A Plethora of Posts

I've put in quite a few updates, so please make sure to click "older posts" at the bottom of the page to see any you've missed.

Also, you can look on the right side of the page to see each month and what posts have been put up by title. They go all the way back to Thanksgiving.

We hope you enjoy our mad ramblings!

Coming Home: NH Liquor Store & Surroundings

Our last stop before arriving home was to our favorite liquore store, the NH Liquor & Wine Outlet. These liquor stores are tax-free, as most everything in NH already is, and discounted on top of that. We picked up two bottles of vino to have at home.

All 3 of these shots are in downtown Keene in the Monadnock Shopping Center. We don't live in Keene, but it's our closest real shopping area when we come down off the "mountain." I wanted to include these because I don't think we've ever put any Keene photos up.

The first shot shows what few chain restaurants we have close by. You have to squint to see the Olive Garden (bleh!), a Chili's (Yea!) and a Longhorn Steakhouse (good if it's all you have available.)

The second shot shows that while we do live free or die up here, we still have time for a Target, a Borders, a Gamestop (thank God!), and a Circuit City (thank God again!)

Just look at the view behind the Olive Garden! It might be substandard Italian, but it has one hell of a view.

After buying our wine, we headed home to unpack the car and finally, finally cook our own meal for the first time in 3 weeks. Nothing tastes better than your own food.

We don't have any shots of our dinner, but you can imagine a nice Chardonnay, an expertly grilled pork chop, a baked potato (craved one after seeing an Outback ad) and a wonderful salad. An excellent end to 3 days of hard driving!

Coming Home: Beautiful New Jersey Again!

This wonderful guy filled our tank as we were leaving New Jersey on our way to New York.

Why, you ask? Well, NJ has a wonderful law that requires full service. It seems like a good deal until you feel that you have to tip.

A woman next to us said that NY gas was 30 cents a gallon higher, but how much are you saving when you figure your tip into your cheaper NJ gas?

It's also a bit immasculating to have another guy fill your tank. I'll stop there.

Coming Home: Beautiful New Jersey

This is the view from one of the Holiday Express rooms we stayed at off the Jersey turnpike. You haven't lived if you've missed this beautiful state. I kept imagining this is where the mob dumps off informers.

(Apologies in advance to any NJ blog readers.)

I imagine there are some beautiful spots in the the Garden State, didn't like that movie by the way, but Erin and I haven't really seen them. Hoboken is nice to a certain degree, but that's due to NYC being right across the river!
As we drove around looking for a pizza joint near the hotel, I kept thinking that the woods on the side of the road were the type you see in news reports that start "searchers finally found John Smith's body in this wooded area today..."

Our Visit with Allison

We had heard a lot about this Allison since last August and wondered if she would live up to the hype. Well, she exceeded the hype!

Steve and Jen have the most beautiful little girl you could imagine. While not much for conversation at 7 months of age, she was a great listener
and charmed both of us.

Steve is a great father, as if we had any doubts, and helps Jen out a great deal in taking care of his little pride and joy. Jen is a wonderful mother, too, and we were very impressed with how she uses the food processor to make meals out of fresh fruits and vegetables. (This will likely make the difference between Allison attending Harvard and Yale.)

I told Erin that I think Allison was the first baby I've ever held as an adult. Honestly though, it's not like you just stumble upon them. And Jackie, my mother, saw the pictures of us holding Allison and remarked that she could imagine us having one. Erin and I look too well rested to be actual parents in that picture, though. Also, we don't look like we have college funds for 2025 on our mind.

You get great toys when you have a baby. One of the coolest was this Splinter Cell-type (ask a gamer) night vision camera where you can watch the baby roll around in the crib. So cool!

I was also surprised how easy they are to make, but apparently the 18-year care, feeding and maintenance is where they get you. There's always a catch.

Bayboro House Revisited

We decided to take a drive over to the Bayboro House while we were in town. Sadly, the place has been sold to a religious group and is no longer a B&B. Our family seems to have bad luck with our wedding places disappearing. (Right, Mark?)

Still, we met the owner and he seemed like a nice enough guy and let us walk around the grounds.

Isn't it hard to believe our wedding was a year and a half ago? The house is still beautiful and the grounds look as nice as the day we were there. You can tell the inside of the house has changed when we peeked in the door and windows. The house is a protected landmark and will never disappear, so I'm happy we can come by now and then to recreate the above pic.

Lastly, it's obvious how well spent the money was for Eric's pictures, our photographer, when you compare the two above. :)

Our Day with Dad

We wanted to plan something special for our time with my Dad, or Neil, when we were in town. So instead of our typical lunch and a movie, Erin and I decided to take him to see "Wolf to Woof: The Story of Dogs" at the Florida International Musuem. Sadly, they've moved out of their beautiful space where you might have seen the JFK or Russian czars exhibit. They are now in what looks like the basement of the SPJC.

The exhibit is really nice in the space they do have and details nicely the similarities between dogs and wolves. Some of the neat myths they debunk are that dogs are colorblind (they see muted colors), that purebreeds are superior dogs and that it's not unusual for dogs to save families in danger because they consider us part of their "pack."

We also found time to pose with big dog ears which gave us some idea of what it'd be like to be a human with really big fake dog ears on our head.

After the exhibit and the purchasing of souvenirs, we had a great lunch at Lucky Dill Deli, our rehearsal dinner location, and I partook of the matzoh ball soup. Erin and I were surprised that less than a year after we married the owners decided to sell the place. We're not sure if they ever did another special event after ours, but I'm going to assume we were just special and leave it at that.

How We Spent St. Paddy's Day

Just like all the non-Irish folk on St. Paddy's Day, we felt obligated to go out and get inebriated. Ah the cultural sensitivity of it all. :) A group of us met at Four Green Fields to reminisce and to share a shivery libation.

The first shot is of Brett with a girl. Who is the girl? I don't know, but it's a shot of Brett with a girl. Good on ya, Brett! This man is one year away from chasing down ambulances (or becoming a lawyer.) Can you believe it?

Our second shot is of Pat, the resident balladeer at Four Green. It's common knowledge that Pat has been phoning in his set list for the past 5 or 6 years by playing the same thing every time you see him. And we still love him! Then Pat shocked us on that evening by actually playing new music. Still, we had a rousing rendition of Alice. (Alice, who the &@(* is Alice?)

The third shot is of Dan S. (I'm not trying to type that last name) who we love dearly. Dan is one of the funniest guys you'll ever meet, apart from his brother, and we wish he'd share that humor in some professional capacity if his band falls through. We listened to Al Franked on the way up North and we kept remarking that Dan could do that type of gig even better.

The fourth shot is your typical drunken self-portrait that couples feel compelled to do even though nobody really cares for them. And here we are sharing it with you. :)

The final shot is of Darren, or "Spicoli", who "introduced" us to each other. He's another person we love dearly and you'd be hard pressed to find a better person to hang out with on a weekend night. It was exciting to know he's back in Tampa.

More SeaWorld Shots

1. This is a shot of Erin in front of the clydesdale team. They really are majestic when you see them up close. She also enjoyed a free beer at the brewing exhibit which did nothing for me since I can't drink it. Too bad they don't make tequila or wine. :(

2. Erin was so excited about seeing the new Shamu show, "Believe", and then we found out that one of the many Shamus had given birth less than 24 hours before we arrived. This has only happened about 30 times since the park's opening and is really special. I can't say I missed seeing the show since we were able to see the calf nursing as they circled the aquarium.

3. My favorite sea creatures are sea lions and seals which they have in abundance at the park. I spent 20 minuts watching a sea lion juggle a fish a tourist had thrown him. They truly are the pups of the sea.

4. Another shot with a clydesdale and their dalmatian mascot.

5. Sigh. This is another shot I cringe at when I see it. Once again, we trusted a random tourist to capture a precious moment and he didn't tell us when he was shooting. I looked at the small digital screen and it seemed to resemble us at the time. I like to have a good 5 minutes to pose on killer whale replicas and it's obvious I didn't have enough time. :)

Our Visit to Seaworld

First of all, I apologize to those who come to this blog to hear about the adventures of new New Englanders. You might be asking yourself, "Seaworld? Since when is there a Seaworld in New England? Perhaps they mean the aquarium in Boston?" Well, you'd be justified in asking yourself that.

Still, we took a bunch of pictures in Florida and we have to put them somwhere. :)

One of Erin's requests for our trip home was to visit SeaWorld since she loves Shamu and went to the park often during her summers working at Busch Gardens in college. I hadn't been to SeaWorld since I was 12 or 13 and couldn't remember anything about the place other than heat and big aquariums. I was happily surprised to find they have improved the park quite a bit and it's a good value if you love sea creatures.

Here's what you are seeing in the above pictures:

1. Even though I'm a diver, beachgoer and have lived in Florida off and on for 36 years, I had never touched a dolphin in my life. Erin was shocked to hear that and told me to pony up the $5 to get some baitfish. It was really thrilling to touch a dolphin and see it up close.

2. This is a horrible shot of us in front of the SeaWorld lighthouse that I'm only putting in for completion. This is one of those posed shots where you hand the camera to a fellow tourist and take your life in your hands. Obviously, the guy had never worked one of these strange photographic contraptions before. He didn't even say "Say cheese!" What has happened in the digital camera age where we just snap a pic with no warning??

3. I've seen several dolphin shows in my time, but nothing compares to the incredible show they have at SeaWorld. They've combined the singularly dull dolphin, bird and acrobatic shows into one which makes for a fantastic experience. It's not like dolphins are doing any better tricks over the years, but they've Disneyed up the show.

4. This is the dolphin we petted and fed. Cute bugger!

5. The Antartic section of the park was a letdown because the polar bear exhibit was closed down. Still, they have a place for adults to crawl around in polar bear cave simulations. Then again, it might just be for kids...

Morgan on the Road

When we first made our trip to NH, we worried how Morgan would take to the backseat for 1400 miles. We shouldn't have been because she rode like a champ! We were really proud of how low maintenance she was at rest stops, hotels and fast food restaurants along the way. Above are some pics of her in our travels.

(Click on the picture to enlarge it.)

1. This first shot is of Morgan in the backseat with her doggy hammock, which kept her from climbing in the front seat, and two pillows from our bed to lounge on. We never grew tired of her little head peaking over the hammock or resting softly on the pillows. I know...I know...we're those annoying people that need to have kids.

2. That's Morgan standing up in the backseat with her two pillows resting against the cooler.

3. Morgan and Erin in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express. We can't say enough nice things about that chain because they are so welcoming when it comes to pet. Morgan didn't much care for the elevator, but the king-sized bed was to her liking.

4. And there she is on the king-sized bed. She quickly took to the extra space and made herself at home.

5. This shot of Morgan on the Henry's couch shows how she spent half her vacation. The other half was spent tearing up the backyard with her "cousin" Jasmine, a rottweiler. (Again, I know we sound like "those people" when we are talking about doggie cousins.)

The Boutons Are Home!

We've concluded our 3-week trip to Florida and safely arrived home in Dublin last evening. We want to thank everyone we were able to visit and apologize to those we couldn't find time for. Two weeks really flies by when you are jetting from one place to another.
Many of you told Erin and I that you love the blog and asked us to keep it up. Thank you! It doesn't take much time to post the pictures and write the text, but your appreciation makes my small efforts worthwhile. Also, please remember we can add or remove you from the e-mail list that announces updates.
Some of you told us that you didn't know how to leave comments on the site. Just look down at the bottom of any post and click on the comments link. Then enter your text, put your name at the end and just submit it. We appreciate any comments you write and helps us see if anyone is reading.
I spent some time read over all the old entries on the blog on vacation and realized that there is a lot of room for improvement. We are going to include more non-pup pics of our surroundings and our lifestyle.
Again, thank you so much for supporting our blog and keeping up with our adventures. We love you all!

Our Last Snow Before Spring Break.

Quinzhee: Don't call it an igloo!

This is a quinzhee, or snow house, that was built by Eric, a science teacher here at Dublin School. With the help of some students and faculty, he packed a huge pile of snow and then tunneled out a space inside with an upward sloping entrance to keep in the warmth. Erin and I sat inside and found it surprisingly comfortable. Even Morgan popped in for an inspection.

This is the quinzhee after we had a good snow and it's starting to fall in on itself.

Where does maple syrup come from?

This is a snow-covered sap bucket hanging off of a maple tree. One of our Dublin students, Scott, is in charge of collecting this sap to process into maple syrup. After collecting the sap, he takes it to a "sugar house" where they remove the water through a heating process. It takes 40 liters to produce a single liter of syrup.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining this correctly, but suffice to say that this is where you get the real syrup and not that watery nonsense they put in the Village Inn containers.

(If you find this fascinating then go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_syrup to learn more!)

Accept no substitute for NH maple syrup! (Unless it is Vermont because they are kind of nice. Canadians aren't half-bad either. Heck, just use any real maple syrup you can find.)

The Boutons are Coming Home For a Visit!

The whole Bouton clan, including Morgan, will be in town on March 7th until around the 20th! We're driving down on the 5th and staying with one of Erin's best friends and her Maid of Honor, Lindsay, for a night and then Savannah for another. While in town, we'll be staying with Erin's parents and hope to see as many of you as possible.
We've checked the calendar to see when Armwood and Tampa Prep are in session so that we can stop by for a visit.