Two Years
Happy 2nd Anniversary Honey! Being married to you for the last two years has been so easy. The only thing that has changed is that now I love you more. You truly are my other half.
Peppers
Goodbye summer. Hello autumn.
I Think I'm a Blueprint Nerd
I just spent an hour at our local building department combing through old blueprints and building plans. It is amazing how many different decades of construction can be part of one home. I am completely enthralled with blueprints and drafting. There is something very timeless about the whole process. For anyone who has done any drafting, they understand that everything is executed in a particular way and very little, if anything, about it has changed. Blueprints make feel a little bit more connected to the past in a very tangible way.
In the files I also came across typed letters from the 50s from neighbors complaining about construction taking too long.
So beware, when they say it is going in your permanent record, they aren’t kidding.
Oktoberfest
I love when the fall season begins and all the harvest festivals start. There is something so perfect about spending a crisp autumn evening under a tent while eating and drinking with friends. I think it is the smell of the air and wearing long sleeves that make me feel like myself more than any other time of year.
Observations and Quandaries at Oktoberfest
Cousin Jeff: What do you think is heavier, a pitcher of water or beer?
Marco: Hmm. The dissolved carbon dioxide is going to throw me off.
Cousin Jeff: Now that is the type of response I wanted to hear.
Our View
Through our window last night. I’m completely infatuated with how different the sunset looks each evening this summer. This time it made the river look purple.
Fried and Green
Guess what I’m making for dinner. They’re fresh from the farmer’s market.
I scream, You scream
We couldn’t leave Vermont without visiting the Ben & Jerry’s Factory. And it looks just like the drawing on the website, including the cows.
(GPOYW - I love coffee ice cream edition.)
We Accidentally Climbed a Mountain
This past week, Marco and I and four of our backpacking Eagle Scout friends went on a hiking trip to Vermont. Our goal was the Long Trail, Section 9. Marco and I smugly thought to ourselves that we were beating the system. We were going to get excercise by walking in the woods, this couldn’t possibly be easier.
(Photos from Carolyn)
We were so wrong. Vermont kicked our ass. We pushed ourselves to the limits and climbed several mountains; Baby Stark and Molly Stark Mountain, Burnt Mountain, Mount Ethan Allen, and Marco and I took the bad-weather Alpine Trail around Camel’s Hump.
(Photos from Carolyn)
Our style of hiking was solely focused on not falling off the cliffs and what we can accurately describe as bushwhacking and butt hiking.
(Photo from Mark)
This is Carolyn. At first I was so relieved to have another girl on the trail. She is a quiet, thin, feminine vegetarian. But on the trail she turned into a monster she-wolf hiking spider monkey scaling rock ledges in mere sandals. I am still in awe of her.
Ben, a much more experienced and fearless hiker, admiring the view as we catch our breath. He and our other trailmates kept reassuring us as we were scrambling up rock slabs, shuffling down trail ladders, scaling rock ledges, and descending a 4,000 foot ridgeline, to name a few of our trail obstacles, half of which we accomplished in the rain.
The root staircase. Easier than we thought. “This is it?!” We’re hard-core now.
Swimming in ice cold waterfall pools never felt so good for sore muscles and blisters.
Final moments on the trail. Our last day was wonderful. A gradual decline from Bamforth Ridge shelter to Duxbury Road.
Ben, Mark, Carolyn, Dan, Marco, Me.
Julie’s wedding shoes
