Joe and I went up to Meredith, NH this weekend for our belated anniversary celebration. It was our first night away since Olivia was born and it was so hard to leave her. We stood in my parents’ kitchen Saturday morning stalling and hesitating and kissing her over and over until they finally kicked us out.
We visit the Lake Winnipesaukee area just about every year. It’s an easy day trip, best taken on a whim. I’ve been going since I was a kid, as it’s also a leisurely drive from the cottage in Maine where we used to spend our summers.
The towns of Laconia and Meredith are like Goofus and Gallant. Laconia is honky-tonk, teeming with motels that boast COLOR TV and a boardwalk lined with sagging Victorians, arcades, and tattoo parlors. Laconia plays host to the annual Motorcycle Week. Meredith is more refined, with tasteful inns and artsy shops. We stayed at Church Landing, the newest of the Inns at Mill Falls. There used to be a Roman Catholic church there, to which I was dragged for Mass many times as a kid, but developers paid the archdiocese a boatload of money for the prime lakefront property. The Church probably had some molestation suits it needed to settle anyway, so it was a win-win situation!
Church Landing was beautiful. I highly recommend it for a romantic weekend getaway. First of all, it was 60 degrees on Saturday, unheard of in November. Yay, El Nino winter! Our package included a couples’ massage and an herbal soak at the spa. The massage was great – perfect pressure, relaxing to the point of otherworldliness, turned my muscles to liquid. And our room was cozy, rustic and gorgeous:
Dinner was at the most charming restaurant I’ve ever been to, a tiny, thirteen-table place made to look like an Adirondack-style summer camp. It was called—surprise!—Camp. We had a choice of eight restaurants and ended up being so grateful that our first choice was booked up. We loved, loved, loved Camp. Check it out – so cute!
Our table had dozens of names carved into it, which we spent the meal reading (personal favorites: Capt. Larry Tanner and The Murphinator). And the food was amazing. Not what you’d expect at all. I had a pomegranate martini, a homemade crab cake with spicy chipotle sauce, a haddock fillet topped with crab, artichoke and fontina cheese and served with summer veggies and salsa cheddar mashed potatoes. And a s’more for dessert, but not a typical s’more… a s’more on steroids. This dessert was no joke: graham crackers, chunks of Hershey bar, vanilla ice cream and hot fudge, with four toasted marshmallows on skewers. Unbelievable.
In the morning we woke up to the cool, gray, still lake.
Sunday brunch was at the Lakehouse and totally decadent. Any brunch that includes a raw bar and a chocolate dipping fountain is all right by me.
On our way home we saw Borat. It was quirky, off the wall, and worth seeing. We killed some time before the movie at Bon Ton, where we picked up a couple of gifts for Olivia, including a little Santa to hang from her activity bar and this thing called a Winkle, which she’s playing with here:
She likes it, that’s all that matters. And her little sleeper? That’s a Red Sox sleeper, which I snuck into her bag, to Joe’s chagrin. I feel justified, however, seeing as the Patriots lost to the Jets yesterday.
When we got home, we did laundry and I took a nap with Olivia. Look at her – so beautiful.
We had some family news this weekend, both good and bad. The good: my cousin gave birth to her second son, Benjamin. We went to visit her in the hospital Friday night and he was a tiny, fragile, beautiful creature. I hope he and his big brother go easy on Olivia as they grow up. The bad: my mom’s sister was diagnosed with Stage 3 bladder cancer. It hasn’t metastasized, and they’re going to battle it with a specific type of chemotherapy which is delivered right to the source via catheterization, and we’re all hopeful, but it’s still shocking and sad. Circle of life, I guess, you know?
We visit the Lake Winnipesaukee area just about every year. It’s an easy day trip, best taken on a whim. I’ve been going since I was a kid, as it’s also a leisurely drive from the cottage in Maine where we used to spend our summers.
The towns of Laconia and Meredith are like Goofus and Gallant. Laconia is honky-tonk, teeming with motels that boast COLOR TV and a boardwalk lined with sagging Victorians, arcades, and tattoo parlors. Laconia plays host to the annual Motorcycle Week. Meredith is more refined, with tasteful inns and artsy shops. We stayed at Church Landing, the newest of the Inns at Mill Falls. There used to be a Roman Catholic church there, to which I was dragged for Mass many times as a kid, but developers paid the archdiocese a boatload of money for the prime lakefront property. The Church probably had some molestation suits it needed to settle anyway, so it was a win-win situation!
Church Landing was beautiful. I highly recommend it for a romantic weekend getaway. First of all, it was 60 degrees on Saturday, unheard of in November. Yay, El Nino winter! Our package included a couples’ massage and an herbal soak at the spa. The massage was great – perfect pressure, relaxing to the point of otherworldliness, turned my muscles to liquid. And our room was cozy, rustic and gorgeous:
Dinner was at the most charming restaurant I’ve ever been to, a tiny, thirteen-table place made to look like an Adirondack-style summer camp. It was called—surprise!—Camp. We had a choice of eight restaurants and ended up being so grateful that our first choice was booked up. We loved, loved, loved Camp. Check it out – so cute!
Our table had dozens of names carved into it, which we spent the meal reading (personal favorites: Capt. Larry Tanner and The Murphinator). And the food was amazing. Not what you’d expect at all. I had a pomegranate martini, a homemade crab cake with spicy chipotle sauce, a haddock fillet topped with crab, artichoke and fontina cheese and served with summer veggies and salsa cheddar mashed potatoes. And a s’more for dessert, but not a typical s’more… a s’more on steroids. This dessert was no joke: graham crackers, chunks of Hershey bar, vanilla ice cream and hot fudge, with four toasted marshmallows on skewers. Unbelievable.
In the morning we woke up to the cool, gray, still lake.
Sunday brunch was at the Lakehouse and totally decadent. Any brunch that includes a raw bar and a chocolate dipping fountain is all right by me.
On our way home we saw Borat. It was quirky, off the wall, and worth seeing. We killed some time before the movie at Bon Ton, where we picked up a couple of gifts for Olivia, including a little Santa to hang from her activity bar and this thing called a Winkle, which she’s playing with here:
She likes it, that’s all that matters. And her little sleeper? That’s a Red Sox sleeper, which I snuck into her bag, to Joe’s chagrin. I feel justified, however, seeing as the Patriots lost to the Jets yesterday.
When we got home, we did laundry and I took a nap with Olivia. Look at her – so beautiful.
We had some family news this weekend, both good and bad. The good: my cousin gave birth to her second son, Benjamin. We went to visit her in the hospital Friday night and he was a tiny, fragile, beautiful creature. I hope he and his big brother go easy on Olivia as they grow up. The bad: my mom’s sister was diagnosed with Stage 3 bladder cancer. It hasn’t metastasized, and they’re going to battle it with a specific type of chemotherapy which is delivered right to the source via catheterization, and we’re all hopeful, but it’s still shocking and sad. Circle of life, I guess, you know?
1 Comments:
I love the pictures! Glad you had fun. Ahem, they got their inspiration for pomtinis from ME.
Post a Comment
<< Home