We’ve been away from being away for the last couple of days, having been up north to visit some friends.
We drove up to Acton, Massachusetts on Tuesday for lunch with Sarah’s old friend, Lauren. After lunch, we reconvened up the road at the Children’s Discovery Museum, where the young ones had a great time running balls along gutter runs and climbing on things.
We parted ways and then drove in high winds on freezing roads further north to North Hampton in New Hampshire. It was about -12°C by the time we arrived, but less than -21°C with wind chill. I had previously thought Providence to be the coldest place on earth, but there it was still a soothing -10°C.
The reason for our visit to New Hampshire was to see our friend Linda, whose daughter, Maisy, is in the same class as Eloïse at school. Linda’s family are incredibly hospitable and made us feel completely at home, except for the fact that our own home doesn’t have the incredible catering and service provided by her family. We all immensely enjoyed our evening there together.
Wednesday morning, we drove up the road to the discount malls in Kittery, Maine, in order to do some shopping for children’s clothes. I found a lot of good stuff for Lukie at the Hanna Andersson shop. We left Eloïse at the house with Maisy’s grandfather, so that she could look at chickens in the barn and ride on his tractor. Linda’s parents live on a big farm and it’s great for an urbanite like Eloïse to experience, even if it’s just for a moment, another way of life.
After lunch, we drove back to North Hampton, picked up Eloïse, loaded the car and drove back to Providence, getting stuck for ages in heavy traffic around Boston. All in all, it was a pretty long round trip for the driving conditions, but everyone had fun and we all arrived back safe and sound.