. So we backed out of the deal. As I said, we would have been settling with the Sonic, the Fit was the car we wanted.

I felt terrible. I know, we're talking about car sales. It's a big business, lots of money changes hands, dealerships make and lose sales all the time, and on more valuable vehicles than what we were looking at. Still, I felt really bad after having gone through the hassles of trying to get a better price, etc. The salesperson was polite as I think anyone could have been under the circumstances as we packed up, and left. And for anyone in the Boston area, let me clear the people at Best Chevy did nothing wrong, they're a good dealership. The Sonic just wasn't for us.

We grabbed some lunch before headed off to North Honda, and that's more or less the end of the story. A couple of hours later we drove home with our new 2015 Honda Fit. Hopefully we won't have to go through the car buying process again for another six or eight years.

We tried to take a selfie with the car...it didn't quite work.

Our new, very yellow car.

Ciao,

Andrea

Camping at Pillsbury State Park

Andrew and I went on one last camping trip over the Labour Day weekend. I mean, it probably won't be our very last camping trip ever, but it will be the last camping trip we take where we don't have to worry about keeping track of a little one. Certainly lots of people still camp with kids, but we're probably going to have to buy a new tent (ours is a wee 2-person tent), maybe get a dinning shelter, and we'll have to do our meals differently too. I suspect there are a large number of other factors we'll have to take into account, but those considerations are for another day.

So, Pillsbury State Park. We chose this location with the hopes of going out into either a canoe or kayak for at least one of our days at the park. Even though we left our apartment at 3:30 pm, we didn't get to our site until almost 7:00 pm (due to traffic and stopping for dinner). This meant that we didn't do much on our first night besides set up and sit by the fire. Our campsite was one of the more secluded sites and considered a 'walk-in' site, although the walk was maybe a minute long. Overall, I'd say Pillsbury State Park is more rustic than Monadock State Park as it has only latrines, and water taps.

The marker and path leading up to our campsite.

Our campfire, just as it's beginning.

After our camping trip in July, Andrew researched methods on building campfires. He located several videos on YouTube on the 'Swedish Torch' method of starting fires, which he had to modify slightly since we weren't working with a full log. It worked like a charm each of our nights in Pillsbury.

On Saturday we spent the bulk of the morning and early afternoon in a canoe. We haven't honestly spent a lot of time boating, this was maybe the third time I can remember paddling together, but I think we both had a good time, and were reasonably successful (i.e. we didn't tip, and were able to navigate to where we wanted to go). Butterfield Pond (where the boat rentals are located) and May Pond are connected directly, and according to the map they're approximately 1 mile/1.6 km from tip-to-tip, then Bear Pond (0.25 miles/0.4 km) and North Pond (0.5 miles/0.8 km), can be reached by a short portage. We'd never portaged before, so we were very glad the trails between the bodies of water were short. I took the bow for the first two, but I couldn't see far ahead of me so navigation was....challenging. On the return trip Andrew took the bow, which seemed to work better. Regardless, I'm not ready for any extensive canoe camping.

A view of May Pond from the shoreline (I didn't want to take the risk of taking the camera onto the water).

Bear Pond from the shoreline.

We were out for approximately 4 hours as we paddled along the shore lines rather than cut a path directly across the ponds. Once we got back to our campsite (around 2:00 pm) we took a break before going out for a short hike up to 'Balancing Rock.' The path was pretty gentle, mainly dirt and roots, with a fairly slow slope upwards, with somewhere between 400-500 feet/120-150 metres of elevation gained. We went up with only our regular running shoes (which are the minimalistic kind) and without hiking poles. The rest of our day was spent at our campsite having dinner and relaxing by our fire.

Andrew balancing on balancing rock.

Sunday was mainly overcast and eventually rainy--although thankfully not until after we'd had our fill of hiking. Overcast weather is actually preferable for hiking in my mind because it's generally cooler, which isn't to say we weren't sweating anyway. Our goal was Lucia's Lookout (2,493 feet/760 metres), a point along the Monadnock Sunapee Greenway Trail (a 51 mile/82 km trail that runs between, not surprisingly, Monadnock and Sunapee Mountains). On the way up we took the 5 Summers Trail (4 miles/6.4 km), which was a pretty easy going path that doubles as a snowmobile trail in the winter. The trail was fairly wide with a low grade incline until 3 miles/5 km in, where it narrows to a foot path. Only the last 5 or 10 minutes up to the lookout were of any difficulty (some rocks, much steeper), but in general the hike was fairly comfortable and took us a little over 2 hours. That's not to say that it was easy-peasy and anyone could hike up there, but for two reasonably active people with some backpacking experience it was fairly relaxing.

Me, while we rested and ate lunch at Lucia's Lookout.

The view from the lookout, although this is from a spot (maybe a minute) away from the main lookout area, on the edge of the cliff.

We took the Monadnock Sunapee Greenway Trail back down the mountain. I think this trail was prettier than the 5 Summers (forest hiking trail v. mainly a snowmobile trail--although still forested), and slightly longer. There were probably a few more ups and downs on the section, but again, nothing major. About a mile (1.6 km) from Lucia Lookout we took a short detour to the Moose Lookout due to some confusion about which way to continue along the trail. The Moose Lookout was a camping spot for hikers tackling the whole Monadnock Sunapee trail, and not really much of a lookout from what we saw (i.e. it was in a well forested area). The detour took us maybe an extra 10 minutes, then we were back on our way.

Just as we reached the start (or our end) of the trail a couple of park rangers were headed up to look for a group of 10 that had gotten lost, or confused, or something...At the time it struck me as very odd that a group of 10 could have gotten lost. It's a large group, and not a particularly challenging trail and someone ought to have known how to follow the trail markers. When we checked out on Monday, Andrew asked if the rangers were able to find the group--they had. Apparently no one in the group could read the map and got confused around the Moose Lookout. Oi. At least no one was hurt, although they probably got wet as it was around that time (when we saw the park rangers) when it started to rain.

It rained for most of the rest of the night. Fairly lightly to start, not even enough to thoroughly soak the ground, but around 7:30 pm that changed to quite a downpour. Thankfully we had large tarp, and had set it up for shelter on Saturday morning, so we stayed dry. We were even able to have one last campfire since the tarp reached far enough to keep it dry.

Monday was a beautiful sunny morning, although we spent most of it packing up our site, then driving home. We could have stayed at the park for part or the rest of the day if we'd wanted, but we knew we'd have to run errands and unpack when we got home--plus we expected the traffic driving into the Boston area on Labour Day Monday would probably be atrocious if we waited too long,

One last picture of our fully packed Smart car. Next time we go on a camping trip we'll be driving something bigger.

Ciao,

Andrea

There be whales here (aka we went whale watching)

I suspect that no self-respecting Boston-area resident would do something so tourist-y as go on a whale watching tour (or one of those hop-on, hop-off trollys, which we've also done), but that's what Andrew and I did on Saturday afternoon. I don't quite remember when the discussion first came up, although I'm pretty sure it was Andrew who expressed the initial interest in going. We went with the New England Aquarium Whale Watch tour, which leaves from the Long Wharf in Boston, and takes passengers to the Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary, (close to the tip of Cape Cod). Although it's billed as a 3 hours tour, we were out for closer to 4.

On the bow of the boat, waiting for our tour to depart.

Saturday was a lovely day in Boston, not super hot (low 20sC for those of us who prefer metric), although fairly breezy. The breeze was pleasant while we were inland, but it translated into fairly choppy water. It was recommended to us that if we went on the tour, it would be smart to bring warm clothing (long sleeves and a jacket) even if it was a nice day, since it would be much colder on the ocean. Plus, if you wanted to hang out on the bow while the ship powered through the water, you'd be much happier with a few extra layers.

On the cruise out to the Sanctuary.

It took us over an hour (close to an hour and a half, maybe) to reach the Sanctuary. We took it slow for the first few minutes to navigate the traffic in the harbour, but once we were through the densest area, the captain punched it. I have no idea how fast we were travelling, they might have said something over the loud speaker, but the rumble of the motor was such that Andrew and I had shout to talk to each other. What I can tell you is we were moving fast enough that I felt like my nostrils were being pushed open as wide as they would go--it was fast. With the water being choppy is made for an almost roller-coaster like ride, which didn't suit some people's stomachs.

It took us a while to find any whales once we reached the Sanctuary. I think the tour operators allot a certain amount of time for searching for whales (they communicate with other ships in the area to figure out where they might be feeding at the surface), and they offer rain checks to all passengers if no sightings are made during your tour. We lucked out, though. First we found a single humpback, then we moved on to find a group of four humpbacks feeding together (apparently not common, since they're typically solitary creatures). Three of the whales in this group were adults, and one was a calve.

I shot pictures like mad, trying to catch whatever I could of the whales.

I'm not sure how long we stayed at the Sanctuary, maybe about an hour given the length of time we were out. For the ride back Andrew and I stayed back at the stern of the boat. I was feeling overly wind-blown (although thankfully not sea sick) at this point and didn't much feel like hanging around at the front for more crashing through the waves.

All-in-all, if you know you a reasonably stable stomach when it comes to the rocking motions of a boat, I'd recommend going on a whale watching tour. It's pretty cool to see these animals at a reasonably close proximity. If you get motion sick, however, I wouldn't recommended. There were a lot of people on the tour that spent the bulk of it throwing up, in which case it might turn into 3-4 hours of torture.

Ciao,

Andrea

Beet pie, a recipe

I don't normally post recipes. Most of my day-to-day cooking is too ad hoc to bother recreating here, never mind that there are plenty of blogs devoted to food already. Last night, however, Andrew enjoyed my beet pie offering so much that he thought I should write it up. So, I halted dinner long enough to take a couple of pictures of my plate, and now I'm taking a few minutes out of my day to record my process.

Andrea's Beet Pie:

Crust:
I make my own pastry, but you don't have to by any means. I like the deluxe butter recipe from Joy of Cooking. The only change I make is that rather than the 2 1/4 cups (or is it 2 1/2...) of flour called for, I prefer to only use a scant 2 cups. I always found in Edmonton (where it's very dry) that using the entire amount of flour called for in pastry recipes ended in a dry crumbly mess. I've continued to skimp on the flour quantities here in the Boston area and it seems to have made no difference--i.e. I have delicious, flaky crusts.

Pie Filling:
1 onion
1-2 tablespoon of oil (I used olive oil)
1 cup of oatmeal
1/2 cup of almonds (scant)
3 oz of Parmesan cheese (that was all I had left)
1 lb of beets (I used Chicago beets, which I picked up at the farmers market because I didn't think I'd ever had them before--turns out they're white and red stripped in the middle. I'm sure it doesn't matter what kind of beets you use.)
3 cloves of garlic
1 handful of fresh herbs (chopped)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of mustard
salt (Sorry, I don't really measure this, I just pour a small mound in my hand, then dump it in.)
pepper (I also don't measure this, I just sprinkle in the pepper until it looks good...this is why I don't write recipes.)

Method:

For the crust: If you're going to make your pie shell yourself, you need to do this well in advance. I actually made 2 shells on Saturday (that's what the Joy of Cooking recipe makes, the other was turned into the base for lamb pie--delicious) kept the unused disk of pastry in the fridge until yesterday, rolled it out, then stored it in the freezer until all of my filling was prepared. If you're using a pre-made pie shell, follow the directions for preparation it comes with.

For the filling:
Preheat the oven to 375F.

1) Preheat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat while you chop the onion to your preference of dice (I'm not terribly particular about my vegetable chopping).
2) Saute the onion, occasionally stirring or tossing until it turns golden brown. If you're adept at multi-tasking in the kitchen you can continue with the following steps while this happens (which is what I do).
3) Pulse the oatmeal and almonds together in a food processor until you achieve a breadcrumb-like consistency (you can also use breadcrumbs instead of doing this).
4) Remove the oatmeal and almonds from the food processor, place 1 cup of it in a mixing bowl, while saving the remainder 1/2 cup for topping the pie.
5) Either with the shredding attachment for your food processor, or a hand grater, grate the Parmesan cheese.
6) Place half of the cheese in the mixing bowl, retaining the other half for the topping.
7) Shred/grate the beets (this is so much easier when you have a food processor).
8) Add the beets to your mixing bowl.
9) Add your sauteed onions, and all of the remaining ingredients (garlic, herbs, eggs, mustard, salt and pepper) to the mixing bowl.
10) Stir until everything is combined and spoon it into your pie shell (which you should only just be removing from the freezer).
11) Mix together your left over oatmeal, almonds, and cheese. Feel free to add some more herbs and spices to this if you like.
12) Drizzle 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the topping to help make it clump together like a crumble topping on a desert pie, then spread it over the pie.
13) Bake for...oh...this is the tricky part. I started the pie in the oven for 20 minutes, then Andrew messaged me to say that he was running late so I turned off the heat and let the pie sit (in the oven)...then 15 or so minutes later Andrew message me to say he was on his way, at which point I turned the oven back on again and cooked the pie for another 10 or 15.
So...I'd *guess* at a continuous heat of 375F you should cook the pie for 35 to 45 minutes.

Enjoy.

For 1/8 of a pie: Calories: 526; Fat: 37 grams; Fiber: 3 grams; Carbs: 37 grams; Protein: 14 grams.

Ciao,

Andrea

My big news...a couple of quick additions

I know I said I'd keep my pregnancy posting to a minimum, then I remembered a couple of things I meant to mention the first time around. This will be quick, I promise.

1. Running while pregnant: My belly is still fairly small. I mean you'd have to be pretty unobservant to not notice, but it's not anywhere near as big as it's going to get; however, I've starting using a belly band. It's call the Fit Splint and is specifically designed to keep pregnant woman active. It has two strap positions, one that supports only under the belly, and another where you can place one strap below and one above. I'm not sure how much it's doing to support me right now, but I have found that it stays where I put it, which is a major plus in my book.

2. Aerials while pregnant: As I have said to many people regarding my continuing to doing aerials--I've already been training for 3 years, I know my own strength, what I'm capable of, and what is a good versus a bad circus hurt. If I had just begun training, I probably wouldn't have kept going. Also, there is a precedent before me of  pregnant ladies continuing with their aerial training and performing (both at NECCA and Esh), so it's not as if I'm a trail blazer in this arena.

3. Fetus pet names: Andrew and I both really hate it when people refer to 'baby,' not the baby, just baby, while it's in utero. I also wanted to avoid calling it he or she while we didn't know the gender, so I suggested the alternative of 'Root.' 'Root?' you might say, 'Why?' Well, because when Andrew and I got married (almost 10 years ago) we were A², and what's the opposite of a square function...? Groan if you will. Now we have to remember to stop calling the baby Root once they're born.

Ciao,

Andrea

My big news

I told close friends and family weeks ago, but I've been slow to alert my social media channels to the news that I'm pregnant. I'm a little over 22 weeks, or 5 months, along which means I'm a halfway through my journey. I know this sort of topic is not of interest to everyone, so I'll try to make this my only, or at least one of my only, posts about being pregnant.

To start, I've been feeling almost completely normal. Most of the time I really don't know what to say to people when they ask how I'm doing because I hardly feel pregnant. I haven't experienced many symptoms, mainly shortness of breath, and the obvious, weight gain. The shortness of breath is due to the baby sucking all the iron out of my body, and as iron is used to help transport oxygen it leaves me gasping after runs, and especially going up stairs.

If you've ever read this blog before, you'll know I'm very conscious about my weight. It's one of the tricky things for me about being pregnant (the others being not being able to drink alcohol, and my trying to maintain as much of my strength as possible), I have to gain weight. I'm definitely eating more than I used to, probably eating a few more processed snacks that I should, but I'm still tracking my calorie intake to make sure things don't get out of control. From what I've read, an appropriate amount of weight gain from a woman of normal weight before pregnancy is between 25-30lbs, which I'm on track to do.

My personal belief for why I've been feeling so well (as side from the fact that I'm rarely ill) is that I haven't changed much about my diet and exercise regime. I haven't had to say this to anyone, but if anyone asks me if I think I should stop biking, or running, or doing aerials while I'm pregnant, my prepared response is: "I'm only pregnant, not ill or disabled."

So yes, I'm still running twice a week (albeit rather slowly), I'm still biking to work everyday (I've got bike lanes almost all the way), I'm still doing body weights at home with Andrew, and I'm still going to aerials. When I told the folks at Esh (where we take classes) I was immediately told to keep training for as long as I wanted--and so far it's been fine. I did have to stop going to the advanced silks class because we were doing a lot of drops, many of which required ties around my waist, but it means I get to work on an apparatus I haven't used in 2 years, the trapeze. Not that I exactly love trapeze (it hurt so much more than silks, I swear!) but it keeps me going--and I can still train basic stuff on the silks on the weekend.

I think that's about all I've got to say about being pregnant right now. I'm seeing a midwife at MIT, and so far things are good there. We still need to replace our beloved Smart car (I will write a moratorium when we finally buy a new car), which is being held up while we wait to hear about other decisions that aren't exactly in our hands. Then we can make a few more of the major baby purchases like car seat, stroller, etc.

Ciao,

Andrea

Camping at Monadnock State Park

After Andrew and I went for our hike at Mount Monadnock over the Memorial Day weekend, we thought we'd like to go back there to camp. It's not exactly our standard style of camping, mainly, you can drive up to your site, meaning we weren't limited to packing only what we could carry. Don't get me wrong, I love back country camping. I love roughing it, pitching tents, cooking with our little one burner stove, slogging to the top of a mountain to get a breath taking view (if the weather cooperates), I even love wearing a hat all day to hide my unwashed, uncombed hair, and smelling like bug spray, sunscreen, and sweat all at the same time. I really do.

But, doing a stationary, drive-to-your-site camping trip wasn't so bad either. Again, don't get my wrong, it's not like we took advantage of this and brought all kinds of extras we didn't need, heck, we didn't even take showers, but we did have a few perks, like chairs, and a cooler (which contained bacon and sausage). Ultimately, we're still driving our Smart car, so it's not like we can fit much more in it than what our full camping backpacks could carry anyway.

Our beloved Smart car, packed full.

We arrived at Mount Monadnock maybe a half hour before the sun went down on Friday so we had to pitch our tent and set up our beds quickly. Thankfully, our tent is super easy to set up and had everything set before we were out of daylight. We tried to get a fire going, but as we weren't properly supplied (the last 2 bundles of firewood were bought just as we arrived at the entry booth) we didn't have a lot of success. We still poked around our tiny fire until 10:00 before heading to the washrooms (there were flush toilets and running water) and calling it a night.

Personally, I didn't sleep well on Friday. The noise level (both bird and human) wasn't too bad, but I just couldn't fall asleep. Of course I couldn't sleep-in either. The sun came up around 5:00 am, at which point the avian population surrounding the campsite got rather chatty.

Originally, we'd hope to hike for the morning, then rent a canoe or kayak for the afternoon. Note: although the Mount Monadnock website says they have boat rentals--this is a lie! Gilson pond, where the campsite is locate, is rather small anyway, so I'm sure it wouldn't have been a very exciting (or long) paddle. Instead we decided to hike to Dublin Lake, which started out on the same route as the one to the peak of Mount Monadnock. You take the Birchtoft trail up until you hit the Cascade Link then continue on it, rather than turn off it to the summit. As opposed to our first hike, which felt like we were constantly hiking through mountain streams, the terrain was fairly dry. This made for nicer hiking, although it was much hotter and sunnier than our last visit, so it made for a more sweatier trip too.

Part of the Birchtoft trail, nice and dry.

For some reason we thought the Cascade Link, which eventually lead to the Pompelly trail, would be leisurely. I don't know why we thought this. Sure, we didn't go to the peak again, and didn't have to cover the same elevation gain, but it's not like it was an easy stroll on flat ground. We faced several ups and downs, and ultimately we ended up on a much longer hike than we'd intended to take. Good thing we hadn't set our sights on paddling.

I feel that the hiking in New Hampshire is in someways, more challenging than hiking in the Rockies. These mountains are much older, and the elevation is almost half, I think, of what we were at on the Skyline in Jasper, but the trails seem more rugged. We've encounter several instances where we've had to put aside our hiking poles so we can use our hands to climb up a short, but mostly vertical rock face. Similarly, while descending I came to spots where I had to sit on my butt, while extending one leg to reach the next foot hold. Despite all this, it wasn't a bad day hiking, and provided us with some great views of New Hampshire once we got to the top of our trail.

The distant peaks as we hiked across the Cascade Link. There's also a little carin in view, pointing us a long the path.

Looking out over New Hampshire.

One of the hikers we passed mentioned there were wild blueberries on the rail...we couldn't help but stop to pick some.

One of the ridges we walked along on our way to Dublin Lake.

As I mentioned earlier, the hike to Dublin Lake was longer than we'd expected. We weren't working from an extremely detailed map, only the one that was given out at the entry toll both. It's enough to work from, but you have to guesstimate your distances. It was approximately 3 miles (we're in the US, so everything is Imperial, but in Canadian speak, that's 4.8 km) to the Cascade Link/Pompelly connection, then another 3 miles from there to the Lake. We decided to push on down to the Lake for lunch, so it was almost 2:00 pm before we ate. It was worth it when we got there, though. The cool water soothed our tired feet, and the scenery was lovely.

Dublin Lake. We were able to find a small patch not labelled 'No Trespassing' and relax.

The sky on Saturday.

For the walk back to Gilson Pond we opted to go for the more straight forward route along the road. It was still fairly pretty, with interesting houses to look at along the way, but much easier than going back up into the mountains. Plus the route was way shorter, only another 3 miles to get back to where we started, and were we ever glad to get back to our campsite.

Dinner that night took advantage of our being able to bring a cooler/heavier/larger food than normal, involving sausages, peppers, onions, corn on the cob and potatoes. Honestly, I was worried we'd have a dinner fail. First, that we wouldn't be able to get a decent fire going in time and we'd wind of ravenous before the food was ready. Or, that the food would either be under or over cooked. Tinfoil dinners were a common (I can't quite say popular) staple of girl guide camping, and typically you either wound up with raw food, or everything would be burnt. Maybe camping cooking karma caught up with me, as we had an excellent, fulfilling meal. By layering in the food according to how much time I predicted they needed to cook (potatoes: 1 hour; peppers, onions, corn: 30 min; sausages: 5-10 min) everything turned out just right.

Cooking over the fire is hard work--although Andrew did do a lot of poking and adjusting to keep the fire going.

Dinner!

We didn't stay long on Sunday. We felt we'd done quiet enough hiking on Saturday, plus we knew we still had all kinds of chores to take care of when we got home. Still, we enjoyed our time and would definitely consider returning if we were looking for another laid-back camping experience.

Ciao,

Andrea