A leisurely morning (no luggage out) starting with an “eat off the menu” breakfast which is nicer than the usual breakfast buffet which is always the same. Gary had said their pancakes were outstanding and so I chose the blueberry pancake option. He was right; they were excellent especially when served with maple butter and local maple syrup!

After breakfast there was a lecture on the foliage and animals that call this part of the country home.  Our speaker was from the Raven Interpretive Program organization here. We learned that Mt. Washington, which we will visit later, has the wildest weather in the world, including a record for wind speed: 231 mph in 1934. He also talked about how and why leaves change color and shared information about animal and bird migration in the area. It was a fascinating lecture with more than one humorous observation injected in the speech.

At 10AM we left for a tour of the White Mountain area of New Hampshire, near our hotel. Our first stop was at the site of the Willey House avalanche that killed 6 members of the Willey family plus two others, in August 1826.  Fearing a flood the family fled their cabin when the river started to rapidly rise. They were killed by an avalanche as they tried to climb to higher ground.  However, their cabin was spared because of large boulders that forced the avalanche off to both sides of the cabin. The original cabin is long gone but the site has become a popular tourist stop.

The weather was funky this morning; cloudy one moment and then sunny! It depended on where you were at what time. The colors of the foliage in the area seems to be more dramatic, with entire hillsides almost all covered with yellow leaves with patches of red interspersed.  After leaving the Willey House in partial sunlight we proceeded to the Mount Washington Resort to see Mt. Washington, the highest mountain in New Hampshire, with an elevation of 6,288 feet. As fate would have it we saw nothing but the hotel as the mountain was completely shrouded in clouds. Oh well, maybe next time!

Before heading to lunch we made a quick photo stop at the Silver Cascade waterfall. It is a lovely multi-level waterfall with a 300 foot fall, amidst granite rocks.

We went to  North Conway, NH for free time to have lunch. Unfortunately because it was a holiday weekend during peak fall colors the town was jammed with people and so were the restaurants, even though we were arriving at 1:30 PM. We had to wait about 20 minutes get a table and another 20 minutes to receive our lunch sandwiches. Luckily we had enough time to not be concerned about rushing.

The buses returned everyone to the hotel at 2:30 and those who wanted to take a short (0.6 mile) walk to see “Diana’s Baths”, another series of small waterfalls that cascade 75 feet down the landscape. It was originally the site of a sawmill in the 1800s and was acquired by the state in the 1940s. About half of the people chose to take the walk, including me. It was pleasant fairly level walk through the woods to the stream and waterfalls.

Back at the hotel Insight hosted a cocktail reception to thank us for traveling with them. Dinner was on our own at the hotel. Tomorrow we leave for our last stop, Portland Maine.