Yesterday, Cliff and I took a five hour mini vacation. We drove up route 126 into the mountains to breath fresh air, see tall trees, and soak in mineral water. We visited Belknap Hot Springs which is a campground, hotel, and apparently rural development that has two hot spring pools on their property. The public can come and for $7/hour or $12/day soak in one of their pools. It's not a natural hot spring environment as pipes bring in the hot/mineraly water into what looks like a swimming pool. It's a cute little area tucked into the trees. Oh and what would a mountain lodge be without countless carved bears.
This is a great place to bring future visitors who would like to experience a hot spring without any hiking (or nudity) involved. Besides the pool, they also have a few trails that lead people to gardens and meadows. It was nice but weird all at the same time. We were an hour along the river, in the middle of the mountains yet there was a very manicured and concrete garden in the middle of nowhere. Odd but nice.
Oh and there were fuzzy rocks. I really love living here as moss grows all over everything. It makes me so happy. It just makes things feel more peaceful.
Oh and they also had these guys. They are sculptures of musicians. I wonder if they play ambient music around the patio area in the spring and summer. If not, they should. Oh and you are right...there are plants growing out of that piano.
Since we were already an hour up route 126, we decided to drive a little further up the mountain to see Sahalie Falls in the snow. We passed several signs telling us that we were officially in the snow zone but since it was a 50 degree sunny day (hacha!) we decided to proceed forward without the required chains or snow tires. There were walls of plowed snow on each side of the car but somehow we were still hopeful that the parking lot would be plowed and open. Well, it wasn't. This was the first time that I actually wanted to have snowshoes in hand so that we could have hiked in to see the falls buried under a few feet of snow and ice. My imagination tells me that it was beautiful. Instead this is all that we got to see.
As we headed home, I decided to stop at a country store/gas station to get kettle corn (as I remembered buying some there when Dad came to visit back in 2007). We got caramel kettle corn and taters as I love them (my PopPop's nickname for me when I was little was Tater as I liked them so much). Well in the Northwest they are called Jo Jo's apparently. Check this recipe out to see what I'm talking about (p.s. Cliff really loves this blog).
It was a really relaxing day. I love where we live.
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