August already???

Well, the rain has slowed down to only 3 or 4 full days a week, so we have slowly started to enjoy summer. Our area is now 5 inches ahead in rain for the year, while our parents have seen droughts in both Minnesota and Texas! We had a wet Independence Day weekend, first in Burlington on the 3rd, and then in Hanover and Lebanon on the 4th itself. It was our first trip in Burlington, and we started at Magic Hat Brewery, where we toured and sampled the beer. We had train tickets from the brewery to the river front festival on an old Vermont train. We were able to see the interesting folk of Burlington. While there were stilt-walkers, singers, and lots of food, it was the people-watching that was most entertaining in this city (picture below). The firework display was surprisingly long! The Hanover Old-Fashioned Fourth had horse-drawn wagon rides and kids having races with eggs on a spoon, etc. However, there was nothing else! A storm came through after we had been there 20 minutes, and then we were done. Lebanon had a bit more on their Green - food and bands kept people there in spite of the drizzle.



Our biggest summer fun day was Brian's birthday weekend. I was able to borrow my boss's kayak to take with us to the beach at Lake Sunapee. We had quite the mental and physical exercise trying to tie it to Brian's car with only 2 straps. We finally atattched it with the help of a spry, elderly neighbor and his bungee cables. It was nice to blend in on the roadways around here, as nearly every other car has some piece of recreational equipment strapped to the roof (picture below). In the hour it took us to get to the Lake (we had to drive slowly on the interstate), we only had to stop once to fix the ties. The exhaust had burned right through the nylon tie! We had fun kayaking, relaxing, and wading (it was cold water) and some friends joined us for grilling and Ladder Golf. We even made it home before the rain (of course it rained)!



We had more small-town adventures the following weekend, starting with the Hanover Streetfest. The streets are closed for vendors, mostly food and ski-clothing, and bands. It was fun, and the weather was hot! It was nice to recognize some people as we walked around. We followed it with mini-golf. We also saw Up, which I had heard such great things about from multiple sources. It was good, but I think we missed out on a big part of the draw of the movie, as our local theater could not play it on a 3-D projector. Booo!

We had no big trips this month - we went to a baptism in NH, where I was able to see cousins I had not seen in 5 years, and I spent a day at my grandmother's in Boston. Brian did not travel, but we hosted his mother for a few days. It was warm and humid, but not raining, so we were able to show her the best of the Upper Valley. I took her to the local orchard for raspberry picking (we got 2 pounds)! We brought her the the local Harpoon Brewery BBQ fest, where we ran into some friends (Texans who were also magnetically attracted to the BBQ festival). I thought it was funny that we took Brian's mom for BBQ, when she has lots of BBQ options back home, but it was a fun festival and we were able to sample several choice meats. We will definitely be back next year, and are lucky to live nearby, as people came from all over New England to be there.



Brian has been busy at work with the first of two summer programs where Dartmouth brings a group of select high-schoolers in from across the country to show them what the college has to offer. It seems like no time before he starts travel season again. We are looking forward to a short trip to MN later this month!