This Fall Break, instead of going home, I took a little vacation with eight of my friends to my friend Claire’s family cabin in Harrisville, N.H. I realized on the two-hour drive up that other than a hike I did at age 14, I had never spent any extended period of time in New Hampshire. Needless to say, I am definitely going to go back soon.
I arrived on Saturday afternoon and was greeted by my friends and a gorgeous fall day with the temperature hovering around 45 degrees. Claire showed me around the house, got me settled in the loft I was going to be sleeping in, and took me down to the lake beside her house. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading one of the two books I brought: “Remains of the Day” by Kazuo Ishiguro, eating French onion soup for dinner, playing Salad Bowl (a charades-based game) and watching “The Devil Wears Prada” until bed.
Sunday was a lazy day, which mostly involved doing schoolwork and preparing to make lasagna that night. The most exciting part of that day, however, was the fact that it SNOWED. First snowfall of the season, in October, in New Hampshire—it was great.
Monday was a very big day: We got up early and climbed Mount Monadnock, on the Dublin trail, which was a five-mile hike. The summit was over 3,000 feet and we could see the Green Mountains of Vermont, Mt. Washington covered in snow and the skyline of Boston, over 80 miles away. While the view was totally worth it, the hike itself was a bit of a challenge, the temperature changed a lot and, by the top of the mountain, it was below freezing. There was also a lot of scrambling over rocks during the hike and at least two of my friends nearly had dangerous falls. The rest of the day, we napped. I read the second book I brought: “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris, and that night we watched “Monsters Inc.,” a childhood favorite of mine.
Tuesday was a day of packing, cleaning and driving. Back at Conn, I’m immensely missing the simplicity of New Hampshire, the wifi-lessness, the heat coming from the wood fire, all of our entertainment coming from board games and cooking endeavors, and finding time to sit down and read a good book (or two!).