Photography: Summer Vacation! Today's Trip: North Conway, NH

Well, we're on vacation this week and trying to take it easy (yeah, right!). Of course, as most of you who know us, we don't let the grass grow under our feet for any length of time. We decided that we would keep to doing some day trips and try to hit the beach as often as possible. So....here's our journal entry for today!

Today, we headed to the North Conway, NH area. Our mission was to get to the Kangamangus Highway to go swimming in the Swift River. Along the way, we stopped at a couple of the outlets and then headed into downtown North Conway. Hit Zeb's General Store http://www.zebs.com/ -- cool place! They have so many neat things -- mostly food, snacks, candy, etc....

Then, on our way to Cathedral Ledge in North Conway, we saw all these people out in a field and then got a whiff of this unbelievable scent of strawberries! So, we saw the stand by the field and drove up to it. The guy running the show said, "sorry, we are closed until 4 pm because it's too hot to pick your own strawberries." So we told him we didn't want to pick them, we wanted to eat them! So, he told us to go up the street to the farmstand where they sell them to people who don't want to pick their own. So we drove up the street to the farmstand and what did they have but a DRIVE THRU! Across the street, you could pick your own strawberries for $1.75/quart -- at the drive thru, a quart was $5.25! Gotta love America and the sales person was from Russia! But, I have to tell you they were the BEST strawberries we have EVER had! Oh my gosh, they were UNBELIEVABLE!!!

We then continued our journey up to the top of Cathedral Ledge (we climed all the way to the top -- in our car!). Even though I have done some rock climbing in my day, that climb would have been a bit challenging! There are usually a few rock climbers that we see from the bottom, but they must have finished their climb by the time we got there. If you've never been here, the view is incredible from the top.

Once we took a few pictures, we were off to our next outpost: the Kangamangus Highway -- Swift River. For those of you who have never been up to the Kangamangus or the Conway area, there are lots of hiking trails, campgrounds, B&B's, beautiful sights in the wilderness and of course the river! When you are up here, you feel like you are in God's country and it is truly a relaxing experience. I used to come up here as a kid with my friend's family and I remember swimming in the Swift River -- it's like a natural water slide and a very fun place for families. Of course, now, I'm a little more reserved than I used to be as far as going down all the water slides, probably because I'm afraid I'm going to break something or come out black and blue. LOL. But, just hanging out in the water watching everyone else was just as fun. Of course, we had to have a couple of mishaps -- Richard stubbed his big toe (it's now a nice shade of black and blue) and I slipped on one of the rocks trying to get the suntan lotion and landed on my back in the water...thankfully, there was no blood or broken bones.

As usual, the parking lot at the place was very full, but we managed to find a space. There were lots of people swimming and enjoying the sunshine. The water was a little cool at first, but was better once you were in it for a while.

We hung out there for about an hour and headed to get some pizza at the Pizza Barn on Rt. 16 in Ossipee.

On our way down Rt. 16, we came across this display of American flags noting how many troops we have lost in Iraq. It was really sad. Since it was the middle of the afternoon, when we arrived at the Pizza Barn we had the place to ourselves and enjoyed a yummy pizza before we headed home.