62. March 26th, 2011 Picture.

On to day 2!  Saturday morning I woke up relatively well rested all things considered, but in desperate need of some coffee.  I was definitely not alone, as multiple pots worth of coffee had already been consumed and Sue and I were a tad late getting up and claiming our mugs.  I feel like we spent the majority of the weekend cleaning out cups and washing silverware, mainly because there wasn't enough to go around for everyone when they needed it.  This is  why Sue drank her coffee out of a wine glass.  Please see below.

Since Sue and Ratty had never been up to Franconia, my mom and I took them on a tour of our favorite places around town.  We stopped off at a little cafe, Wendle's which makes pretty awesome sandwiches and really strong coffee.  Franconia is kind of a one stop light town, it has a grocery store, general store and a bar, so the recent addition of Wendle's is a pretty great one.  They use local ingredients and make really yummy sandwiches. There have been times that I've eaten almost every meal over the course of a weekend at this place, which says alot.  Another awesome quality of this restaurant is that it is right next to the Garnet Hill factory store, which was our very next stop!  Garnet Hill is a J. Jill-esque type catalog store that is based in Franconia and they have a uber small factory shop where they'll sell extra inventory, discontinued items and just great stuff.  This is where we bumped into another group of cousins, Katy, Maria, Becky and my Aunt Lisa who were just leaving the store with bags full of goodies.  When the Downey's invade, we're impossible to miss - we even met up with Eddie, Christine and the girls while eating our sandwiches.  Franconia is a small place!

Next up on our list of places to visit, HARMAN'S!

Harman's is a legitimately world famous country store that sells, hands down, the ABSOLUTE BEST CHEDDAR CHEESE I'VE EVER HAD!  Seriously, it is the most amazing cheese on the planet.  It is super sharp, but creamy and almost crumbly, like you need to press your finger into the cutting board to pick up all the scraps - yes that good!  I could go for a block right now, with some cracked pepper and olive oil Triscuts and a glass of champagne.  That could possibly be my favorite meal ever.  Imma gonna need that immediately, kthanksbye.

This was actually my first trip to Harman's, at least that I can remember, but it definitely won't be my last.  I knew what the were famous for and went there with the mission of buying at least a pound of cheddar cheese to take home.  On our way to the Sugar Hill Sampler, which just happened to be closed [I mean how did we not know the building wasn't even winterized?!] I made my family stop so I could do some damage.  I ended up being the only one to buy anything, but Ratty sure regretted it a few days later when we finally sampled the cheese.  It was fantastic, and I think it is definitely worth the 3 hour drive up to Sugar Hill alone.  I'd go up there and turn right around after buying 20 pounds of cheese.  And an industrial freezer.  But thankfully, they do an online business and ship all over the country, so that is my go-to move.

Doesn't this place look so adorable and so quant?  I love it.

The only thing across the street from Harman's is the post office.  Sugar Hill is an extremely small town, but it's awesome.  In the 50's a lot of famous actors and actresses had houses up there, Lucielle Ball and Betty Davis, just to name a few.

Is it any surprise that Sugar Hill's population is between 500-600 people?  Yes, I looked it up on Wikipedia.  Quickly followed by homes for sale on Trulia and Zillow.

I could own a vacation home up here [hi Amy, maybe you should start with owning ONE home before you start dreaming of vacation properties].  Whatever, I could most definitely own a little cabin and just unplug.  I'd be really good at that.

Snapping out of a day dream and back to reality.  Ratty didn't really like the s'mores on a stick that I bought him at Harman's.  In fact, he hated it.  He hates marshmallow, something I recently discovered, say like, at the moment this picture was taken, and he really struggled with the sticky, crumbly, chocolate mess it made.  He wanted to go home immediately.

We tried to pop into a few antique stores along the way home, one notable favorite where I found the most awesome peridot ring a few years ago, but it was closed.  Stupid mud season.

We made it home JUST in time for drinks by the fire.  Who am I kidding, when you're vacationing in New Hampshire in March, any time is drinks by the fire time!

It just so happened to also be my cousin Timmy's birthday, that Monday, so we celebrated after dinner on Saturday night.  There was some elaborate ruse created, and Tim left the house for about 15 minutes so we could set up the party.

All the cute kids keeping an eye out for Timmy!  If he did see all those faces pressed up against the glass he definitely didn't show it.  He acted like it was a total surprise!

Now on to celebrating!

My mom, Christine, me, my Aunt lisa, Timmy, Uncle Phil, Becky and Maria.

Isn't this photo so cute?!  It's my mom and my Uncle Phil chatting by the fire.  It's totally frame worthy!

Uncle Phil is a phenomenal drink maker, and he brought all the ingredients to make Manhattan's for everyone.  He mixed up a huge batch and passed them out in little dixie cups.  Trust me, a dixie cup was PLENTY, for me at least.

Hey, at least it was 9:46pm!  We could have easily cracked these babies out for breakfast.  Does that sound bad?  Hey, it's V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!

Everyone in my family is super creative, and we can pretty much have a great time without anything to keep us occupied, we can totally entertain ourselves.  Phil started a piece of paper and folded it into three sections, and then drew a face and neck on the top section, then folded it down and handed the blank middle section to the next person.  Then that person draws the torso of something and folds it down and hands the blank 3rd section to the final person.  Since we're all a little crazy, when you opened the paper it looked something like this:

Maybe the cabin fever/mountain air was getting to us, but we seriously laughed over this for about an hour.  It also might have been because of those Manhattan's...

Next up we broke out our FAVORITE game, Apples to Apples, and sat around the dining room table and played for almost 5 hours.  We sat around cackling and practically falling out of our chairs while the rest of our family looked on like we had 4 heads.  My mom said it was infectious, that when we all started laughing the rest of the room couldn't help but laugh, even though they had no idea what was so funny!  Again, those Manhattans...

Speedy was the name of Tim and Phil's dog growing up, so when I got this card I knew I had to hold onto it until it was one of their turns to judge.  Totally preying on their nostalgia. 

It was obviously his favorite and I won that round.

So, I will fully admit, that this is where things got weird.  On top of drinking beer after beer, mixed with scotch and Manhattan's, we were getting just plain ol' goofy, which gets funnier with each sip you take.

Someone, I think it was Maria's husband Scott, starting what he referred to as Jowlin'.  It's when you would shake your head back and forth so fast that your cheeks would start flapping.  Whenever anyone tried this, hilarity ensued.  Go ahead, try it.  I bet you think you look pretty silly.  Either that or you'll give yourself a headache.  I always hurt my head trying.

I had photos of people trying to Jowl, or trying Jowlin', whichever is grammatically correct, and no matter how funny they are, I can't bring myself to post them.  I love my family and I would LIKE them to continue loving me, so those miserable yet amazingly hilarious photos must stay tucked away.

Until the next family party.

I can however post this.  And say that watching Phil try to Jowl with this paper mask on might have been the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life.  Maybe tied with him trying to drink beer through the eye of the mask and having it spill all over him.  I have videos of both but again, unless I want to be excommunicated from this family, they are staying on my laptop.

Again, until the next family party.

This was the night that I dragged my mattress down the stairs from the loft, through a bathroom and into my mom's room, where Ratty and I slept on the floor.  I stayed up wayyy later than both him and my mom, finally heading to bed around 4am.  

Phew, this day was INSANITY.  Pure, awesome insanity.