Only until the recent centuries, humans have been driven by the seasons. This was especially true in nomadic societies where their survival was highly dependent on being at the right place at the right time. Even agrarian societies with permanent homes had to plan their lives around the seasons as the spring, summer and fall months were mostly spent preparing for winter.
Now, we just don’t give a dang. The biggest chores for winter preparation usually entail pulling out the winter sweaters from the spare closet and deciding if turtle necks are in or out (have they ever been in?). We’ve harnessed and nearly controlled mother nature to the point where reaction is only required if a major storm brings the chance of a snow flurry which will shut down a city like Atlanta or Dallas.
This isn’t as true in the north, where winters get much more serious and require preparation. We’ve learned this pretty quickly as our slight delay got us to the northeast a little later than planned and while it’s 85 degrees in Dallas, we’ve already dealt with freezing temperatures multiple times up here!
It started in the Adirondacks where temperatures dipped below freezing a few nights in a row so we decided to push on to the northeast. This propelled us into our next state: Vermont.
Vermont is for lovers or Vermont is for Vegans.. or Vermont is for Bernie Sanders? One of those saying is the correct one, but all three are partially correct. Our expectations were pretty high after leaving the Adirondacks and previously hearing how great Burlington, VT is from my brother/sister in law… and Vermont delivered!
We spent a few days around the Burlington area before heading over to the Ben and Jerry’s factory and exploring the quaint ski town of Stowe. Burlington is a cool city, full of guys who roll up their jeans, have well-crafted facial hair and man-buns. I say that in the most positive of lights. It lies right on the coast of beautiful Lake Champlain with a great city center sandwiched by the lake and the University of Vermont. Church Street offers 5-6 blocks of a pedestrian only street full of cute shops and eateries.
I found crepes in Burlington!
The Tonight Dough – straight from the Ben and Jerry’s factory!
After our quick tour through Ben and Jerry’s where we ate ice cream before lunch (Jocelyn had “The Tonight Dough” – which is one of the most incredible things ever), we headed to New Hampshire.
New Hampshire is one of those states I never thought I’d visit… not because I wasn’t interested, more so because I never really knew where it was on the map! Have you ever heard of the White Mountains- aka, the Presidential Range? I never had, and dang, they’re legit mountains!
After doing some research, we learned there was a lot to do here. Jocelyn has tendency to search for the “best” hike (and best restaurant and best meal and best tour and best… you get the point) and found a nice 9-miler up Mt. Washington. It was a pretty intimidating hike considering they claim “the worst weather in the world” at the top, so I wasn’t upset when we chose the third highest instead, Mt. Jefferson.
As we began the ascent, we were feeling pretty good, although Lucy was moving pretty slowly from the big hike the day before. We headed up the mountain and things started getting steep… like too steep for Lucy to climb up. I gave her a lift up a few tall rocks which is challenging considering she’s 75 lbs.
And they got steeper from there… to the point where we had to make the decision not to go any farther. It was pretty disappointing as this was the first mountain we’ve had to turn around before the top, but it was better to make that decision than to regret going too far and injuring one of us.
We spent our remaining days exploring around the White Mountains and checking out the “To Do’s”. The Mt. Washington Resort is deservedly one of those. Not only is it a beautiful resort with a great view of Mt. Washington, but it’s also very historical and the site where the Bretton Woods Agreement was signed! I had to look it up to remember what exactly it was – an agreement signed after WWII to create the International Monetary Fund (IMF)! Finance nerds like me love that kind of stuff.
Here’s a “family photo” from a hike we need around Crawford Notch in the White Mountains, NH
We were having a great time exploring the mountains, but the weather was quickly changing. It was already cool, but in the days ahead, snow was forecasted multiple days in a row, so we were forced to move on to the coast.
For the improvements of ages have had but little influence on the essential laws of man’s existence – Thoreau
Our existence has always been dependent on respecting mother nature and adapting around her to survive. However, lately we’ve let coffee shops, fully heated homes, smart wool and 4×4’s outwit our essential laws and we think we’ve become more powerful. Our trip has reconnected us to the rhythms of nature and reminded us we live within it and not the other way around.
I realized this some when I was working in St. Louis quite a few years back and my only outside time was between the hotel and the office – six blocks apart. I’d get up in the morning, quickly walk to the hotel because it was cold, and usually return the say way in the evening. I was probably reading Walden Pond at the time which made my lack of natural living seem even worse, but it saddened me greatly to think of how disconnected with nature I’d become.
It was then I remembered a passage from a previous book I read that said you should allow yourself to be in awe of nature every day. So I gave it a try, I purposely found natural elements around me to be in awe of… like the beautifully setting sun, the tree bearing her bright red fall colors or the mighty Mississippi river flowing like it has for Millennia. I would look at it and force myself to be in awe… and soon it became more natural.
It’s much easier to be in awe of nature now as we’re purposefully surrounding ourselves with the most beautiful nature we can find… but it’s probably most important to be in awe of nature when you’re instead surrounded by concrete and metal.
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