#33 Boston - Just Like Jesus, Only on a Farm - Jan 19 2007

Amazingly enough, when I said "Just like Jesus, only on a farm", my wonderful team mates at the Franconia Game Night Spectacle guessed the right word - "scarecrow", "the end of the choochoo" was correctly identified as the caboose, and even my most cryptic explanation for insomnia ("what some people cannot do during the dark hours") was detected by the word sleuths in my group. Hysterical best describes it - after a rousing game of "Celebrity" during which quite serious challenges were met (you try to act out Chelsea Clinton or better yet, Gregor Mendel), we zipped through a few rounds of Taboo - right off the bat an honorable mention must go to our Austrian friend Bernie the Biker, whose explanatory skills for someone who has lived in the US for six months were nothing shy of impressive.

By now you have probably (hopefully) explored my Franconia photo album from this past weekend - a whole bevy of outdoor enthusiasts piled into cars and headed up to Northern New Hampshire for the holiday weekend. We were hoping for snow up there, and Mother Nature did not disappoint. As a matter of fact, in a series of bone chilling cold days one could assume that she is out for revenge these days - I just returned from a 3-mile jog in 15 degree weather and compared to what we had to endure this past week, 15 feels good. Really good.

Our first hike up in New Hampshire took us the northern slopes of the White Mountains, in particular the area around Randolph - chockfull of hiking opportunities and home of the Randolph Mountain Club (http://www.randolphmountainclub.org/) - next to the Appalachian Mountain Club a key resource for hikers and outdoorsy types. The RMC has been around since 1910 and is a pretty cool group. Check it out.

We had picked as our first hike the Appalachia Waterfalls Loop, a fantastic outing, which took us past several waterfalls, made us negotiate ice and water, slippery rocks across streams and finally stopped us cold with a series of icy ascents that we decided not to navigate that day. Rick, Phoebe (the dog), Ulandt, Pauline, Emily, John, Karen, Boot, Bernie and myself had a wonderful time, and the landscape varied from wintery-dry to icy-slick to snowy. Boot provided the appropriate botany lessons and definitely found a new kindred spirit in John. Along with Rick they frequently wandered off to admire yet another spruce or fir tree, or alert the group to a herbal rarity along the way. Cold Brook Falls, Tama Fall, Salroc Falls, and Gordon Falls were among the waterfalls we visited, with Gordon winning the award for the waterfall that inspired the most antics by members of the hiking group (including a fantastic performance by a very limber Pauline, who finagled her way over sheer ice to get to the top of the waterfall).

Sunday, a majority of us headed toward the Mt Moosilauke area to hike up Tunnel Brook Trail, which after about 2.7 miles leads to a beaver pond and some first views of the north slopes of the mountain. We did not get quite that far, mostly because we stopped for a lot of botanical inquiries, and also because there were quite a few rivers to cross. In some cases we had to become beavers ourselves - so as to not get wet feet followed by excruciating frost bite, we dragged trees out of the woods and lodged them across the streams. Loads of fun that was, the more adventurous, the better. Of course, the best thing about the Sunday hike was, we had snow, and tons of it. The white stuff had started to come down early Sunday morning, and I was annoyingly excited as you may have guessed. We had lunch sitting on tree trunks, surrounded by trees, snow and not much else - simply enjoyable.

The snow did provide its challenges, and as we drove toward the trailhead on a downhill section, the fresh snow and underlying ice cover made poor Ella slip all over the place. I have to pat myself on the shoulder here for once, since my Mario Andretti style stunt driving prevented us from crashing into first Boot's car and then another vehicle, and once we were on flatter grounds, my car mates did tell me that they appreciated this very much. Counterintuitive to not step on your breaks, but it did the trick! Apparently this message has not gotten out there to everyone, as we saw during our very gingerly drive home - an SUV who had apparently done the opposite was leaning upside down against a pine tree alongside the road. Fortunately no one was hurt. Upon our return home we were welcomed by Ulandt, Pauline and Bernie who had chosen to do snow jogging that day (it was a good day for it) and then turn into the puzzle brigade, almost completing a 1000-piece work of art and feeling darn proud for it.

Monday, which was Martin Luther Kg Jr Holiday, saw a much smaller group of us still up there, as some of our friends had to return home Sunday night. Rick, Karen, Boot and myself opted to go for the local favorite, the Coppermine Trail and Bridal Veil Falls, however due to the continuing snow, I decided to go along only for half of the way (up to the Bette Davis Plaque) and then head home. The drive was challenging at time, but I did make it home much sooner than I thought and with a little time left to settle into being back. This had been such an enjoyable and relaxing weekend, the evenings were filled with laughter, great food and very pleasant company.

It has been crazy ever since here in the Boston area, mainly because work has been quite demanding. I am organizing pipeline presentations by biotech and pharma companies, and currently it seems like a revolving door with at least one of them per week. Very rewarding work, but tons of logistics to take care of and a little hustle here or there. The weekend could not come soon enough, and boy, it went just as quickly. Friday night was dinner group at Irene's place in Melrose (very tasty, especially the half cheesecake I ate). Yesterday, I was at it again, hiking of course (what did you think? Stunt Driving?). Rick, Boot, Stephanie and I headed for one of my favorite destinations near Boston, the Middlesex Fells, a 2200-acre natural area perfectly suited for running, hiking and mountain biking (http://www.fells.org/). It was fabulous, a bit windy at times, and for about five minutes we saw snow flakes, blue skies mostly though. The terrain was tricky at times, and of course, yours truly took a little spill because she was so focused on identifying plants and trees that she forgot to look at her feet and where they were going. I got a couple of nice bruises to show for it and my arms feel a little sore, but overall no major injuries.

Today is puttering-around day, and it is amazing how many errands one can come up with. I am not even close to doing all the chores I wanted to do, but there you go. Can't do it all, must prioritize. Which is what I am doing right now - Elaine is waiting for me with a home cooked stew, and the NFL playoffs are about to commence. Go Pats!! (No, I know this is not an errand.)

Until next week.

pet:)