It's great to have a friend - Blue Hill - 3/6/16

Hiking Blue Hill near Boston

Nana and I have been together over 46 years. We married early, I was 20 and Nana was just 19. Like any marriage we have had our ups and downs, but here's the thing, I married my best friend. Over the years we have tried just about anything from building our own house, no really we hammered every nail, to sailing across the Atlantic to kayaking in Baja and doing stuff like getting college degrees, having kids and trying to be responsible adults. (that last part is the hardest)

So far it seems to be working out. This year finds us without a boat for the first time in about twenty years and to take it's place we have begun a weekly activity of finding new trail to hike here in New England. A routine has begun to develop. We agree on some place interesting, within an hour or so of the house, and then we immediately find a nearby restaurant so we can have a Sunday morning breakfast. The internet is our friend, and and get all the planning done well before we ever walk out of the house. So far we have hiked 24 consecutive weekends, excluding a few when we were in the Caribbean for a couple of weeks with friends. But we did plenty of walking there too.  So each Sunday morning starts off leisurely, packing up a few essentials (trail mix, water, cameras, maps and hiking sticks) and heading to a new restaurant. This is always a good time of the day. 

At the Sunny Side Cafe near Blue Hill

Nana and I actually have some time to sit and catch up on all that has happened in the past week. We also have something tasty. . . breakfast never disappoints. Nana tends to like omelets and I am a 2 egg and home fries guy and we always leave full and well caffeinated. Last Sunday we hiked Blue Hill near Boston for the first time. We took the blue dot trail from the Park Headquarters to the first summit which we thought was 1175 feet up but apparently it is only 635 feet up. The sign proclaiming 1175 was some sort of weird trail marker, denoting intersections of trails. You can imagine our disappointment. But the climb was rigorous enough to make me wheeze a bit and enough to make Nana's fear of heights show up. Nana was a good trooper thought and press on up right through her comfort zone to the very top. The views were worth it. We could look south well past the Patriots stadium and Boston harbor was visible to the north. We followed the trail back down the far side, meeting up with a very wide and well used trail back to the headquarters and the parking lot. We didn't walk all that far but we did have a good time. We both enjoyed our time together and had another small Sunday adventure. It is so good to be able to spend a fun day with your best friend.