Thursday, June 15: Polly's and Cannon Mountain

Lydia called this a "unbusy" day. 

We packed the truck from our two-day stay at the Carroll Cottage while Tobias played on the playground. It rained overnight, so his little diapered butt was soaking wet. However, his feet were kept dry in his special rubber racecar boots his Uncle Allen sent. 

Our first stop was Polly's Pancake Parlor - a family tradition of the Marshalls. Polly's offers 7 different kinds of batters, then you can select options to add. Do you want whole wheat batter and add walnuts? Buckwheat and add chocolate chips? Gingerbread and add blueberries? Whatever the combination, you decide. Of course, a variety of other breakfast options are available. It is certainly a feast. Every year Chris's parents send us an assortment of Polly's batters for our family Christmas breakfast. 

We then drove over to Carnnon Mountain where we took a tram up to the top of the mountain. This was the first tramway built in America. We rode in updated cars. The ski lift accesses numerous ski lifts. In non-snow season it runs every 15 minutes. When there is snow on the mountain, the tram runs continuously. The map shows how many ski runs emanate from this mountain area. 

Unlike yesterday, we had foggy, damp weather on top of Cannon Mountain. We can't complain, the weather yesterday on Mt. Washington was incredible. 

Greg took the opportunity to explain some of the technical aspects of the tram to Lydia. His engineering mind always has to explore how such things work. 

The rest of the day we spent driving, driving, driving. We left Franconia at noon and arrived at our one-night AirBNB near Rochester, NY at around 9:00 pm. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of time tomorrow for Niagara Falls. Tomorrow is our last day with Lydia. (sniffle, sniffle!)

As of today our tiny Etta Grace is 12 weeks old and has been in 12 states! By the time she was 4 weeks old she had been in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio - to meet her great-grandmother on her dad's side, and her Aunt Martha and Uncle Bob. On this trip we added seven more states to her census: Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. Tobias is way ahead of her at 21 states. These children were born to traveling parents! We will have to figure out how many states Lydia has been in, but I'm sure we added at least four on this trip. 

Lydia loves photography. We have often found ourselves waiting a moment while Lydia is focused on taking a photo of a scene or a close-up of a flower. I wanted to share a couple of her favorites with you:

Children's Activity

The activity for today is obvious - make pancakes! Greg, Kaylyn and I think breakfast is fine for dinner. Chris isn't so sure. 

Make the batter of your choice - then what do you want to add? My favorite additions are bananas and walnuts. How about blueberries or coconut or apples and cinnamon? What sounds good to you?