Bagels, Bravery, & Booze

August 5th, 2025

Bagels, Bravery, & Booze

We woke up early, got bagels at Big Dave's, and then walked around North Conway. At a small shop, we got a pin, postcards, and a sweatshirt. Then we walked over to Frontside Coffee and I had a vanilla latte while Mom had a chai tea latte. They even did boozy coffee drinks and had Saco beers on tap! 

After we walked around town, we met up with Mason, Jen, and Cassie. We drove up Mount Washington which was amazing! There was a point where you could tell the altitude had changed by the height of the vegetation. On the base of the mountain, there were tall trees like birch and pine. About halfway up there were no more big trees, only small plants and shrubs. We stopped the car and took so many photos that my phone began to spaz. Then we went all the way up to the top of the mountain and went into the museum. It was so foggy/cloudy there that you couldn’t even see the mountains on the other side until there was a small break in the clouds. One of the most interesting things we learned in the museum was about the people who work there. People studying meteorology and meteorologists work in eight-hour shifts for a week at a time. Driving up and down the mountain, you download an app on your phone and it tells you all the history of the mountain. It’s about a 25-minute drive up and down and it times out perfectly so right when you get to the top and the bottom it finishes its recording. We had to put the car in low gear or first gear and ride the brakes on the way down because of how steep the mountain was and how narrow the road was to get up and down. It reminded me of taking the train up to Pikes Peak and getting hot coffee at the top. On the way down, you also have to stop every so often on the side areas and cool off your brakes, which is interesting coming from someone who lives in Texas, where the biggest hill is the landfill. 

When we finished at Mount Washington, we drove up to Mason‘s Brewery in Fryeburg, Maine. We took Hurricane Mountain Road into Maine from New Hampshire, which was so fun because of all the turns and hills. My mom had way too much fun on Hurricane Mountain Road. The town was super quaint, and the brewery was right off the main road. The frontmost building was a dark wood with a cream and a light blue building behind it. Inside he showed us the brewery; both where you can buy beer and in the back where he makes it. He showed us the big canister, where the grain and water go for it to be fermented, and then his canning conveyor belt. It’s insane to think about how much time goes into making just one beer. 

After chatting for a while and looking at all the equipment, we decided to order Subway and Thai food for dinner and picnic at Echo Lake in North Conway, New Hampshire. Echo Lake was gorgeous and after 6 o’clock, you didn't have to pay to get in. Compared to most of the lakes in Texas this one is very small, but the cool thing is that you can pretty much swim everywhere and it’s spring-fed. Three geese were trying to gang up on us and get our food, but we fought them off. Once we were done eating, we drove to the top of the cliff at Echo Lake and looked down to watch the sunset. You could see all the farms and houses and even the lake from earlier from the top. It was stunning. The only downside of the day was saying goodbye to Mason, Jen, and Cassie.

When we got back to the hotel after our full day, Mom had a Tito‘s and olive juice, while Tyler and I had soda. We did our daily debrief looking through all the pictures we wanted to send to the family and put on this blog. Today reinforces our belief in family and what it means when people make each other priorities.

• Walton’s signing off🫡