Weekend in NH

My little tot's 3rd birthday will be tomorrow. Unlike last year when we had a really big party for him complete with moonwalk and lots of invited friends, this year we decided to celebrate it quietly. We've had few relatives on both sides of our family who visited in the last two months, so we thought that it would be nice to spend this month with just the three of us.

We decided to get-away to NH and ME to bond and celebrate our little tot's birthday. Over the weekend we drove to Storyland in NH. The weather was really nice and not much traffic on the road considering. We didn't even bother to check if the venue was already open, it turned out it will start operation next weekend yet. But the trip didn't go to waste since we've got several plans to do while up there.

We took the Cog Railway ride up to Mt. Washington. It was a great experience riding in a steam engine, my little tot had a great kick out of it. It was a 3 hour ride two-way, and the steam engine stopped every 20 minutes to fill up water and coals. At one point we were at 4600 ft. elevation and our ears have started popping. There were several spots in the mountain still covered with snow. We also saw several hikers braving the temperature and wind.

When we got to the top we were allowed to go out to take a break. It was tough getting off and on the train, the wind was probably over 50 miles an hour and if I was not carrying my little tot, I could have been blown away easily. It was really hard to maintain a balance. But despite the strong wind, hb has still managed to walk to the observatory deck at the summit but couldn't see anything because of dense fog. We were ready to stick around and stay for the night if ever it got too late to drive home. It was still bright after the ride so we decided to just drive home. Then it started to rain.

Hb was craving for seafood and so was I. We searched in the GPS if we could pass any resto along the way but didn't see any. Then finally before 9pm we found a perfect place to dine at Peabody, MA called Seawitch. We had sumptuous oysters, calamari, grilled scallops, salad and baked potato. It was a place worth going back to if only it's close to home. Little tot didn't eat anything but just played peek-a-boo with a customer in the next table.

We came home exhausted but very happy. Next weekend we're going to Bar Harbor in ME, so watch out for the pictures.

Here are some of the pics I took of our NH stroll.

Little tot was like in a trance while watching Disney movie Cars on our way to NH.

We stopped by Conway hoping to take the train ride
but decided to take the Cog Railway instead

At Ben & Jerry's having Chunky Monkey and Cherry Garcia ice cream, yum!

At the Cog Railway station waiting to board.

Little tot was excited he wanted to cut in the line so dada pulled him back to the line.

"What's taking them so long mom?"

How can the train fit this much people?

We were really cramped inside, but it was still a fun adventure.
Little tot slept for an hour, so I was so sore when we got off.

After the ride we had some photo ops by several steam engines which little tot said were 'broken'

This one looks ancient isn't it?

At the museum of steam engines

Creating some souvenir coins with steam engine emboss.