The Calm Before the Storm

We have (very happily) reached a bit of a lull in the hectic house buying\selling process. Given that the house hunt has taken over most of our summer, we're trying to fit in some summer fun before we get into closings and moving, not to mention Fall. This past weekend and the next 2 are the only ones we have left until the chaos of the moving storm begins. Also, hurricane Irene was forecast to blow through Boston yesterday. Since we had a brief lull before both storms, we packed our weekend fun into Saturday morning.

On Thursday and Friday, Mike prepped our house for the storm. He removed the grill, patio furniture and all toys from the yard. He rolled up the rugs in the basement (in case intense amounts of rain caused some puddling there), cleaned out the gutters and he got us some supplies from the store - bottled water in case our city's water supply was compromised, batteries to power a radio and flashlights in case the electricity went out and some canned food to chew on if needed. With preparations for the storm made, we packed up the car on Friday and headed to NH.

We left late since I'd had an appointment for a haircut that night. Dylan didn't fall asleep until an hour and a half past his bedtime then only slept an hour until he woke up when we arrived at the condo. After we unpacked, we got him back to bed as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that boy's morning alarm clock goes off regardless of what time he goes to bed, so he was up at 6:30. We all got up, got ready, had some breakfast, re-packed the car up and headed a few highway exits north to Clark's Trading Post.

Mike and I had been to Clark's once with his sister's family several years back. Dylan, being at an age where we thought he would enjoy it, definitely needed to go so we didn't want to miss out on the venue this summer.

Once we got there, he was super excited to get in his stroller. Unfortunately, not having enough sleep under his belt meant he was a bit cranky and didn't want to get out of his stroller. After a failed attempt to take him into the "Mystical Mansion," we were a bit worried about how he would enjoy the day.

We wandered through the "museum" of antique fire engines and motorcycles and wandered through the gift shops. Then we went to climb on board the train. It was a struggle to get Dylan to get out of the stroller again, but luckily he calmed pretty quickly once we were seated on the train. The train steams along a short distance, hits a dead end then heads back to the station. On this route, you head through the "dangerous" wolfman territory.....ooooooh! We were a bit worried Dylan might get scared at a strange man yelling at the train (since our last trip there one of the kids we were with definitely felt that away) but I think more than anything he was just confused - who was that strange looking guy and why was he so mad?

The Dreaded Wolfman!

On the Train

After the train ride, we headed straight over for the bear show. This is definitely the main attraction of the park. The family that owns\runs Clark's has been doing the trained bear show for decades and treats the bears like family pets. The bears really do enjoy performing.....and the crowds love watching them! They are so cute!

Echo the Bear Swinging

Echo Weighing In (300+ pounds!)

Echo Hiding

Tula the Bear Dancing

Tula Playing Hoops

Tula Practicing Her Scooter Riding
(She's a young bear and still "in training.")

The bears have fun performing but I think a big reason they like the tricks is for the treat they get afterwards. The bears get to enjoy some ice cream!

Echo Licking the Spoon Clean

Tula Getting a Spoonful

Well since the bears got ice cream treats, we of course needed them too! After the show, we headed to the ice cream parlor. Dylan fed himself his favorite scoop - chocolate ice cream with chocolate sprinkles, and I had a vanilla milkshake. Yum! Mike passed on the ice cream. That boy just isn't into sweets. Weird.

Bellies full of ice cream, we walked around the rest of the smallish park and took in the sights. We did do a little tour through the Rustic House. It's one of those tilted, gravity defying optical illusion kind of places. The tour was a bit long and filled with way too many corny jokes but we stayed til the end. By that point, it was a bit past Dylan's nap time so we headed back to the car, having done pretty much all Clark's had to offer anyway, and started the trip back home.

The rain started about 20 minutes from home and it was heavy! The rest of Saturday afternoon, we got off and on rain, but the true storm wasn't to hit until Sunday. So, we hunkered down and waited.

At 7am on Sunday, I was aware that the strong winds had begun. We spent the day indoors (obviously) and waited for the worst to happen. While we had electricity, we would just have a fun pajama day watching movies. I figured we would save the arts and crafts projects I had planned for entertainment when we lost the lights. As the day progressed, a few pieces of our siding blew off (rescued from the yard and will be replaced this week) and I watched our young birch tree blow sideways many times. Lots of limbs and leaves littered the street and it rained on and off. But, we never lost power and never got water in the basement. I'd say we got pretty lucky!