Gondolas and Flumes

Now, where I last left off, I told you mom and I rode a gondola and hiked a flume.

No no no, not this gondola:


THIS gondola:

This is the Cannon Mountain Gondola at Franconia State Park. It lifts you up over 4000 feet, nearly to the summit of Cannon (you have to hike the rest of the way, which I did). Here are some more views from the gondola:

The walk to the top of the mountain and the observatory is about 1/2 mile up. Once you get there, and your heart is pounding and the air is a bit thinner, you then climb about 50 steps to get to the top of the observatory where you are eaten alive my midges, gnats and other flying nasty.

Needless to say, I took the "short road" back.
Next up was the flume.
Again, not this kind of flume (which, by the way, scares the bejesus out of me):

This flume is a natural wonder; a walk up a steep, narrow, granite gorge of rushing water leading up to Avalance Falls at an elevation of 1600 feet.

After all of this outdoor adventure, we were SPENT. We did pay homage to the Old Man in the Mountain site which is also part of the Franconia State Park. My mom saw the "old man" when she was here on her honeymoon 39 years ago...I'm sad I didn't get to see it.

So now we are back on Cape. My sister and Mike arrive today, along with Aunt Kakky and Uncle Ed. It will be a family extravaganza I'm sure.

On a knitting note, I actually managed to get through the center section of short rows in Maude (and did it right!) and am now decreasing...could I POSSIBLY finish it? We shall see...