OUR SPRING BREAK '99

This spring break, March 23rd thru April 3rd, we decided to try to get in the last bit of snow sliding, along with the first attempts at spring hiking! This worked out okay, despite the fact that Chris had torn open his leg on a fence only three weeks earlier, garnering over one-hundred stiches in the process. We had kidded him before about having stitches for each year of his life, because he needed two stiches in his head when he was two, and then got four more in his finger for a total of six when he was six years old. He should be good on stitches now for the rest of his life.

As usual, we got to see a lot of animals. In the wild, we saw some red-tailed hawks, some ducks and geese, and this moose. When we first saw the moose, she was trying to cross the road, but was reluctant to step in front of our vehicle. She paced back and forth for a while, and then decided that she was much too thirsty to wait any longer. After she trotted off to the river, we looked at a few places she had passed by and estimated her shoulder to be around 7' high. We found her tracks in the snow, and at a very slight canter her footsteps were an incredible four feet apart!

While Shannen and I were down by the Railroad Tracks, hoping to squish some coins, we caught this cute little garter snake. Here Chris checks out the snake's unique markings, which resembled little pictures of Bill Clinton lying in front of a grand jury. We named the snake 'Monica'. I haven't had any luck figuring out what these snakes eat on a regular basis, so we let them go after only a short time.

We visited our favorite farm at Alvirne HS to see if there were any babies. We got to see the new-born lambs, some only a few days old! There were two very cute calves as well, along with all the usual farm animals.

Shannen and Chris 'scratch' a seal. Completely ignoring the thick glass walls, this seal kept going from one hand to the other to try to get scratched.

We visited the New England Aquarium, where there are all sorts of neat marine animals. The kids love to look at all the different sea creatures.

Guthrie, a sea lion, puts on a show at the NEA.

Here's a puffer fish that Shannen wants to get as a pet. I think she only wants one so she can poke it with a stick and watch it inflate. It is pretty cool to watch.

Blue Penguins, new to the aquarium.

We finished the vacation with some sliding on the little bit of snow left in the Kankamagus Pass. Kankamagus is the Indian word meaning "In the foliage season, you had better be prepared for a big traffic jam". The sun was strong and felt real good. Later that day, we visited Rocky Gorge and Lower Falls (pictured below) , where we swim in the summer when it is much warmer, and the water levels are down quite a bit.

Chris, Dad, and Shannen checking out Lower Falls, along the Kankamagus Hiway in NH. These falls are great for swimming at in the summer. The kids found all sorts of natural water slides, and there is a huge pool with a diving rock in the middle. Of course, even on the hottest days, the water is very cold since it is straight off the mountains.

Thanks for checking out our Spring Break page. Please use the 'back' button on your browser to return to the previous page. Or if you'd like to go directly to other pages of ours, click here for our home page, here for our second page, here for a look at some old pictures of us. Thanks again for visiting, and make sure you visit us again from time to time, new pictures and new pages will be added frequently.