February 10th 2013: Snowmobiling in the White Mountains, Lincoln, NH

Today, I had a meetup event to go snowmobiling in the White Mountains in the Franconia Notch State Park area. After dropping my friend off at the Boston Logan Airport, I had to rush a little to get to Sledventures Snowmobile Rentals. Thankfully, the roads were mostly cleared of the snow from Blizzard Nemo, so my travel was relatively uneventful. Along the way, I passed by two churches in Hudson NH

St. Kathryn Parish

and Concord NH.

St. John the Evangelist Church

I had brought all my gear as though I was going snowboarding, but apparently the place has all the equipment you need to be ready for snowmobiling, except for gloves. Thankfully, all my other friends arrived in time to go snowmobiling together. Once we had suited up, we headed outside for our tutorial about how to ride the snowmobile.

It actually is really easy, with my right thumb on the accelerator, the brake on the left like for a bicycle, although we were recommended never to use it unless really necessary. There is also a emergency stop button to use in emergencies to stop the motor immediately. The vehicle even has handlebar and thumb warmers on the accelerator buttons, so I decided to go without my gloves.

First we headed off to the other side of the road to practice snowmobiling for a bit, especially the turning part. It was here that I realized that it was actually quite hard to ride a snowmobile, especially when other snowmobiles have already been on there before, with deep ruts that made me feel like the vehicle was about to topple on its side, especially when turning in the relatively fresh snow from Nemo.

Finally, we headed off, and it took a while for me to get used to it and become more confident in speeding up to follow the leader, though not too close at at least 1 snowmobile's length behind, and with a speed limit of only 25 miles an hour.

We took two breaks along our path for resting and taking in the sights.

It was a blast, but it was all over too soon, a few hours later. From here, we headed next door at Fresolone's, a typical Italian takeout eatery for lunch. All of us got Steak and Cheese subs, with mushrooms on mine, which was actually pretty good.

With that, we called it a day, and I headed to Dracut to continue sightseeing there.

December 23rd 2012: Snowboarding at Waterville Valley

Today, my friends and I decided to use discount tickets to go snowboarding at Waterville Valley Ski Resort in the town of Waterville Valley, NH.

It was a long drive to there, but when we arrived there, my friend realized that he had lost his wallet, which had both his and his girlfriend's IDs, which were required for them to use the tickets. Here was a hard decision for me, as I had brought all my stuff and could snowboard here, while my friend had little choice but to drive all the way back home to find his wallet. Thankfully, another friend was coming in another car as well, so I decided to stay and go snowboarding.

Here are some pictures I took of the place before I went to rent my board. The views all around are beautiful to say the least.

After getting my board, I headed to the bunny slope to see how much I still remembered. I hated the J-line we had to use to get up the slope though, clearly not a good design, especially for snowboarders, who have to place their crotch on top of the bar, and then hold on for dear life as it slowly brings me up the mountain without slipping from my board.

In the end, I decided to head to the green slope, Valley Run, using a much better ski lift system to head up.

The view at the top was awesome as well.

Thankfully, I managed to find my friends in the end, and we had a fun time snowboarding for the rest of the day. I have come to the conclusion that snowboarding is definitely much more fun than skiing.

October 8th 2012: Ziplining in Lincoln, NH

It was a 2 hour drive from Lowell in Massachusetts to Lincoln, NH, where I actually was 2 days before, climbing up Mount Pemigewasset. As the White Mountains came up, I took several nice views of them from inside my car.

When I finally reached my destination at Alpine Adventures, I was running out of gas, and I still had some time, so I decided to fill up at a nearby gas station. Unfortunately, the filling was taking so long that I decided to walk around to take pictures of the mountains in the distance.

Finally, I decided it was taking too long, and ended after knowing I had more than enough to get home.

My friends were already waiting for me when I arrived. After registering with our Groupons, we waited a little for our time to come.

Area for the kids

When it came our turn to go, we were suited up in a harness and helmet, and brought to the mountains on a jeep.

Our jeep

There was a short stretch where we went off road, and the bumpy ride reminded me of my time driving a jeep during my time in the army, although this time I was the passenger feeling every single bump in the road. The driver did everything he could to make it so as well.

On the jeep going to the mountains

It was a short walk to our first zipline, which at first sight did not seem so scary, looking to hug closely to the ground from where I saw it while waiting for my turn to go. As it turned out, it led to a platform high up on a tree away from the hill we were on, so the adventure began here.

Me ziplining

Next I had to cross a suspension bridge, which I might not have been able to do looking at the the gaps in the bridge and its wobbliness.

Suspension Bridge

Log bridge

The lines became more and more challenging, with me having to run off for some of them, and the last one was a yoyo zipline where we keep going back and forth along the same line until we stop, to be helped down by a ladder. I did that by jumping backwards on my own accord instead of being pushed off by the guide.

Another of the lines high above the ground

The Yoyo zipline

The longest zipline

View of the mountain in the distance

My friends ziplining

After a fun experience ziplining on the Treetop Canopy Tour, which was over way too soon, we got back as the sun was beginning to set. We decided to head back to Lowell in Massachusetts for dinner, where I had a Groupon for dinner at Garcia Brogan's, a typical bar-restaurant serving Mexican food.

For the $40 I had to spend, we got the Carne Asada, an 8oz Skirt Steak with sweet plantains, mexican rice and pinto beans, which was cooked really well and tasty, the fish tacos, made with baked haddock, lettuce, pico de gallo, chipotle aioli drizzle and green onions, which were really fresh as well, and finally the chicken Fajitas, of which I only liked the chicken meat and not the peppers, onions and pico di gallo it came with.

Carne Asada

Chicken Fajita

Fish Tacos

Guacamole

The guacamole that came with the fajitas was interestingly laid out as well.

While we were eating, it turned out that it was trivia night as well, although I would not have fared very well at it as the questions were only about sports and entertainment.

Other than that, the food was not that amazing or special in my opinion, especially in a typical bar setting. I would say this place is alright I guess, but I've had better elsewhere.

October 6th 2012: Hiking at Mount Pemigewasset, Lincoln NH

 This morning, I had a meetup event to go hike up Mount Pemigewasset in Lincoln, NH.

I was to carpool with my friend from Worcester, so I drove to his place, passing by the Upper Room Family International Church at 75 Alvarado Avenue along the way.

After meeting my friend, we headed to the town of Lowell to pick up 2 other people before heading the rest of the way up to the Flume Gorge Visitor Center at the base of the mountain.

There were tons of people here today to see the fall foliage, which was ample here even in the parking area.

Fall Foliage

Flume Gorge Visitor Center

Inside the Visitor Center

At the Parking lot

 The path we took to go up the mountain is shown below in pink.

The ascent was pretty wooded and muddy, in light of the rain coming down on us. Thankfully I had my cap and coat on, so I did not feel much of it. A few of the people in the group got a little tired, so I offered to carry their bags for them as well. The extra weight did not stop me from reaching the top easily though. The views at the top at Indian Head were fantastic, however, even though the clouds blocked the views at times.

The walk down the mountain was much quicker, but a little more treacherous due to all the wetness.
Back at the trailhead, I took one more picture of the leaves blowing all around in the rain.

The day was not over for my group though. We decided to grab dinner back in Lowell, MA at the Red Rose Restaurant at 716 Middlesex Street, where I decided to get the Special Fried Rice with Beef Lok Lak on my friend's recommendation. And an excellent recommendation it was. The beef was crispy and tasty, definitely my first real taste of Cambodian food.

By now, I was so tired that I just slept all the way back to my car, and went home immediately from there. Another eventful Saturday for me, and the rain did not even ruin it at all.