Have YOU seen where Marshmallows are grown?

Ripley falls was beautiful, and unlike many of the Falls we saw out West last summer, it had lots of water.

We begin our .5 mile hike to the falls.

We have been on part of the Appalachian trail.

Since I'm usually behind the scenes, Pat said this was to prove that I don't just sit in the car.

A few maple syrup facts. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. North American Sugar Maples provide the sweetest syrup. Each tree provides from 5 to 15 gallons of sap. The sap's flavor and color depends on what time of the season it is drawn. Sap from the tree is mostly water with only 2% sugar. It's boiled or reduced down, aiming for a minimum of 66% sugar in the syrup.

Our first stop was Meridan Maple Farm to learn a little bit about making maple syrup.  It was off-season but Mark showed us around, explained the process, and answered our questions.

These larger pipes go into the forest and branch off many times to reach every tree.  They have over 19,000 trees at Meridan Maple Farms that have to be tapped.

We now have a bottle of maple syrup aged in a bourbon barrel.

Heading to April's Maple we came across the New Hampshire Columbia Covered Bridge, #33.  It was built in 1912 in the Howe Truss style.  It tool us from New Hampshire to Vermont.

Just across the pond is Canada.

April's Maple was a little bit of everything  maple farm, candy maker, and cafe.  

Cyrus had French Toast (2nd time today) sprinkled with maple sugar. I had a chicken sandwich with a cranberry sauce on a house roll.  Both excellent!

Although we didn't go for any maple flavors, our ice cream and sorbet choices hit the spot.

We picked up some candy to test. Cyrus liked the Pure Maple but Samira said it was too sugary.  Is that possible?  I, of course, liked both!

We saw these giant marshmallows in what we guessed was a marshmallow farm.
  Pat said it must take a lot of work to cut them up into the right size.

Where are the Pieper's now? Lancaster, NH

How hard is it to get a picture of a jumping fish?

Impossible for me!  Sunday we headed out in search of waterfalls.  Pat was in charge. We stopped on Hwy. 302 at Lower Falls. I didn't see an actual name but I think it was Lower Ammonoosuc Falls. We walked about 1/2  a mile to the base of the Falls. 

No internet and Pat had no idea the name or location  of the second Falls, so we just kept on driving on Hwy. 302 and ended up in Crawford Notch State Park.

What's happening tomorrow? Lots of rain.🌧

As usual I am trailing behind. I get too interested in the flora. I think it's so interesting to see the different flowers that you find in areas only miles apart. The scary part is I'm starting to recognize them. 

Goldenrod

Meadowsweet

Birdsfoot Trefoil

Oxeye Daisy

Pretty sure they would could have spent the entire day watching the fish try to jump up the falls.

Pretty cold water!

False Dandelion

Heal-all, so named for its varied healing properties. 

Crawford Notch State Park is located in Northern New Hampshire and occupies the center of Crawford Notch, a major pass in the White Mountains. Beautiful views and the perfect place for lunch before heading back on this 90° day.

I'm 1826 seven members of the Willey family plus 2 others were killed here as a result of a storm, which then led to an influx of tourism.

We passed The Mount Washington Resort, a white Renaissance Revival hotel with a distinctive red roof, going and returning. It was built between 1900 and 1902 by an industrialist, Joseph Stickney, at a cost of $1.7 million. In 1881 it was served by as many as 57 trains a day. It is one of the last grand hotels in the White Mountains.

In the background the tallest mountain is Mount Washington.

Mount Washington

View from our campground.

When we got back we had a little thunderstorm. We finished Despicable Me 3 and the boys (Cyrus and Pat) and Samira each took their turn at Minecraft. Cyrus really wants me to get into it but so far it escapes me (meaning I am lost--majorly). I did create one room, lol.

After dinner we tried out shuffleboard, no scoring. That lasted about 5 minutes before someone got mad, but everyone was alive and unharmed so all was good!🙂

They had each made cake-in-a-mug before we headed to the shuffleboard court so all hard feelings were soon forgotten.

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Where are the Piepers now? Lancaster, NH