Hell Hath No Fury ......

"All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was."

~Toni Morrison

So, it has been a crazy week. The beginning of the semester always is! And this year it was more crazy because my oldest started his Sr. Year in high school and my youngest started Kindergarten. And I work at a University so my life has been insane. My intention at the end of this week was to write a blog about education in America. That will come later in the weekend and I am going to go back to my vacation.

We spent a week in New Hampshire exploring along the Pemigewasset river. A week later, Irene hit! I was watching news reports about Campton and the Turkey Jim Bridge and the campground we spent a week at. I am amazed by the fact that my five-year-old walked along in this river - searching for minnows & tadpoles (directly under the covered bridge). We walked over those bridges, I drove over the car bridge.

I have spent summers in these mountains for as long as I can remember. As a child I too chugged along these river beds and searched for small animals that swam near the surface. I so fell in love with the mountains and the river that I moved to New Hampshire in my 20s. My oldest son was born there. I started my College career at Plymouth State - and sometimes after classes I would walk along the river or go swimming just to relax. But this just reminds us that "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!" And boy has Mother Nature been angry lately - floods, eathquakes, drought, fires. My husband says that these are patterns in nature and weather that have occured many times over the years. My response usually is something like .... that's nice, doesn't mean I have to like it!

So, below are the photos I took on our vacation - when the rivers were calm and the bridges in one piece. I will get into deep philosophical observations on another day.

Technology Free Vacation!!!

Well, there have been no posts in awhile, I have been in the White Mountains with the family enjoying the world without technology and without news! No Internet, no e-mail, no Facebook, no blogs, no television, minimal cell phone service (they are good to have in case you lose each other at Storyland or Clark's Trading Post). We enjoyed a couple mile walk in the Pemigewasset River (nature photos to follow shortly), campfires, some antique shops, hiking at The Polar Caves and catching crayfish and tadpoles along the river, and frogs in the forest. Overall it was a really nice week. The "cabin" we stayed was a bit scary (I am actually not sure this adjective is strong enough for the situation, but it will do). The cabin was actually a very small old trailer, covered in wood to look like a cabin, and that was ok. But we walked in to find a hole in the floor covered by a rug and when I put the pillows on the table it collapsed (I will not even attempt to describe the scent of the cabin for I do not think adequate words exist). One "bedroom" was big enough for the bed and that was it. The other "bedroom" was really a closet with bunkbeds. The five year old was impressed, but the six-foot teenager was not amused (fortunately there was a pullout bed in the "livingroom/kitchen"). After the 70+ year-old owner and his grandson came by to check things out, we ended up with a piece of plywood drilled over the hole, and they took the table off the wall, mounted it to the top if a stool and brought it back we settled in for our camping adventure! The location was fabulous and they had a tractor ride through the forest and waterslides at the pool, so overall the vacation was a success! But I was so glad to be home and take a long shower and get the old laptop fired up. There is so much to catch up on and I do not even want to think about what my work e-mail is going to look like! Perhaps later this evening I will catch up on the 30-day blog .... but that may have to wait until tomorrow, I don't want to rush back into the hectic world of technology just yet!