NEW HAMPSHIRE: The Granite State!

Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News:

By: Jaycie Lillie, 8/5/22

We drove about 1.5 hours and then we arrived to Saint-Gauden National Historical Park. There were statues and sculptures. We got a Junior Ranger booklet and ran around trying to complete it before they closed early. We saw a lot of pretty flowers. There was a turtle pond and the fountains were turtle statues. I also saw lily pads, too. Saint-Gauden designed a gold coin that was used as money [$20 coin] a long time ago. [Like 1890s – 1920s or something] [Not exactly sure] There was a shed were a different artist was actually sculpting out of clay. He was really busy working on the model’s eyes, so we couldn’t ask him any questions. We finished our Junior Ranger program and received our badge. It was a cool wooden one with a statue on it. It was a fun day!

Jules’ Journal:

By: Julianne Lillie, 8/3/22 – 8/4/22

On 8/3 we had a fairly short travel day. We got up and around and did our normal travel day routine packing everything up. We pulled out of the campground at 10am and had a condensed school day on the road. After 2 hours we arrived to Lincoln, New Hampshire at Maple Haven Campground. We ate lunch quickly in the RV and headed south to Cornish, NH (1.5 hours) to visit the only National Park site in New Hampshire: Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park.

Augustine Saint-Gaudens was a world renown sculptor. Many of his pieces are on display all throughout his pristine property, home, garden, studio, etc. Saint-Gaudens was an extremely talented sculptor in the 1800s and was known for how life-like his colossal statues are. He somehow manages to capture movement & emotion in solid casted copper.

Self-Portrait Sculpted:

His first commissioned piece that stood in downtown Chicago for many years:

Beautiful gardens:

Cluster of Star-gazer Lillies - the flowers we used at our wedding!

Saint-Gauden's Home:

Saint-Gauden's Sculpting Studio draped with grapevines:

Ironically, this day 8/3, was Saint-Gauden’s death day. The kids barely had enough time to complete their Junior Ranger booklet since the park was closing an hour earlier today. But they did end up earning another wooden badge – their 26th badge!

Kids with their badges in front of Abraham Lincoln Statue. (Saint-Gauden's hero was Abe Lincoln!)

Up close of their badge - it displays the $20 Gold Coin that Saint-Gauden's designed for the US Mint:

We then drove 1.5 hours back to camp and ate dinner and watched Cedarpoint Students online.

The next day, 8/4, we visited the Franconia Notch State park and hiked the 2.5 mile Flume Gorge loop.

In front of the Visitor's Center. (This random guy apparently wanted to make the blog as he knew we were taking a picture and didn't care to move. LOL!)

Beautiful covered bridge we walked across down to the trail head. New Hampshire & Vermont have many covered bridges to protect them from the enormous amounts of snowfall they get up here.

Finally at the Flume Gorge Boardwalk:

It was absolutely a natural gem – we certainly took our time as there was a lot of beauty and nature to take in. I’ve never seen anything like it! Imagine granite walls hundreds of feet in the air with a tiny little stream about 6 ft. wide at the bottom cascading down boulders creating waterfall after waterfall. And the suspended boardwalks we walked along all throughout the gorge were only temporary. They park explained they remove them every fall and rebuilt them every spring so the winter’s snowfall doesn’t damage it. So much work to keep this beautiful gem accessible and enjoyable!

Made it to the top of the Gorge showing off the largest waterfall:

Another covered bridge on our hike back up to the visitor's center:

Found a Wolf's Den we could explore:

Jett showing off his strength underneath a Glacial Boulder.

We all enjoyed the hike and beautiful views it offered. Snapped a pic with the Franconia Notch Moose and set off.

After the hike, we were looking for a fun spot to picnic and had set out for Beaver Pond. We never were able to find it, however we ended up stumbling across Elbow Pond. It turned out to be absolutely stunning!

We backed the pickup down a very small water “put in” ramp and ate our picnic on the tailgate overlooking the White Mountain Range reflecting in the pond. Beautiful! We were able to manage a family photo with the help of our cooler and my apple watch.

After lunch, we dropped the kids at the RV for some down time while Ja and I headed out for a Walmart/grocery run. After that it was time for laundry and Jason worked a bit while I planned more of our trip. It’s an ongoing process and I try to stay about 3 months ahead on booking our campgrounds, and 1 month ahead on booking our activities. So many activities and parks (National & State) require purchasing timed entries and/or tickets online. It really is a lot of work to stay on top of it all, but I do enjoy it. Our next state will be Maine. Looking forward to the coastline!

Jett’s Wild Flight: The Science Museum

By: Jett Lillie, 8/5/22

Hello, and welcome to Jett’s wild flight in the science museum. When we got out of our car we saw this rock fountain that was wavey modeled after a ripple. Then we went inside and got wrist bands. Now the fun begins!

We first looked at all the fish and frogs. We also looked at a camera and got to see what frog’s sight looks like. Then we experimented with bubbles. My sister and I made a huge bubble which looked like a portal! Next, we went to the nature trail and saw a lot of ferns. Then we went inside and learned about mirrors. We got to make shapes with them. After that, we went in the Davinci exhibit and played music shortly after. Next, we all played with lights and fog. The observation deck was cool, but not as cool as the paper airplanes in the air exhibit. My dad made a really cool paper airplane, but the one I made didn’t work. Then we played with the other air instruments in the exhibit. And lastly, we got to play with electric circuits. I had a blast! I LOVE SCIENCE!