For those of you who don't know I lost a couple of really close friends a few years back, Timmy and Randi. It was one of the hardest things for me to overcome and to be perfectly honest, I'm still not over it. England, New Hampshire to be exact. However something good did come from this, I became close to their wonderful families. Randi's family is from New England and her cousin, Tina, is one of the coolest chicks I have ever met. It's amazing that something so wonderful could come from something so terrible.
So when the families were here last year I was talking with my new friend Tina and she informed me that she lived in one of the most beautiful places in the world when it's autumn. Crazy enough I had heard this from a number of people and I definitely was interested in checking it out. She cracked a joke about how we should come visit them out there and I was started giving it some serious thought almost immediately. I double checked it was cool if the wife and I stayed for a week, Tina obliged and 1 year later we bought the plane tickets.
On October 13th, my Mom's birthday, we boarded a plane on our way to Manchester, NH. Of course we had a layover and we ended up having to stop in Philly on the way there. I was immediately pissed because of all the Steeler's garb I found everywhere but I digresses. I was really stoked about our trip so I didn't let the shitty service at the airport restaurant get me down, I chilled out and caught my transfer flight.
We arrived in Manchester at 11:00 pm and we were bushed. We got back to Tina's place and just zonked out. The next morning we were met with the smell of fresh brewed coffee. We then realized that we were really staying in a legit log cabin. It was really cool. Never been in one before so it was neat. The coffee we were told was from Duncan Donuts and I had never had that before. Tina and her daughter couldn't believe it because that store out there is what Starbucks is to us here. I remember Kishelle asked if they had soy and the toothless hag of a Batista looked at us like we were crazy. It was quit an adjustment.
Anyways we set off on our first adventure which was a trip to the New Hampshire coast and was was the first time I had ever laid eyes on the Atlantic Ocean. The weather was nuts that day. It was foggy like you wouldn't believe and it was movie raining. All day. It was nuts. That didn't effect our moods at all though, we are kind of used to that thing in Seattle. I did get to have my first lobster roll and it was amazing. No joke it's in my top 5 of all time best things I have put in my mouth.
The next day we made a trip to see Randi and it was the first time seeing her in that state. It was a tough one for me, really tough. She is buried in an absolutely beautiful cemetery and she's in a good spot. It was great to see her but it really brought me down. So I focused on taking pictures and the great company I was in and that got me through it.
After that we shot up to the White Mountains and say some unbelievable scenery. We went to Woodstock, NH which was a really cool town reminiscent of Winthrop, WA. Super cool little town with rad river river through it which made for some cool pics. We then headed over to Weir's Beach which is kind of like a summer get away for people, like Long Beach here. We then set back for home and had a killer meal that I made for the everyone, the only time I got to cook on my vacation.
When we got up it was Sunday and Tina had a special day for a friend of her's who recently passed away after a motorcycle accident. They were going to attempt the world's largest, simultaneous motorcycle burnout. However this wasn't until after we had the best buffet which had prime rib, pancakes, waffles, bacon, haddock, turkey, stuffing and omelettes. Not to mention I was wearing my bright green Hawk's jersey with the coveted number 12 on it (that's Brady's number). Needless to say I was getting some weird looks. So after the killer food it was off to the rally point for the bikers then off to the race track. It was a pretty cool experience to see but unfortunately they didn't break the record. It was an awesome sight regardless.
On the following day we were off to Boston for a night which I will do a separate post about later. It was awesome for the record.
On the way home from Boston we got to see where Randi grew up. She was raised in Lowell, MA which is one of the oldest industrial cities in the nation. There were a ton of old factories and cool roads and lots to look at it. We went and saw Randi's mom who still lives in the same house that she grew up in. It was sad seeing her picture on the wall and the flag folded up on her old end table. However it was nice to see where the grew up and see her Mom again.
On our last night there we went over to another one of Randi's cousin's house, her name is Dawn, I honestly couldn't tell you where it was other than it was in NH. On the way there Tina took us to a place that they do weddings right on a late. It was crazy beautiful and I was able to take some pretty sweet pics. When we got to the Dawn's house we were met with a fire, pizza, beer and lots of great people. We sat around the bonfire and BSed about a number of things. It's crazy but they think it rains in Seattle all the time. I mean it doesn't rain all the time, like 4 days a week. So we wrapped it up pretty early that night because of the 4 am wakeup call we had.
As we left I could tell that we were going to have to come back to the beautiful New England. The place was unbelievable in terms of scenery, food and beer but the real kicker was people. You always hear horror stories about people on the east coast being complete assholes. This couldn't be further from the truth. The fact of the matter is that they are honest and they don't take and guff from anybody. If this makes them assholes then put me on that list.
I was also truly touched by the hospitality I received from my late friend's family. They were so kind and open and willing to accept us into their family. I know the circumstances in which we all became friends was probably the worst that anyone can think of but something amazing came from it, I made some of the best friends and connections I could have asked for. If you are reading this thank you for being so wonderful and making our trip so special. We love you guys and hope that you can make it over to this side of the USA some time again. It would be great to have you.
To see all the pics click here.
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