Saturday In New Hampshire

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.   

We went up Friday night after work and spent Saturday with George and Nancy to celebrate David's upcoming birthday. Saturday was so beautiful and unseasonably warm. George even swam in the lake .... IN OCTOBER!!! But I'll get to that.

Nancy had the house all decorated for Halloween. So cute. I took a few shots. Nancy had the wall of pumpkins I look forward to seeing every year:

Cathy found these old hats when she was up here shopping last month. Nancy said she saw something very similar to them on the Jackie O special that ran recently. They were really different and went perfectly with the feel of the house. I just loved them.

Saturday morning we got up and went out to lake about 9:00 or so to meet a few of George's friends. David was there to help, so the guys drug in the floating dock and the boats. Not a happy event as it signifies the ending of summer. I felt the impending dread of winter start to creep up from behind, so I snapped a few happy warmer Indian Summer lake photos:

Why can't every day be like this one?? Just gorgeous!! As you can see, the leaves haven't really changed yet this year. Either they are going to turn late, or not really much at all. I don't anticipate it being a very good year. The trees around Hartford seem to be going from green to brown. We'll see in the next few weeks. But I'm not complaining - the warm temperatures are SO NICE!! Perhaps Fall is just delayed and will roll slowly into November. No October snow this year!!! Please...

I don't think I could take it.

After a morning at the lake we headed to town for lunch, pumpkins and apples. It was early, about 11:00 or so, but everyone was starting to get hungry so we decided to go to lunch first thing. We were headed to Putney, VT (Mom & Dad, this is where we had dinner with George and Nancy - The Putney Inn) to the Green Mountain Orchard. So, we decided to eat in Putney. Logical enough. After some discussion about several places (I had no idea about any of them) it was decided that we would head to The Putney Coop. Now, I'm still relatively new to New England, but I have learned that if you are going to eat at a coop, particularly in VT, you will be making Dr. Oz very happy. When George stopped for a coffee at a local gas station, I hopped out too for a diet Dr. Pepper. (I doubted there was soda allowed within a 5 mile radius of the coop. My choices might be unpasterized goat milk, water or something made from hemp, soy or psyllium husks.) I needed bubbly caffeine and artificial sweetners.

"Anyone want to split a Buddah's Delight?" Nancy rang out excitedly. Dead silence. "Don't everyone speak at once."

"What is that?" I asked. "Tofu with veganaise on grain toasts?" I joked. "Close," said Nancy. Oh boy, I thought. This should be interesting.

As we pulled in, we saw this sign to the left:

And this sign to the right (I think David's grin says it all - Saved from tofu!!!):

As we piled out of the car, we could smell smoke. And where there is smoke, there's is really good meat!! Whoo-Hoo!! It was decided that David and Evan and I would run across the street and meet George and Nancy one Buddah's Deligth later. But once we got over there, it was hard to tell what was gluten free and we were a little concerned, so, mouths watering from the smell of bbq ribs, we headed back over to the coop, slightly defeated.

But truthfully, all kidding aside, the food was pretty good. I had a turkey wrap with tomato and avocado, David and Evan had yummy looking sandwiches. Nancy ate every bite of her bbq'd tofu delight and George had a seaweed and edamame salad. We ate outside in the gorgeous weather and thoroughly enjoyed our early lunch.

Then it was apple picking time! We headed over to the orchard. Here's a few photos I took:

We picked a few bags of apples (David likes the Honeycrisp best, so we got those.) and ate a few too (just helping with quality control) and headed over to the pumpkin patch to get Evan a pumpkin.

It was such a beautiful day so we decided to take our loot and head back to the lakehouse until dinner. We sat on the porch and flipped through magazines, chatted and enjoyed the afternoon. David and I put our feet in the water, but George was brave enough to jump right in. He went for a swim! In October!! Practically unheard of.

We had dinner at the Chesterfield Inn and then we had to head back home for church on Sunday.

It was a nice, but quick, visit to New Hampshire in the fall. Today is even more gorgeous than Saturday ... in the 80's! Whoo-hoo!! Wish I was back on the patio at the lake house this afternoon! I have a feeling that George swam again today. Days like these are getting shorter and sweeter around here. I'm getting ready now to head home and sit out on our patio while David grills. It's always good when the lovely weekend weather spills over into the following week.