Category: friends

Posted in 2024, friends, leisure time, life, relaxing, Sports, Travel

Vacation Mid-Week

Posted on by nancyb422

It’s beautiful here on Lake Winnipesaukee and we are loving every minute. Isn’t that what vacation is all about?

Looking out from our property on Alton Bay

We spent some time on our boat Sunday anchored up and Monday we boated down to the town dock to go to breakfast 🤗. We also boated up to Wolfeboro and docked to do some shopping. My husband gets nervous docking if it’s a right spot but he did great! I took the pressure off by dropping the push off/hook on pole in the water! 🤣 Luckily it floated towards the boat launch area and some nice young people got their hook and dragged it in.

Yesterday we drove up to Lincoln to go hiking with one of our employees and his wife. We held our own but omg I could barely walk by the time we were done. I have a couple of toes that give me trouble when they’re in shoes for too long (one connected with our rowing machine when I kicked back doing yoga 😫).

We hiked in Franconia Notch, first to the top of Mt Pemigewasset, 3.3 mile round trip.

Came back down, ate our packed lunch, and then heading to the Flume Gorge which is a 2.2 round trip. You need tickets to see it and it was worth every single penny. We had no idea that existed!

Mt Pemigewasset ele. 2,557
Flume Gorge in all its “gorge”ousness

We had dinner at the Woodstock Inn and brewery then headed back to our little cottage.

Today it’s more boating with our hiking friends who are heading back home.

I’m so grateful to be able to take this time and relax!

Posted in 2024, family, friends, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Travel

August 7 Hump Day Photo

Posted on by nancyb422

I took a trip to Paris in May 2007 with my sister, her daughter, and their friend. We rented an apartment in the Marais District from a friend of mine from California.

Our apartment was about four blocks from the Seine and after we rested, we took off to look around. It was amazing to see all the beautiful buildings and that famous river we’ve heard so much about!

I like this picture because of the couple stealing some moments together on the banks of the river Seine. It is one of the first pictures I took on our trip.

Paris France

Before we left, I studied the Rick Steves’ book on Paris and came up with a list of places we might want to visit. Everyone was willing to follow my suggestions! We went to the Montmatre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Père LaChaise Cemetery, the Louvre, Musee d’ Orsay, and Versailles. We really packed in a lot of sights in 7 days!

Back then, I was taking pictures on one of those small Canon SD600 cameras. I don’t know what type of phone I had back then but it must not have been very good if I didn’t use it for pictures. I took 305 pictures, they are still in my iCloud photos and I still enjoy looking at them and remembering our trip which means another one from this trip might show up sometime!

Posted in 2024, family, friends, Holidays, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Sports, Travel

July 31 Hump Day Photo

Posted on by nancyb422

Today I’m sharing a photo from February 2006. The same sister and her family that we went to Mexico with, we also took a few ski vacations together over the years!

We took a 2 or 3 February vacation trips to Mont Sutton located in Sutton Quebec. It was approximately 6 hours away from our home in Connecticut. We would meet up with my sister and 2 or 3 other families from Rhode Island at The Junction Restaurant in Troy Vermont for lunch. From there, we would cross over the border into Canada. We would stay every trip at an auberge right next to the slopes and rented the entire first floor wing of 8 or so rooms to make sure we had a game room for the kids and so we wouldn’t disturb any other guests! The hotel served us breakfast and dinner and we all brought coolers of food, a microwave, and whatever else we needed to come back to the rooms and have lunch if we wanted. All we had to do was ski.

The Sutton bird

This picture was from our 3rd trip to Canada. It was crazy to see this up in the tree but even funnier was what I thought I saw on the slope. My husband and I were on the chairlift, and I saw a small group of people on the side of the trail. I looked closely and then said to him “why is there a canoe on the trail?” He thought I was insane! What I was looking at was a snowboarder sitting on the ground with his board up on its side edge. From the direction I was looking, it looked like a person in a canoe!! 😂😂 I have a very vivid imagination!

Every time I see this picture in my favorites album I think about all those fun trips we took, and the canoe on the ski slope.

Posted in 2021, 2024, friends, leisure time, life, Memories, photography

July 17 Hump Day Photo

Posted on by nancyb422
Arch Rock, Mackinac Island, Michigan August 2021

I take so many pictures on my IPhone. 29,386 photos and 1,079 videos to be exact! I have a Canon EOS with three different lenses but it just cannot compete with the instant gratification convenience (my Canon doesn’t have wi-fi).

What should I do with all those photos? First off, delete all the duplicates. But second, Share them! So starting today, on Wednesdays I will share a photo and give the when, where, and why.

This photo was taken during a vacation in August 2021 to visit friends who had a home in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. While there with 2 other couples and the hosts, we took a trip to Mackinac Island.

It was quite a drive to get to the ferry (although we’d gone to Petoskey on a previous trip) but it and the ferry ride were enjoyable!

Once we got to the island, we had lunch and shopped and then took a horse drawn tour which brought us all over the island. It was such an enjoyable trip and one of the stops was at Arch Rock which looks out onto Lake Huron to the east. Believe me when I say, I took many pictures of this view from every angle.

We also saw the beautiful Grand Hotel on our tour along with a cemetery, and our tour guide had a lot of great information about the island.

Once our tour was over, we walked back down to the town and took the ferry ride back to Mackinaw City and headed home.

I’m very grateful for having met these couples on a Danube River cruise and our visits with them afterward!

Posted in 2024, family, friends, Goals, life, Writing

Two (or 3) Simple Words

Posted on by nancyb422

How do you express your gratitude?

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Those are two ways I usually express my gratitude for something someone has done for me or said to me.

I think sometimes, for me, I don’t slow down or stop to think about thanking the people who are around me all the time. Family, co-workers. I am go, go, go in the office and expect people to do the same!

I need to stop and reflect what someone does that makes me feel good or happy or satisfied the way something was done. Not just for something they say to me or do for me.

The words will be the same, but for different reasons.

Blue Jay saying hello to us!
Posted in 2023, friends, life, thoughts, Writing

45 Years Ago!

Posted on by nancyb422
Lyman Hall Class of 1978

Last Saturday, my high school graduating class of 1978, had our 45th class reunion!

I’ve been on the reunion committee since our 15th reunion and numbers have dwindled from event to event.

We managed to get 53 people to attend – which included spouses! No matter how hard we work to get the word out there’s always excuses and no responses to our letters, emails, facebook posts.

We originally planned a group 60th birthday party event in 2020, but as you can guess, it didn’t happen! We used the same outdoor venue and the same theme – Bar-b-que! It was so festive with red checkered tablecloths and napkins and hay bales, corn stalks, and mums for decorations. Some people weren’t happy about the “casual” event but hey, we’re the committee!

We have a core 8 classmates who have worked consistently on the reunions and I don’t know what we’ll do with ourselves until it’s time to start meeting for our 50th reunion! They have become therapy sessions for those of us dealing with aging parents, and cheering sessions for those of us with children getting married, and grandchildren coming along.

Does your high school still have class reunions? If they do, do you attend? Tell me!

Posted in 2023, family, friends, Writing

Falling Leaves and Chill In The Air

Posted on by nancyb422

What is your favorite type of weather?

I love fall in New England because it brings about the weather that brings back memories.

It brings me memories of Columbus Day off from school where the weather started out chilly but it would warm up quickly. It was our first holiday off in the school year. Six of us would borrow as many bikes as needed and ride out across town to a dairy restaurant for ice cream. it was a thrill to get from the town to the farm area and feel the heat off the road and the wind in my hair.

It bring me memories of sunny Sunday afternoon Pop Warner football games when our town had enough pre-teens to field enough football teams to play against each other. Warm enough still for no jacket in the afternoon, but “you might want one just in case”. My dad would bring us, either on bikes or walking, to the park where they played and see them out of the classroom and in their “other lives”.

It brings me memories of blue sky so bright it hurts your eyes on a warmer than normal Saturday afternoon. If you pause, you can feel the chill lurking behind the warmth. Those days were spent on the sidelines cheering on my high school football game. Loudly encouraging the fans to cheer and the team to score. There was excitement and anticipation in the air as you looked for friends in the stands waiting for the teams to play.

It brings the memories of the nighttime chill with a drop of heat of the Indian Summer still lingering. I would think, “I just have to be outside”. I would put on my heaviest sweater and just walk, look at the stars and feeling so alive. Feel like I could do anything, that there were so my opportunities coming.

I love fall for it’s memories.

Posted in friends, life

Life and Death

Posted on by nancyb422

I’m spending the early part of this day grocery shopping, paying bills, and puttering around as I wait for 3pm to get changed to head on over to a wake and funeral service for a friend who died on Monday from heart-related complications from Covid. She was 48 years old, wife, mother of a 17 year old and 12 year old.

I met her in 1997 when she came to work at the insurance brokerage I worked at and it was maybe her second job after graduating college. She sat right across the small aisle from me and was always asking questions, sometimes the same over and over. I know that annoyed me but I also know we talked and laughed a lot! She was 14 years younger than me and would come with me to my son’s second and third-grade concerts that were held during the school day.

After I left, we lost touch. I then discovered she and her husband bought a house in the same town I was in less than a 1/2 mile from mine! We reconnected again and after her youngest child was in pre-school, she came to work for us. It was another case of a lot of talking, and not always a lot of work getting done! But I really enjoyed her company and I felt like I was the older voice she sometimes needed to hear (not that she ever took my advice!).

But eventually, we needed full-time help and she couldn’t give me that so we had to part ways. It was probably best for her because she got a job in the school system and was able to have summers and vacation time off to be with her kids.

We didn’t stay in touch very much. We were Facebook friends but that is pretty superficial. I know she was happy at the school as a paraprofessional for kindergarten and she was planning on getting her masters in special education. She loved her family so much and would do anything for her kids.

I was alerted to her death on Monday evening because a few of my friends are also in the school system. When the system-wide email went out, one friend checked and saw I was friends with her and messaged me. I haven’t been able to get her out of my mind since.

It’s not that I haven’t had friends or relatives die at a young age, but I don’t think I’ve experienced this suddenness before and it’s unsettling. It seems ridiculous to even think “oh she’s looking over them now” because she should be HERE with them. I have no words for comfort. I just keep praying for her husband and children, her mother and brother, and her best friend who has been a constant presence in her and her family’s lives. That’s all I can do.