Wednesday, April 21, 2010

35 years! Egads!

I've been away for a few days....
It's school vacation!

AND I've been celebrating my 35th Wedding Anniversary!  Actually, two of us have been celebrating it because because that's what a wedding is. A pair. And this pair got hitched 35 years ago. BEST THING THAT COULD'VE HAPPENED TO ME !! Seems like just yesterday... 

And the only difference between then and now is that I now weigh 10 lbs more. Other than that, we look exactly  the same. (That is, of course, if I don't look in  the mirror...)

Nevertheless, we celebrated by taking a mini-trip to the Live Free or DIE state, New Hampshire. 

Mount Washington still has snow on it, this is the view of it from North Conway. I like Mount Washington because that is the exact spot that Birdman, aka Mr. Downeastdoingstuff, asked me to be his wife. One quarter of the way down  from the hike to the top of Mount Washington, he popped the question. And I said yes.

So, to commemorate, we booked a mini vacation at the White Mountain Hotel in North Conway, New Hampshire. The Romance package! Oooo La La!
Here is a view of the Dining Room windows, with a view of the White Mountains.
It's situated at the edge of a massive cliff. The parking lot is just a narrow patch of trees away from this foreboding precipice. This is not a place of respite for anyone with rock slideaphobia.
It has a year-round heated pool and hot tub. We've been here before for lunch in the winter and have seen  people swimming around as if it was the fourth of July, surrounded by drifting steam.

On our last day there, I took a dip in the morning after my workout. It was 48 degrees outside, but the pool was heavenly. Then a soak in the hot tub, which got me so hot that I was able to walk around in the cold air in just my bathing suit and not feel it. That, my friend, is perfect.
(Mr. DEDS wimped out....)

The main lobby. If you can biggify this photo, look at the fabulous painting of the hotel over the mantle. 

Another shot of the lobby.

As part of our Romance Package, we got 6 chocolate covered gargantuan strawberries and a bottle of champagne delivered at around 4 pm. (Yeah, we got 6 of them. Being in a Romantic mood, I ate 3 of them before I took the shot.) (In the end, Birdman ate ONE.......) (He did beat me in the champagne department, though.) With Romance in the air, I promptly fell asleep after a couple of glasses of the bubbly. 
Oh well.....
The night was still young.....
The view from our dining room table. The evening meal was absolutely wonderful. Salad, entree, and dessert.....delish.

After checkout, we took a ride on the Kancamagus Highway, a 28 mile winding road right through the middle of the White Mountains.
At the highest point on our route, there was still plenty of snow.

Ah, but no hot tub. So we got some ice cream in Lincoln, New Hampshire and then headed home.

A spectacular three days.

Thank you, Birdman......for everything.