Arrival!

Country: U.S. - Elevation: 6,289 Feet - Maximum Pitch: 90 Degrees - Highest Sustained Winds: 231 mph - Latitude: 44 degrees N

Arrival!

This morning we left our hotel in Portland and drove to Cape Elizabeth to see Fort Williams and a really old lighthouse. It is the most photographed lighthouse in Maine and we were able to get some good pictures.

The lighthouse is called the Portland Head Light and dates from the late 1700s. After walking the cliff trail around the point, we left for Bretton Woods on Highway 302 with two stops planned - North Windham for BBQ at Buck's Naked Barbecue, and North Conway to pick up some backcountry ski gear for Kimberly. A former student of mine, Erin, lives in North Windham and met us for lunch. Besides introducing us to some very good eats, Erin introduced us to some local jargon. Until today, I had no idea that wicked frost heaves existed... We also learned about ice fishing and New Hampshire's liquor laws - more on that below.

Our trip to Eastern Mountain Sports gave us a chance to gear-up and buy a few items for our upcoming climb. Kimberly was equipped with a Black Diamond Randonnee setup which will serve her well at the resort and in the backcountry. We'll have a chance to try it out tomorrow at Bretton Woods Ski Resort.

From North Conway, it was an easy 40 minute drive to the Mount Washington Resort. We were the only car driving toward the mountains, since everyone was leaving the slopes to get back to work. Losers. We arrived at 5:00 and immediately realized the Mount Washington Resort was very nice.

I didn't take the picture above, but this is what it looks like. I did take the following pictures. The first is the grand lobby. The next one is the entrance to the old speak-easy called "The Cave." The last one is the formal dining area. They don't make hotels like this anymore.

Geek Notes

Where to start... I'll let you google lighthouses and speak-easies on your own. I need to focus on something else tonight.

Jargon:

The New England dialect is an unexpected highlight of this trip. Since we landed in Boston, we've heard people drop their "R's" and drag their "A's." I know Southern dialects might sounds dumb to them and West Coast speech probably sounds silly to them, but I'm starting to appreciate the rich regional differences that make talking to folks way more interesting. Here's an example of what it sounds like to me:

"Pock ya cah ovah theh."

And this is how I think I say it:

"Park your car over there."

All of that was to make this point: many people confuse the words "Accent" and "Dialect." Technically, accents are between languages, while dialects are within a particular language. So you can speak English with a French accent, but in the South, you speak English with a Southern dialect, not an accent. This is somewhat of a linguistic over-simplification, but it's the easiest way for me to think about it.

More:

I hope "wicked frost heaves" caught your attention also. Highway 302 is primarily a two-lane road that runs from Portland, through Bretton Woods. The road is well maintained, but roads get abused by the weather up here. Pot holes are formed when ice freezes in cracks in the road, expands, and creates shallow depressions. Despite requiring regular maintenance, pot holes are just a mild inconvenience.

Wicked is just a regional colloquialism used to modify (among other things) the term, "frost heaves." So what are frost heaves?

Since asphalt is pliable, water that collects under the road, freezes and expands. Sometimes, all that results are cracks, but other times, the expanding ice pushes the asphalt up creating natural speed-bumps called "frost heaves." They rattle your bones and make it hard to sleep while driving.

But we should all be thankful that wicked frost heaves exist in the first place. Here's why. The fact that water expands when it changes phases from liquid to solid is not normal. Most exothermic phase changes of matter (gas to liquid and liquid to solid) correspond with an increase in density, meaning, freezing water should shrink, not expand. But water is different in this respect. The chemical structure of water causes ice to be less dense than water, which is why icebergs float and ice forms, and stays, on the top of lakes. If the reverse were true, lakes would freeze from the bottom up and fishes could not survive. Ice fishermen on New Hampshire's lakes are thankful for this.

Liquor Laws:

New Hampshire is a proud state - the state motto is "Live free or die." New Hampshire is wedged between Vermont and Maine, which are both left-leaning, blue states. However, residents of New Hampshire tend to be fairly libertarian-minded, or classical liberals, which makes their liquor laws somewhat perplexing. Alcohol sales in New Hampshire are a state-run monopoly. Private business owners who want to sell alcohol must purchase it from the state owned stores, which effectively eliminates competition. After they fix the wicked frost heaves and pot holes, they should work on this.