Welcome Summer

We had a nice weekend, how about you? Maybe the nicest part of the weekend was how normal it felt. We did normal things, like going to the farmer’s market in Concord.

We picked up some local goat cheese from Heart Song Farm, fresh picked strawberries and some radishes. I have such a craving for radishes these days, it’s a good thing they’re in season. It also ended up being an NHPR reunion on the streets of Concord which was nice. Whenever we go up to Concord we always end up running into somebody from the station and I love it. We needed to get the goat cheese in the fridge so we went home and made some lunch. I put some of the goat cheese on my sandwich and was very happy with my decision. After we were filled with protein, we took a normal stroll downtown to people watch and see if anyone was kayaking on the river. Answer: no. I ended up with a little over 15,000 steps Saturday which is a new record for me. Man, I can’t help wondering how many steps I would have measured if I had the fitbit when I worked retail or at the museum.

On Sunday, we decided to head to our local state park, Bear Brook. It was a great day for a walk in the woods, especially when you have some sprayable deet. Of course I forgot the sprayable deet so we bought some at the oh so quaint campground store. They also had Choco Tacos, but I resisted the urge to get one. I’m regretting that decision. While the park itself is pretty nice, the maps at Bear Brook and the trail markers leave a little to be desired. Or perhaps, we’re just a little rusty when it comes to our orienteering.

After our picnic lunch of peanut butter–I had almond butter–and strawberry jam sandwiches, we doused ourselves in bug spray and sunscreen and made our way into the woods. I never used to be so scared of ticks, but these days I imagine them raining down on us from the trees as we make our way along the trail.

We kept running into trail crossings that weren’t very well marked and at one point we managed to find ourselves in an open area that looked like a burial ground for old picnic benches.

We eventually figured out where we needed to be and found ourselves at the scenic overlook area. I wasn’t super impressed. I think our recent trips to Acadia have turned me into a scenic overlook snob.

We made our way back to the car after a 3.5 mile walk in the woods. The fitbit registered the elevation gain as 33 flights of stairs, which is fun. I can’t wait to take the fitbit on a real hike and see how many flights of stairs it thinks we’ve climbed. After a stop at the grocery store, we were back home by 3 and started preparing our official World Cup menu for the evening. Hamburgers (we ground the beef ourselves, it’s just safer) on pretzel buns, mustard vinaigrette potato salad and steamed broccoli. In between prep and cooking, Derek got ready for the big game.

It was a nice normal weekend, with little or no thought of the events of the past few months. It’s so nice to have energy to do what we love and not worry about pain or fatigue.