New Hampshire and Maine

We left Montreal on Wednesday and headed East to the "Eastern Townships" of Quebec. They were billed by the locals as being really beautiful and authentically European in their style but to me it just seemed like a drive through rural poverty stricken PA with a few nice hotels thrown in.

We headed over to see Vicky, Mike (whose second name is "Streich" pronounced "Strike"...how cool is that?), their son Sasha and Vicky's mum Nancy. Vicky is a professional singer, Mike a literary specialist and general cultural encyclopedia and Nancy a painter and classics scholar. They are also all fantastic hosts and we spent possibly three of our most memorable days in the USA at their home in Franconia New Hampshire which is nestled at the base of Mt Lafayette in the White Mountains. Their house is situated behind a huge meadow down a dirt road and sits within a 145 acre wooded estate. It has a view of the mountains and when I get my camera fixed I will upload some piccies. Needless to say the scenery was breathtaking and the company fantastic. Lots of songs, piano playing, wine drinking, interesting chit chat, great views and fantastic food.

We managed to squeeze in some canoing on "Echo Lake" and a couple of short hikes but mostly wallowed in the swimming hole in the river than runs along the boundary of their Mike and Vicky's property.

Yesterday we finally drove over to Maine. Shaz has done her usual and managed to conjure up an unexpected surprise and we are renting a beautiful little 2 bedroom cottage on the Atlantic shore for a week. The cottage sits on the beach in "Bayside"about 2 miles South of Belfast Maine. We are here until Saturday and I will try and keep blogging as we go whenever I can gate-crash an open wi fi network.