Mount Washington/Boston Trip

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update the blog. SO MUCH has been going on since we got back from our trip to the northeast. First of all, in case you didn't see the weather up north the weekend we were gone, there was a snow storm coming into the northeast at the exact time we were up there. New Hampshire had already gotten a little over a foot of snow right before we got there and the day we climbed the mountain it was predicted that they would get 12-18 more inches!!!

We had such a blast! Unfortunately for us, we were not able to make it to the summit because of how bad the weather was, but we at least got to treeline, a little over half-way up. To my surprise, I was not cold at all. I started the hike wearing pretty much everything except for my outer layer parka jacket. After about 10 minutes of hiking, I stripped down to barely any layers. The mountain was beautiful! Snow covered all the trees and there hadn't been too much wind, so the snow just rested peacefully on the limbs. The winter trail up the mountain had just opened that day, which was a disadvantage for us. None of the snow was really packed down and it's harder to hike through over a foot of snow flakes than you think. It would have been easier to walk with the crampons on straight ice than to do what we did. The trail was literally steeper than a staircase, if that's even possible. Much steeper than Elbert in Colorado. It was excruciatingly painful for me, not because my muscles hurt, but because I was apparently experiencing "boot bash", as the guides called it. The double plastic boots were rubbing up against my already fragile shins and it got to where it was too hard to walk. I wouldn't have been able to make it to the summit even if the weather wasn't bad. I had several stress fractures in both of my legs from when I danced in college and I'm not so sure they ever completely healed. They still hurt from time to time when I run and they definitely were hurting when the boot bash started happening.



The boots that were killing my shins



Justin was excited to show my mom this picture...."avalanche danger - HIGH, avalanche danger - HIGH....". No matter what trail we went on, the avalanche danger was high. Mom actually took it pretty well, but only because she didn't see it until after I came back in one piece.



Hiking up the trail



The entire hike below treeline looked like this. Absolutely amazing!



My brother-in-law, Aeron, hiking up the steepest part of the trail. You can kind of tell how steep it is based on where I am taking the picture, then Aeron's location in front of me, then the guide's location in front of him. All three of us are literally on a staircase!



This is when we made it to treeline. We stopped to grab some lunch while our guide, Charlie, tried to adjust my boots to where they wouldn't hurt. It didn't happen though, they never stopped hurting.



On the way back down is when the 12-18 inches started falling. And it was falling FAST! You can barely even tell that this is me!



Me, Justin and Aeron on the way back down the mountain

Shockingly enough as it is, none of us were very sore the next day. The only thing that was hurting on me was my shins. None of my muscles hurt which is rather unusual after climbing a mountain. The next day the four of us drove over to Boston, MA to enjoy the history of the city. We stayed at the Hilton in downtown Boston. We went to places like Cheers Bar, Quincy Market, Boston Common, etc.



This is the two of us before we left North Conway, NH. We're standing in front of parts of the Presidential Range. You can only see a little of Mt. Washington in the background because it's covered in fog.



This is at Cheers. We were walking around Boston at night and it was FREEZING!!! Much colder than the mountain, but then again we were better equipped with clothing on the mountain. We didn't really intend to eat at Cheers, we were just going to stop by and see it, but we were so freezing that we need some time inside to warm up. So we ordered some appetizers and drinks to keep us warm.

The 2nd day in Boston is when we decided to do the 2 1/2 mile walk on the Freedom Trail. We did a much better job of preparing ourselves for the cold this time! The freedom trail started at Boston Common and went 2 1/2 miles all the way to Bunker Hill. We followed a red painted line on the sidewalk, which also got VERY complicated given that most of the sidewalks were covered in snow or ice, but we seemed to manage ok. Please excuse the lack of pictures. I have SO MANY from Boston, but I don't have the time to post them all. See my facebook profile if you want to see all of them.



This is what we were following on the roads



This is me and Justin inside Liberty Hotel. This hotel use to be Boston's very first jail. Some of the cells were still inside the hotel. Very cool stuff!



This is me (even though you can hardly see me) in front of the Christmas tree at the Quincy Market. It was HUGE and gorgeous!!



Where Justin is standing is the exact spot where the Boston Massacre started.



This is us at the Park Street Graveyard. This is one of Boston's very first graveyards and holds the remains of some VERY famous people such as John Hancock, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, victims of the Boston Massacre, and many many more.



This is Paul Revere's house from the 1800's. It's been turned into a museum and trust me when I say it's not as big on the inside as it looks.



If you're like me and you're a huge fan of the history of America, you probably loved the movie National Treasure. At the end of the first movie, when Ben and his gang are trapped beneath Trinity Church in New York, Ben tells Ian that the next clue is in Old North Church in Boston. That it was where lanterns were hung to signal that the British were coming. One lantern if the British were coming by land, two lanterns if they were coming by sea. There were two lanterns hung here in April 1775 and they were hung on either side of the steeple. We were also able to go inside this church and it was absolutely beautiful!



This was the monument erected to symbolize the Battle at Bunker Hill. I learned while looking at the information on it that the hill was actually not called Bunker Hill, it was called Breed's Hill. I'm still a little unsure to why it was called "Battle of Bunker Hill" if it was Breed's Hill that the battle was fought on.



This is me and Justin inside the building beneath the Bunker Hill monument.

The next day we drove back to Providence, RI to head back to Birmingham. On the way, Justin and I decided to go to the Rhode Island highpoint, just so we could mark it off our lists. RI highpoint is called Jerimoth Hill and is only 821 feet in elevation.



We had such a blast and it was such an awesome weekend! It took a while for me to catch up because as soon as we got back it was already Christmas Eve! We went to St. Mark's 11:00pm service Christmas Eve night and on Christmas Day spent the entire day with his family. We all went to see Four Christmases. HILARIOUS!!! The next day we spent at my mom's house. It's been a super busy week needless to say. We're headed for Gatlinburg, TN for New Years on Wednesday morning at 7:30am. I have a lot to do in two days :)