Belated Anniversary

My hubby & I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary last month. However, July proved to be an extremely busy month so we made plans to go away in August instead. Up until a few days before we were scheduled to "go somewhere" we still didn't know what we were going to do exactly.

We are in the midst of paying off our debt so we're reluctant to pay out more money than we need to for things like this, but we wanted to be able to go away & enjoy ourselves. Thankfully we had three relatives actually give us some money for our anniversary so that helped off set the cost of gas & paid for a couple meals as well. THANKS!

The end decision was to drop the boys off with my MIL at her work & then drive over & meet my hubby at this work. Thus started the marathon driving we did over the weekend.

I arrived at hubby's work about 6pm & we headed towards New Hampshire. His sister & her hubby own a nice camp up at the top of NH in a town called Pittsburg. When I say the "top" of NH, I mean it. We were extremely close to the Canadian border & at one point driving back on Saturday there was sign that said, "Vermont 1 mile." ;-)

We arrived there late but in time to watch Michael Phelps win his seventh gold medal! WOW! That was an amazing race! Yes, the camp has TV, electricity, running water, flush toilets, real beds. In other words, it's my kind of camp! Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take ANY photos whatsoever!!! I'm hoping to get back at some point so I'll be sure to take lots then. We almost skipped the rest of our plans for the weekend as it was just so relaxing there but we kept on going & had a great time as well.

I didn't get to see much of the scenery on the drive up as it was dark for most of it due to our late start. We never even left the restaurant where we had dinner until 7:30. However, on the way out Saturday morning, this was one of the views....

We drove through Dixfield Notch. The hotel in the distance is called The Balsam's. From the distance it looks like a fairy tale castle. Up close it looks like a smaller version of the The Mount Washington Resort. For anyone out there who has ever seen the movie Dirty Dancing, these resorts remind me a lot of where Baby & her family went to stay.

We spent a lot of the day driving one end of New Hampshire to the other. Our BIL had left his cell phone at his camp so we offered to swing by & drop it off. It was on the way so not a big deal. Our goal was the brand new Cabela's store in southern Maine. Or I should say, my hubby's goal was to go there while mine was to head to A.C. Moore & use my Mother's Day gift certificate - finally!

It was close to 5:30 when we finally managed to get to Cabela's. The traffic through North Conway, NH slowed us up a bit & then the weather did the rest of it. We had rain off & on throughout the drive and at times it was torrential downpours - including when we were trying to find Cabela's! In fact, we drove right past it & had to ask where it was. I kidded my hubby about stopping to ask but he assured me that when it came to sporting goods stores, it was okay to ask! ;-)

Both of us were soaked by the time we walked in to the store. I felt like I had just gotten out of a shower! My hair was plastered. It was not a pretty site. I went in to check out the store in order to give the rain time to let up as I didn't want to drive in it back over to AC Moore in the next town over.

Right in the middle of the store they have a fantastic taxidermy display of animals. There are all kinds of animals from North America. There is a huge rock formation & then the displays are built around that. I took a few photos just to show how neat it looked.

This wolf was part of a pack that was circling some musk ox.

One big moose!

I did make it to AC Moore & back to the store. By the time I was done my shopping there was a beautiful rainbow in the sky. It was even a complete arch but I couldn't get a good picture of the whole thing. You can faintly see one part in the photo above.

I did sit in the car for about an hour reading while my hubby finished up his shopping. I have to admit that shopping with that man can be downright painful at times so I came prepared. I had a book, chocolate, and a soda. I told him to take his time & I enjoyed myself while I read in the car instead of staring at boots for who knows how long! ;-)

We had a great anniversary weekend - albeit a month later - and I'm as thankful today as I was on the day I married him. (feel free to go "aawww" now ::grin::)