Girls Weekend!

Mom and I took North Conway, NH by storm!   Our goal was more about getting our Christmas shopping mojo sparked, but we got the additional bonus of a great leaf peeping weekend as well.

Arrived in the mountains region on Saturday by 2:00 and were starving.  My earlier 12 mile run proved a good reason to get myself some solid food long before 2, so I needed something – and stat.  But since we had a wonderful dinner planned, I didn’t want to have too big of a late lunch.  This did the trick….with some chili on the side J

Then it was off to the stores….a little bit of L.L. Bean with some Eastern Mountain Sports sprinkled in, provided a great introduction to our shopping weekend.  From there, we headed toward the “old” North Conway shops.  Those shops are where one finds the most unique items.  And then some.  The Penguin Store is my all time favorite –

We also hit Zeb’s, the most interesting country store that houses everything you’ve ever wanted from your growing years.  Whether you’re 45 or 25, Zeb’s has the toys or the gadgets you grew up with.  Very cool stroll back in time.

After lots of browsing and some buying, it was finally time to head to our favorite North Conway restaurant:  Bellini’s.  Only, we found out the hard way that they changed their name to Vito Marcello’s.  Same fantastic Italian fare, different name.  OK, now that we’ve got that settled….

Bring on the lobster ravioli, a glass of pinot grigio...

…and wonderful company in the form of Mom!

They even had a decent vegetarian selection of eggplant parmesan for Mom.

Day #2 lead us back to “old” North Conway, where we visited the slam dunk of the best shop ever; a 3 floor shop that ran the gambit in crafty and artsy creations called the North Country Cottage.

We scored some great buys, both as Christmas gifts for others, as well as for ourselves.

To round out our shopping weekend, we stopped at The Met and had a nice hot chocolate accompanied by scone and apple turnover.  Sitting in the front window, just watching people go buy….Aaaaaahhh.

No trip to North Conway is complete without a little side trip to my brother’s house!  [Special shout-out to my Garmin, for providing clear directions so I wouldn’t have to go the longest route possible]

Got to see 5 nieces out of 6 of the 6-pack and of course my twin brother and his wife.  Even Meagan, the oldest, was home for a weekend from college – bonus!  We didn’t stay too long, but long enough to do a quick catch-up, and watch a fantasticly funny video my mother took of three of the girls previously performing a home-made fashion show.  I also got to see just how my brother loves his hot peppers.  He grew them in his garden and was now drying them on this platter as well as hanging from his kitchen window.  Tim, you can have’em!

What a great weekend!  For such a short period of time, it really did feel like we were there for so much longer.  We both got our Christmas shopping started, we ate very well, I stayed happily distracted during my weekend before my marathon, and best of all, we had some great time together, just Mom and me.  Can’t beat that.