Quechee Balloon Festival

This past weekend, L and I took about an hour trip up to Quechee (pronounced "Kwee-chee"), Vermont for their 30th annual Balloon Festival. It's like a small fair, with plenty of arts and crafts tents, food, music, and of course, hot air balloons.

There were also the New England Disc Dogs, of which, sadly, we did not get any pictures. They were fun to watch though.

It was a muggy, gray, overcast day. Rain threatened but held off all day. We watched a few balloons take off.


Note the people in the basket.

This one took off across the river.

But the balloons weren't the only attraction. The town, like so many in New England, is an old mill town.

And it has a covered bridge.

And a dam.

Beau and I like to play in the mist from the dam.

And finally, we watched the Cowboy Teddy Bear giving people rides. Unfortunately, L didn't capture my reenactment of the Bear's pose, with my arms out wide.

I and Love and You

Just got my tickets to see the Avett Brothers in Boston at the House of Blues in October. They went on pre-sale this morning, and I couldn't wait. The HoB is on Lansdowne St., right behind Fenway Park.

I've mentioned these guys a few times here before, and yes, I will again. In fact, here's a live video of them performing the title track from their new album, which won't be released until September.




So there you go. It's a beautiful song. If you get the chance to see this guys soon, do it. In fact, here's a link to their tour dates. They play in Richmond on July 11, if you're in that area.

Update (6/24): Here's a link to download that song . And you should be able to simply right-click on this one, and save it as an mp3 directly to your computer. They just released the single this morning.

No, It's a Cardigan! But Thanks for Noticing!

Ah, nothing like a Dumb and Dumber quote for a post title.

On Sunday, I woke up to a beautiful late May day. It appeared to be everything that can be gorgeous about New England. It was sunny with perfect blue skies almost painful to look at, and only a few small wispy clouds in the air. It promised to be a warm day, perfect for hiking. So that's what L and I decided to do.

L has wanted to climb Mt. Cardigan for a while now. Mt. Cardigan is a fairly short mountain here in central New Hampshire, about 45 minutes away. It is a Monadnock, which is a term for a mountain that stands on its own, apart from any range of peaks. There is another such mountain that rises just beyond the lake in our backyard, named Mt. Kearsarge. We hiked that one in the fall. It was gorgeous with the changing leaves and so forth.

We drove to the Adirondack Mountain Club lodge at the bottom of Cardigan, and got there about 12:30. At this point, the beautiful day had soured. We were now looking at gray skies, scattered raindrops, and blustery winds. It suddenly didn't seem the best day for a hike up a mountain. However, we decided to give it a shot, and get the dog some exercise.

After about an hour and a half, we were nearing the top of the mountain. We felt a few raindrops on our way up, but they were cool and felt nice on our sweaty skin. The wind, however, was really picking up.

Now, the top of Mt. Cardigan is bare rock, the result of a wildfire nearly 150 years ago. When we reached the treeline, a couple hundred yards from the top, the wind really took off. We attempted to scramble up the bare rock to the summit. Finally, about a hundred yards from the top, we called it quits. The wind was whipping (I estimated 50mph, while L put it at closer to 35 -- I was definitely closer; it was strong enough to push me around). It was not pleasant. After pausing long enough to water the dog and scan the horizon, we started back down.

Here's the view from (almost) the summit.

Note the clouds and general darkness. This was about 2:30 in the afternoon.

As we started our decline, we spotted a heavy rainstorm a few miles in the distance. It was moving pretty rapidly toward us. We tried to put the slick rocky surfaces behind us and get back under the cover of the forest before it arrived. Luckily, it never really did.

We stopped after a few hundred yards on the way down, at a decent lookout spot, and had a snack. Here are some photos.

Again, please note the dark clouds in the distance. These served to impair our view.

By the time we reached the bottom of the mountain, the day had cleared up again. When we headed to the car at about 4 pm, I looked up and took this picture of the summit.

Thanks, nature.