Saturday, I got up early and ran the dogs up and down Heavenly Hill once in the pouring rain, then jumped on the treadmill for 4 miles in 28:56, 7:14/mi pace.
After the run, John and I headed to Ashland, NH for his annual teacher evaluation for homeschooling. We have a good contact over there who does them for us every year. I sat down with her for over an hour going over John's activities and progress, and then she makes recommendations for the next year. It's pretty simple, which I love about homeschooling in the State of NH.
From there, we went to the Polar Caves since it was close by. We had never been here, so it was hard to pass up, being so close. The Caves are pretty neat since you get to crawl through them. They aren't as tight as Lost River Gorge, but there were a few places a large person might struggle. John loved the caves and spending time walking the park.
We went home from there. I decided my house needed a real cleaning since it was full of dust and cobwebs, so i spent about 3 hours doing that. When I was done, it was just around sunset. The dogs were really itching to get out so I decided to walk them up Heavenly Hill again. John opted to stay home, so it was just me. There was a really nice breeze up there, and I got a little view before it got dark. Luckily, I remembered my headlamp for the walk down.
Sunday, I had planned an awesome hike up Eisenhower with John. Mike Quintal was driving up in the morning to join us. I was shocked to see the forecast had suddenly changed to thunderstorms, so I went with plan B to hike up North Moat. John was awake before me and seemed to be in a good mood, so I had a good feeling about the hike... until John fell back asleep. Mike got to the house around 9am, and I was pretty much packed and ready to go, just a few things left. Then it was time to wake up John. I have never had such a hard time getting the kid out of bed. He wasn't even in bed. He was in the living room half on his Yogibo and his other half on the hard floor under the table. It was a funny sight. I kept bugging him, but he was out cold. I should have known right then to just let him rest and push our hike back an hour or so, but I didn't, since I thought North Moat would take awhile. Instead I dragged the grumpiest kid in the world up and out the door. I thought a coolata at Dunkin' Donuts would help wake him up, but my first DD attempt was a no-go. The line wasn't tolerable. I just couldn't do it. INSANE the number of people. I thought the one in town might be better, so I drove there. NOPE. Just as bad. I don't know how I did it. Inside my head, I was flipping my lid. It was AWFUL. And the orders!! WTF, people!!! I wanted to scream. It took everything I had not to walk out again... and I should have because John only ended up drinking half of it in the end. Ha ha.
We FINALLY proceeded to Diana's Bath and parked on the street. I got John out of the car, but it was almost a fight and he was not happy. I had a bad feeling. I think Mike could tell this wasn't going to go well either. We were greeted with MANY of my favorite tourists (shoot me in the head) on the walk to Diana's Bath. I couldn't wait to go past there on the Moat Mountain Trail for some peace. John was so mad and obviously not having fun since it started to downpour right off the bat. He had his rain jacket, but he wasn't feeling it. He even started to cry at one point (then denied it. lol), but he was still moving forward. The walk is very flat for the first 2.4 miles and through the woods. Kind of boring. I realized I had made a really big mistake in my choice of hikes. Stupid idea. He was in such a bad mood and this part of the hike was way too boring for him. When we got to the sign where the Moat Mountain Trail turns uphill, John was all done. We had to abort it there and turn around. All of a sudden, John was extremely happy and running down the trail. WTF. He thought we were going home right after this. I had to break the news that, um, no, we weren't going home. So then, he was mad again. It was such a joyous hike. :) I felt really bad since Mike had driven all the way up from Mass for this, and it was not going well. I should have known to either let John sleep or change plans to something better.
We got back at the car, and I was toying with the idea of driving up to the Black Cap Trail, but I hate driving up Hurricane Mt Rd in my car. It has zero power. John was game to walk up Cathedral Ledge via the climbers' trail, so we drove there. His mood changed at this point. He was super happy and enjoying himself finally. The hike is just under a half mile long, but it's steep, so Mike got to at least walk up a hill today. Ha ha. But it was back in tourist hell. ha ha. They weren't that bad, but it was funny that we kept ending up surrounded by tourists. I was happy to see John enjoying himself this time around, though. Made me feel so much better.
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| Mike hated this picture, but said I could put it in my blog (just not on Facebook). Ha ha. |
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| A finally happy John |
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| Post-treadmill sweat in the dungeon |
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