Vacation, day one

Our vacationing group consists of three people - me, my husband Neil, and his sister Leslie. The first day after our drive from Philadelphia, we took another drive - this time up the beautiful Kancamagus Highway. We stopped at an overlook:

where I was bitten on the eyelid by a black fly, although I didn't realize it for quite a while. Black flies (which are actually gnats) bite you before you even know they are there - and the results appear a few hours later. In my case, later that afternoon Neil told me that I seemed to have a burst blood vessel in an eyelid. I didn't connect it to the flies at the overlook until the next day, when it became obvious that my eyelid was swollen, reddish purple, and droopy. It has been that way for the last five days, but at least it doesn't hurt or itch. In fact, I forgot all about it except whenever I happened to look in a mirror.

We continued on to North Conway, where we had lunch. I had a delicious goat cheese, spinach, and roasted red pepper omelette.

This is a ski area, and even in June evidence of skiing is everywhere, such as the benches on the sidewalks:

And in the local McDonald's, where seating has been constructed from repurposed ski lift gondolas:

 

(McDonald's is our go-to restaurant for bathroom stops, and I'm very grateful to them for that.)

We stopped at a bookstore that features employee recommendations, which I like to read:

 

Our visit happens to coincide with a biker rally, so there are motorcycles and motorcyclists everywhere, in every town. Bikers these days are mostly boomers, it seems - biking seems to be big with folks in their fifties and sixties. On the way back across the Kancamagus, we have to wait on a turn for about half an hour while ambulances and other vehicles clear away the results of an accident involving four bikers. I hope no one was badly hurt.

We shop for the week's groceries, and go back to the resort for dinner and a movie. And that is day one - apart from the nuisance of the black flies, a good one!