For the first time in a long time - a few months pre-covid - I actually crossed the border (Commonwealth of Massachusetts version), heading up to the White Mountains with my sister Trish and her daughter to celebrate Trish's bday (and just get the hell away for a bit).
It's been decades since I've been up to the Great North Woods of New Hampshire. Mostly, if I've gone north over the years, it's been up to somewhere in Maine, or to Portsmouth, NH, a charming town on the tiny bit of the ocean border that NH enjoys.
Although you pass through some pretty bleak outposts, New Hampshire is quite pretty (even though this time of year, the White Mountains look an awful lot like the Green Mountains of Vermont). And it was a nice change to have nature other than a manicured urban park to gaze on.
We stayed in an AirBnB ski house in the woods, vintage 1960 - a little beat up but well-equipped (other than the lighting in my room: we made a run to Lowe's and I got a book light) and very comfortable. And with a wonderful deck with a spectacular mountain view. Even though, as an ardent city girl, I tend to prefer places with bricks and people to places with scenery and nature, just sitting there for an hour or so was pure tonic to this old soul.
Inevitably, because we were in the woods, partway up one mountain, staring out at the other, we did have a couple of close encounters with nature.
Although Trish did have to take on a monster spider crawling around the fireplace, most of our close encounters were with moths. Most of the moths were on kamikaze missions, splatting up against the screens wherever we were sitting with a light on. But one giant moth - icky, hairy, and the size of a large hummingbird - did make it inside. Again, Trish, armed with the back of her sandal, dispatch this monster.
And then we met up with a moth that made the hairy giant look like a no-see-um.
Trish called us into the kitchen, alerting us to something creepy.
I saw what Trish had seen, and assured her that it was probably some plastic decoration that some kid had attached to the window. After all, it looked pretty cartoonish. The Thing was the size of Tinkerbell, with big, Tinkerbell-green wings, what looked like a white horse head, and long dangling appendages that sure looked like legs.
And then it moved.
I took a quick pic with my phone and it slid down the window and out of sight.
WTAlmightyF was that?
We interrupted our Yahtzee game to hit the Google and found out that what had been staring in at us was a luna moth.
I'd heard of luna moths, but (obviously) knew nothing about them.
Come to find out, they can have a wingspan of up to 7 inches. (The norm is 3-4 inches.) I'll estimate that our little friend measured a good 6 inches. That's some Mothra! They only live for a week or so and although they're all over the eastern half of the US and Canada, most people can pass their entire eastern half of the US and Canada lives without ever coming across one. Especially if you're a denizen of the city, not the forest.
During the week or so they live, they're harmless.
Still, it was plenty weird feeling to have that critter checking us out, even if it was on the opposite side of the window.
We were able to shake off the oogs and get a good night's rest before heading out to a non-nature day in the Great North Woods at the spa at the resort at Bretton Woods.
The Mount Washington Hotel is one of those 100+ year old grande dames where rich old WASPs used to summer.
I'd driven by this place, but had never been there. Molly had been to a business-related outing there - her company does an annual getaway, and this was their pre-covid spot in 2020 - so she'd been to the spa and thought we'd all like it.
And she was right. To put it mildly.
Truly, if someone offered me a hot stone massage every day for the rest of my life, I'd think I'd died and gone to heaven. In fact, as I lay there listening to soothing, New Age-y music while Colette rubbed my shoulder with a hot stone, I was wondering whether I could get a stone heater for my home and figure out whether, if I got a Roomba, I could teach it to give me a massage.
We had lunch on the back veranda of the hotel, looking out at Mount Washington. Just lovely. Kind of made me want to be a rich old WASP from back in the day. Of course, I would have been one of the Irish servant girls waiting on the rich old WASPs, but an old girl can dream, can't she?
Our AirBnB was not far from North Conway, one of those outlet towns that have sprung up all over the place over the years. We did a brief stop at the Stonewall Kitchen outlet store. And, yes, I'm looking forward to using my new zester and to sampling the garlic-avocado aioli, once I figure out what to do with it. And, yes, the dish towel I absolutely didn't need looks very nice hanging from the handle on the over door.
Back at our aerie, we did some more mountain gazing and had a nice birthday dinner for Trish - replete with cake and prosecco.
The luna moth did not make a return visit, which is too bad. Having googled our way to finding out it was harmless, we might have tried to communicate with it. Or at least gotten a clearer picture.
I'm always happy to get back home, and the return from this excursion was no exception. But the trip to the Great North Woods sure was welcome after over a year of being cooped up.
Heading to Vermont soon. More mountains! More nature! Can't wait.
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