October 10, 2008

Today was an incredible day with some great sites to see. The weather was perfect with sunny skies and highs in the 60's. Our first stop was the Mount Washington Hotel. This fabuous hotel was build in 1902 by a railroad barren. It's claim to fame is that the 1944 Bretton Woods Monetary Conference was held here. That conference established the World Band and set the gold standard at $35 an ounce and chose the American dollar as the backbone of the World economy. "The meeting provided the world with badly needed post war currency stability." Sounds like we need to have this meeting again today.

We missed beginning of the tour of the hotel but managed to catch up with them when they were discussing this important meeting. Even in 1944 the economy of the World was very dependent on the America. The hotel itself was absolutely gorgeous. There was a golf course out back with a view of Mt. Washington, the highest peak in New England. You'll have to check out my pictures to see this place.

From there we grabbed a bite to eat at Crawford Notch, and then decided to drive up Mt. Washington. You can either take your own car or take take the cog railroad to the top. The railroad looked interesting, but traveled at 3 mph going up and 6 mph going down. It took a good three hours. Since it was only eight miles to the top, we decided to drive. Going up Mt. Washington is like traveling from NH to northern Alaska. The vegetation changed dramatically eventhough the top is only 6,288 feet. The views from the top were spectacular. We were so lucky to have such great visibility. That is not usally the case on top. The wind was blowing fiercely with gusts of 50-70 mph. Luckily, there was shelter at the top as well as a weather station we could visit. The highest winds ever recorded in the U.S. were recorded there. It was something like 240 mph. Burr! Ted and I love heights, so we never miss a chance of going to the highest point. This drive was probably one of the most challenging mountain roads Ted had ever driven. It was certainly part of the adventure.

The day wasn't over yet. We drove back to the resort and rested about 30 minutes and then met up with the Moose Tour for the evening. We again took the moose bus in an attempt to see moose. They are suppose to be everywhere, but we hadn't seen a one all week. After driving around in the dark with a bus that practically lights up, we were able to spy five moose. We really didn't get a great look at any of them and did not see a bull. It was a little disappointing, but we didn't have very high expectations. The driver and tour guide did their best to entertain us with moose songs, disco lights, and a bubble machine. We also had a moose movie to watch. I'm going to have to write them a good review on "Trip Advisor".