Vacation Day Trips: Castle In The Clouds May 24, 2009
Posted by glassowater in My Little Life, geek, photography, vacation.Tags: castle in the clouds, vacation
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I haven’t had a vacation in a long time and part of me wnats to sit home and do nothing for that week and part of me wants to cram in everything I’ve been dying to visit for a long time now. So I came up with a compromise: day trips. Each day, I plan on traveling either near or far for some daylong fun.
First up:
I love this place. I have been here many times throughout my life. The first time we went there, it was a 1st grade field trip. Not the wisest of decisions on my elemtary school’s part. I can almost imagine the meeting before they approved this field trip:
“Ok, let’s take all the first graders, hype them up on sugar and take them on a long bus ride to this beautiful castle in upstate NH and make them go on a long tour through a dark building! What could possibly go wrong?”
I’m sure they meant well, but come on? Bunch of kids cooped up in a bus for hours then let loose on the grounds around this castle? Chaos and hijinks ensued! I think this was the first field trip where someone got left behind…actually serveral someones who had managed to get lost and hooked up with another tour group instead of ours. The other tour group, upon realizing we had left these kids behind, did the right thing and drove them back to your school. This was the 70’s where mistakes happened and if it was rectified in a satisfactory manner, nobody ever said a word. Can you imagine if that happened now? Somebody would be suing somebody’s ass that day!
But I digress…. Since that first ill-advised encounter with this place, I have grown rather fond of this odd attraction in the white mountains. I’m a history buff and have always loved the story behind how and why this was built here, fully restored from it’s original location.
I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that while all these tours are going on, there are people living in the house! That is amazing to me. I can barely stand having relatives over to my house and here are these people who open their house to total strangers, allowing them to wander through at will, near all the antiques and the other things they hold near and dear to their hearts. They are obviously far better people than me.
While I am there, I will do my best to get some original photographs. The one I used, I got off Flickr…yup, I cheated. 
Check out the link if you would like to learn more about this fascinating little slice of New Hampshire history.
Isn’t Flickr great?…steal and be legal.
Least I don’t take credit for the shot….I know some unscrupulous people who do…. I needed a photo and I was stuck at work, so I resorted to thievery.
I’m so excited for you! Have fun!
That sounds like a great plan, no real plans.. they are usually the best plans!
Have fun, on your own schedule.
Karen
I plan to!!
and the rest of the week is going to be little day trips too..my next entry will be about a little trip I have planned for Northern Vermont…..
that really would suck some big balls if people were touring my house when i was taking a dump. NOT MY STYLE. but hey, whatever you can do for money? really pretty place though!! also love your new layout, bright, and blue!
I think I was high when I wrote this??????????? But I envy and am happy for your loving company!
Yeah for you and your day get aways!! Sometimes these are the best kinds of trips because you get to come back and sleep in your own bed, in your own home. I can’t imagine having strangers walking through my house all the time. I think I would snap and go postal one day.
Doesn’t Vermont have like some of America’s finest Maple Syrup??
Huh I love snooping. I’m gonna have to go up there someday.
Glad you’re enjoying your time off! I had a similar weekend the opposite end of New England.
Oh, that is beautiful indeed–I hope to visit it someday!
And the residents still live there–they obviously have alot of patience and tolerance!
I don’t know of any historic houses, open for tours, here in Pensacola, Florida.
But in my Mobile, Alabama hometown, there are at least three. One is the Mitchell Home, dating back to the early Nineteenth Century. It’s the stereotypical plantation-style house (although there were no plantations that close to the Gulf of Mexico)–complete with the pillars, right out of “Gone with the Wind”!
Another is Oakleigh–also a pre-Civil-War mansion, though built in a very different style.
But the most well-known dates back to the early Twentieth Century. It is actually just outside Mobile, in a suburb called Theodore. It’s Bellingrath Gardens and Home. The mansion is beautiful enough–but the gardens are beyond description! You’d have to see them, “in-person”–but if you can’t, you can probably Google-up photos.
So THAT’S where you’ve been! Hey… I’m planning a trip for this fall to visit the Ben & Jerry factory in Vermont. Care to meet me there?
Ah, i’ve always wanted to go to N.H. Lucky you!
Heehee…go to NH? Hon, I live here…….
Wait, Pammy, take me with you. B & J’s is my dream vacation, lol!
Would love a big blogger meeting at Ben and Jerry’s…could be fun!
Obviously the fall trip to Ben & Jerry’s didn’t pan out as I went to Niagara Falls 2 weeks ago. How about a trip this spring???
That would be fun!