New Hampshire -- Live Free or Die!

We drove into the state of New Hampshire via the breathtaking Kancamagus Highway.  You would think we would have been in gorgeous overload after Maine, but New Hampshire offered another kind of beauty.

haven't seen any, but we keep looking!

not in the mood for a car ride today!

We stopped frequently along the road for some stone skipping, rock climbing, and toe wetting.

Of course, we also stopped at the mandatory (for me) scenic overlooks as well, which offered sweeping views of the White Mountains.

When we got to our hotel, we found not only the required hotel pool (which was open!), but also a trampoline!

The reason why we will never get a trampoline!

The reason why we should get a trampoline!

We paid good money to climb down 333 steps, crawl through dark caves, shimmy under giant boulders, and pretend we were not claustrophobic at the Lost River Gorge and Boulder Caves in North Woodstock.

on the way down

looking up out of a cave

crawling through a cave

Entering the Devil's Kitchen Cave

Hello down there!

Charlie bummed because he could not go in a "no kids under 8" cave

To go into the Lemon Squeezer cave, you first had to fit through the "Squeezer Gauge" to ensure that you wouldn't get stuck inside!

No problem fitting through!

Charlie, oh so happy that he was able to climb through the Bear Crawl cave!

We even got Mama into the Cave of Silence which had a beautiful waterfall inside!

After going to the depths of the earth, we took to the sky by driving up Mount Washington into the clouds.

The 8 mile climb was scary to drive since there were no guardrails and it was very steep.  The signs recommended driving in low gear, which prompted Joy to call our car dealer to ask which "D" we were supposed to be in!  Olivia covered herself with a blanket on the way up.

driving off the end of the earth

As we got higher and higher the sky disappeared and we were surrounded by clouds

We made it to the summit where it was 20 degrees cooler than the bottom, and very, very windy.

The view to ?

While we were on the top the Mt.Washington cog railway train arrived, which was really awesome for Charlie the Choo Choo Man to see.

The ride back down was equally as treacherous, and had Joy worrying that our brakes would give out, but the mini-van made it down safely!

To surprise Charlie, we took him for a train ride on the Hobo Railroad which traveled through the White Mountains.

Our last day in New Hampshire was spent on a quest for the perfect swimming hole.  We hiked up trails to waterfalls, walked along gravel roads to hidden cascades, and ultimately ended up at a park 10 minutes from our hotel that had natural waterslides that Hannah & Ethan deemed "awesome"! 

Ethan taking a break after climbing up the slippery rocks to the top of the falls.

It is really unbelievable that this kid has never been to the ER

We took a break from our quest long enough to stop at the site where you used to be able to see New Hampshire's iconic Old Man in the Mountain which crumbled almost 10 years ago.

There is now a site which has "profilers" that you use to "see" the old man.

You stand on specific spots, according to your height, and line the profiler up with the face of the mountain to see what it used to look like before it fell -- the kids thought this was pretty cool, and so did I.

After a quick stop for a picnic lunch, we were back on the search for swimming nirvana.

 

At Crystal Cascades, there were a series of big and little rocks that you could "slide" on into the water.  The little kids happily chose the little slides,

but the big kids chose the big slides which made me vascillate between not looking and taking photographs as they zoomed down the racing falls.

 Of course my pictures don't really do justice to this nonsense, but this video might:

Really, what could top a natural waterpark, but ice cream for dinner!  So that is what we did!