Monday, January 10, 2011

Excursions around New Hampshire and Maine

Jenny and I had a lunch (and we shared a paddle) at the Run of the Mill brewery in Saco, Maine.

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We stopped briefly at another UNE.

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On our return south, we enjoyed the tranquil scenery at a little fishing village called, I think, Fortune's Rocks.

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Here is the nearby lighthouse and keeper's quarters.

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In the new year, I joined Jen and a party of her colleagues for dinner at the Redhook Brewery at Dover. The brewery claims to be the largest producer of IPA in the USA. Before dinner, we toured the facilities. The bottling and packaging room is shown below. At dinner, I had my first meal of ribs, an American specialty, and was immensely satisfied. (Do try the ribs!)

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Having returned the car that had been lent so kindly to us, our remaining excursions were on foot and mostly within the precinct of UNH. The blizzard conditions were followed by a brief warm spell of weather that affected all of the northern states of the US. Now, I was much more cautious about my frozen river crossings!

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Desperately out of my element, but spurred on by Jen's easy grace, I gave ice-skating a shot. It was good fun - especially as I didn't trip over once! (Though I made some very abrupt lunges for the barrier around the edge of the rink.)

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Here's a snowman prepared earlier (and by someone else). I have been directed to wait for the hard snow that comes later in the season, for it is exceptionally good for creating snowmen.

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Neither of us, now that the weather had warmed some, were game to cross on to the Mill Pond. Though I expect that it should be solid again by now.

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I made the arduous journey last Sunday back to a snow-less Indiana. Thankfully, since then, we have had a big dump of snow (over two feet).

Here's wishing you all a great new year!