Once Upon a Time...

Once upon a time there was a family of four who thought it would be fun to take a relaxing and peaceful vacation up north in the White Mountains of New Hampshire... Ha! What a joke! It wasn't relaxing. We were constantly on the go. It wasn't peaceful! Chelsea made sure of THAT! But we had a great time nonetheless. Here are some hightlights!
Day 1
We head to Story Land in Glen, NH. Chelsea hadn't napped and was in rare form. Travis was fixated on finding the trainride first thing. The weather cooperated, which was a definite plus.
Here is our boy waiting in line for the first ride. He is so excited he can barely contain himself.

Chelsea enjoys the view from the train. It was one of the more tame moments of her day. She had napped for an hour and was a little refreshed.

We went on the Bamboo Chutes. Travis loved it. Chelsea... not so much! She was a little shocked by the sudden drop. The splash at the end left her a little angry, too.

Daddy took the kids on the teacups. Mom sat this one out and took pictures. Spinning is not for me!

Day 2

First we stopped at the Covered Bridge Shoppe, right near our condo. It was an actual bridge with a country store inside. It was so cute. The bridge lost some points with Travis because it was an old car bridge, not a train bridge. But his disappointment didn't last long. Especially once he and Chelsea realized how much fun it is to race in and out of the long entryway.

Then we were heading north to Jefferson, NH to go to Santa's Village. Once again we had decent weather. It was not as crowded and Chelsea managed to sleep most of the way up. We were in much better shape to start our day. Another flume ride. Another train. And all the Christmas Carols I could sing along with! This was my kind of place!

We stopped at the enterance of Santa's Village to snap a picture of the kids in Santa's sleigh.

We took some time to greet our friend the snowman, or as Chelsea called him "Da Man". He looked familiar to me...now I know why... Flash back thirty-three years. A young Amy with her own mom (Mimi) pose with "Da Man".


Day 3

All aboard for Hartmann's Model Railroad Museum. We took a brief stop to check things out. It was cool. Lots of interactive exhibits. And if you bought a shirt you got to ride on the large model train for free. This was our third trip on a train in as many days. Travis claims that this one was his favorite.

Travis poses with the owner of the museum and the engineer of the train.

Travis, Chelsea, and Daddy wave to Mom as they go past.

Then we headed to the Kancamagus Highway and off to Clarke's Trading Post in Lincoln where we promptly forgot the camera in the car. The hightlights for this trip include another train ride (number four on our trip) on the White Mountain Railroad. We headed over the bridge into the territory of the Wolfman. He chased our train until we told him to "Scram, you old goat!" Travis thought this was great! Travis actually got to hop inside this train and take a look at the firebox. His favorite part of the ride was when the train blew steam all over the Wolfman.

He and daddy also rode the bumper boats. They came off that ride drenched. Since it started to rain we headed out. We stopped to look at the bears, but decided against watching the show. It was actually kind of sad to see such beautiful would-be-wild animals cooped up like that. We headed home after that. Chelsea serenaded us by chanting, "I want Mimi! I want Auntie!" for a good half hour. Then mercifully she fell asleep. Travis still loves hotel living and wants to go back next year.