such stuff as dreams are made on: .cheese.

.i fail miserably at life. and by life, i mean blogging.

apologies, loyal readers.

this weekend, j and i went to vermont, via new hampshire, and it was ridonc. (ridonc = ridonculous = ridiculous)

first off, having a car is great. i mean, i as much as i enjoy not having a car (no "boston bumper" marring the back/front bumpers of my lovely bug, not paying 3.99+ per gallon, not dealing with insane boston drivers, riding the t with people with shopping carts that smell like urine, etc. etc.), it was really great having a car. you know, getting somewhere in 10 minutes that on the t takes an hour, randomly driving to little towns, etc. but i digress.

new hampshire is sweet. j and i got up extra early on saturday (no sleeping in for the crazies!), and drove up across the border. the drive is very picturesque and lovely. the entire weekend, as we were driving around, jeff kept commenting on how gorgeous it was, and i couldn't help but think that it looked very similar to washington! (although washington is obviously way more beautiful).

essentially, we drove a lot. peterborough, jaffrey, keene (sweet little town that i want to retire to, open up a cheese farm, and make quilts at). hiking mt. monadnock was probably the highlight, though. possibly one of the most difficult hikes i've done (c'mon, i'm a novice here, people). we went up the 'white dot' trail, and essentially we were scrambling up sheer rock-faces the entire time. not kidding. it was awesome. i am such a mountain goat. love it.

and the view from the top was spectacular. so gorgeous, with green mountains (more like big hills, compared to views in washington) as far as the eye can see. beautiful. and to our right, a massive thunder/lightening ball of storm that was fast encroaching upon us. a park ranger was like, uh, you all need to leave now. so, we definitely tried to race the storm down the mountain.

took the 'white cross' trail back down, which was supposed to be less treacherous. (it was only barely so)

about ten minutes into the hike (i.e. scramble/slide) down, it started crackling thunder right above us, and two minutes later, it was pouring. a little scary, but mostly exhilarating and fun. i loved every minute of it. had if not for the massive blisters (i really need to invest in some hiking shoes) and crowds of people, it could have possibly been a prefect hike (or rock climb, if you will). still, it was incredible.

after our thunderous hike, the weather was perfect for the rest of the weekend - perfect blue skies, nice and sunny. we visited lots of new hampshire towns, drove into vermont, sampled some cheese, visited more picturesque towns, had dinner and drinks. went to bed. brattleboro is a pretty neat town too.

i really wish we had camping equipment, because all of the parks we went to had sweet campsites. *sigh* it seems silly to have all that stuff without a car, though. someday.

sunday we hiked around molly stark state park, which had a cake-walk hike compared to monadnock, but an awesome view from the firetower at the top. i felt a little like it was going to blow over (i think it was built around the 1950s) - a bit rickety, but a very cool view.

i will let the pictures do the rest of the talking...