Newport - Trying to Fit in the Travel

As the due date gets closer and closer, we're focused on 2 main things - getting house (and us!) ready for the baby and having as much "just couple" time as possible! We both love traveling and seeing what the world has to offer. Now that I'm far enough along that plane travel isn't appealing, we have chosen some quick, somewhat local, trips to do when we have a nice weekend to get away. Last weekend was one of those. I took off work on Friday and Thursday night, Mike and I drove down to Newport, RI for a mini-vacation.

This little coastal town has tons of great things to experience. We've both been there before, but this was our first trip there together. Thursday after work, we drove down and just relaxed for the night to get ready for a busy Friday. Friday morning, we had a small breakfast at our Inn then set out on foot to explore Newport.

Our first stop was the visitors center, a couple of blocks from the Inn, to get some info and maps. Then, we headed towards the beginning of the Cliff Walk, stopping as we went along to hit some of the historical Newport by foot stops. One of the sites on this tour was the Viking tower. It's origin is a mystery and there are lots of theories and legends as to who might have built it.

From our hotel, wandering around to the historic sites, it was probably about a mile and a half to the beginning of the Cliff Walk. It's a scenic walk along the cliffed shoreline of Newport. On one side, ocean, on the other side, beautiful mansions. Obviously, a nice place for a stroll. Part of the Cliff Walk is the 40 Steps. We walked down those for a closer look of the waves crashing against the rocks.

Me (and baby) taking a photo op at the bottom of the 40 Steps

One of the most magnificent mansions is the Breakers (seen below). I've actually toured it twice (once just after moving to Boston and another time when my parents came to visit) so we just saw it from the outside this time, right along the Cliff Walk.

Waves Crashing on the Rocks

Along the Cliff Walk, we even stopped a while to watch some of the surfers enjoying the nice day.

After a couple of miles of the Cliff Walk, we hopped out and walked to one of the mansions - Marble House, a "cottage" built by members of the Vanderbilt family in the 19th century. Unfortunately, photos aren't allows of the interior, so here are a couple of exterior views.

That's me standing on the porch.

Lights on the gate at the driveway entrance

My little feet were getting pretty tired at this point (one of the other joys of my pregnancy is that my feet have gotten sensitive and get pretty tender with lots of walking) and we were starving. Unfortunately, all the restaurants are located in the middle of the town, much closer to where we started the cliff walk, so we walked the two miles back to that area and tiredly enjoyed looking at many of the other grand houses on Bellevue Ave.

Once we got there, we found a great place to eat and had a great big, long lunch. After that, it was back on our feet to walk the last mile back to our hotel where we had a much needed rest before we went out for dinner. All in all, we must have walked at least 7 or 8 miles. And I got through it....not bad for a 28 week (7 month) pregnant lady!

The only down side to the day was our aching feet and my annoying sciatic nerve. The weather was great, the sites were great and the company was great!

Oliver's New Trick

Apparently, I'm overloading Mike with things to do at the house, so he's now trained Oliver as his assistant. It's about time that cat started earning his keep!

Little Day in Littleton NH

After an exhausting hike on Thursday in NH, we decided we would do something very low key on Friday. From the highway, the town of Littleton, NH looks very New England cute, so we decided to drive north a bit, through Franconia Notch, to this small town and check it out.

Turns out that the town's so small there's really not a lot to do in it. When we got there, we parked on the main street and headed up the few blocks of shops and stopped in at a few. Other than buying a few things at an outdoorsy store, we didn't find anything too interesting. We also checked out the Littleton Grist Mill. They had a small "museum" and shop inside the mill that we wandered around. The mill supposedly has been restored and is working, but wasn't running the day we were in there due to a jam with a large stick. Given that there were some cobwebs on the wheel, I suspected the jam had occurred more than a few hours previously. Anyway, it was quaint, nice to have seen and we bought a mix for pancakes from them.

Covered Bridge Outside the Mill

Self Portrait on the Bridge

Littleton Grist Mill

After checking out what the town had to offer, we had a late lunch and headed back to the condo to pack up and head back to MA. Here's a shot I took of Mt. Lafayette (that I hiked with Mike and his Dad last summer) on our way back through Franconia Notch. Still a little snow up there! In fact, we saw people skiing at Cannon Mountain on the other side of the highway! There's nothing but remnants of snow on the ground, but the upper regions of the Notch look to still have plenty!

Red Hill Hike

Since my office was closed for the Good Friday holiday, I decided to take a vacation day on Thursday and have a nice, long, four day weekend. Yay! At 27 weeks pregnant (7 months for those that like that count) and in my third trimester, the energy level has plummeted again so I need all the time I can get to fit in fun, projects and rest!

Wednesday night, we drove up to our condo in NH so that we could take our official inaugural hike of the year. Energy or not, I was determined to do a spring hike. Usually, we hike Welch\Dickey. Since I've been slowing down a lot, though, I figured it would be a little too intense for me right now so we found a shorter hike that seemed more manageable. So, Thursday we had a leisurely morning then made the 30 minute drive down to the north side of the NH lakes region for a hike on Red Hill.

The hike was a pretty gradual climb with a gain of about 1400 feet of elevation to a Fire Tower and nice view over Squam Lake. I very quickly realized that hiking uphill for a 7 month pregnant lady is HARD. I took breaks very frequently to catch my breath and Mike was very patient waiting for me. About half way up, we came to the remains of an old homestead.

Root Cellar Remains

After this mid way point, I started to doubt the logic of me making a hike this year. However, I was still determined to see what great view was in store and kept going. I'm glad I did because it was a great view over Squam Lake:

Proof That I Made It (And Proof of the Big Belly)

The Self Portrait

The way down was much easier for me aerobically, but my back and knees definitely started talking and I was happy to be back at the car after an hour descent. Not that I'm at all competitive (haha!) but even though I felt slow as molasses, I was proud to have made the round trip hike (not including our 20 minute snack break at the top) in the recommended 2 hours and 20 minutes posted at the bottom of the trail. Not bad for a pregnant lady!

Wildlife was hiding during our hike....we didn't even catch a glimpse of a chipmunk. However, in the car on the dirt road just outside of the parking area, Mike saw a large bird fly across the road and stop in a tree. We stopped to take a look. It was a Pileated Woodpeaker which, according to my Audubon guide, is a rare site! Here's a great shot we got of him with Mike's zoom lens:

So, in the end, I was really happy that I made the hike. However, I've decided that any outdoor hiking that may be done in the next couple of months will be done on level ground. It was definitely a tough endeavor for me. I've also decided that those women that you hear of training for marathons and other great physical feats during pregnancy are certifiably insane! I mean, I'm pretty determined to stay physically active and even I'm admitting defeat. I can't even fathom their mindset! Geez!

Court Dates (yes - plural!)

Mike and I have both had to spend our time in court during the last week.

Last Wednesday, I took the day off of work to contest a speeding ticket I got in NH back in August of 2008. Was I speeding, yes. Did I want the 6 year surcharge on my insurance, no. So, my goal going in was to somehow avoid the insurance surcharge. Mike made the hour plus drive with me and we arrived at the court at 12:45 for my 1:00 trial time. It was a small place and, after going through security at the front door, we sat down to wait in the waiting room, also known as the front hallway.

About 10 minutes later, an officer approached me and pulled me aside to chat. Come to find out, this is the guy that wrote me the ticket (one of the six officers operating the speed trap I got caught in). His goal was to settle. I gave him my story about how I didn't think I deserved the ticket (admittedly, not a very solid argument) and he said he would reduce the speed amount on the ticket, thereby reducing the amount due on the ticket. He's also offered up a defensive driving course to reduce points on insurance (which is done regularly in TX to "excuse" tickets but the first I've heard of that offered in New England) but also let me know that my specific insurance company gives you a "get out of jail free pass" on your first ticket. So, I took the compromise and left pleased with the result.

Today, Mike had his time in court. However, his was on the "other side." He was called for jury duty. I'm not sure how MA assigns jury posts, but it seems ridiculous to me that he was assigned a day in court in Worcester, a city about 45 minutes to an hour west of Boston. So, he was up before dawn to make the long trek out there for the day.

After a lot of waiting on uncomfortable chairs, he was not chosen for one jury because it was going to last several days (and apparently the court was also surprised by his "assignment" so far from home) and then after more waiting, he was sent home. Civic duty done....for the next three years at least.

I think we're both going to do our best to stay out of the courts for a while!

It Moves!

Last night was very exciting for Mike. Now, I've been feeling the baby internally since mid February. Several weeks ago, I was sure that I could feel the kicks externally. I obviously had the advantage of feeling it internally, so I wasn't sure how strong the feeling was externally. So, during the evenings when I would feel the baby moving around, I would have Mike place his hands on my belly so that he could feel the movement. All he could ever get was me breathing. It was disappointing to him every time.

In the last few days, I have been seeing belly movements out of the corner of my eye. So, last night, we took a different approach and had Mike look for movement. Sure enough, he saw the bumps and little vibrations too! So, other than the ultrasound, this is the first physical movement he's seen! Given how much he's been looking forward to being able to feel the movement, it was a very exciting moment for us. Yay!

Strange Benefits

Observations. As most of you know, my weight had crept up over the years and, 3 and a half years ago, I hit my max weight and decided to do something extreme about it. So, 1200 calories and 2 hour workouts daily helped me shed a lot of weight over a year and a half period. Oddly enough, being an overweight gal, losing weight, then becoming pregnant has helped me out in a couple of unexpected ways:

1) I have a lot of larger clothes that I'm still comfortable in. Granted, these are mostly of the wear to bed or workout variety at this point, but still, they're coming in handy.

2) The skin on my belly remembered being bigger and has only been mildly uncomfortable in the last month. A couple of thin gals I know that are in their 4th month of pregnancy are already have a lot of discomfort from stretching skin.

3) I've been able to keep a somewhat positive outlook on my weight gain. I mean, even though 6 months pregnant, I still don't weigh as much as I used to!

Obviously, I'm not saying that being overweight was a positive thing in my life, but it's interesting to see the glass half full.