After a week out west in Colorado, I return home to a busy but beautiful month of foliage viewing here in New England. This year, my parents (Jordan’s 阿公and 阿媽) are visiting from California, so in addition to spending time together in Brookline, I bring the entire family on a pair of extended weekend trips to New Hampshire and Western Mass. Over the Indigenous Peoples’ holiday weekend, we take a ride up to New Hampshire’s, to the region surrounding Lake Sunapee. Since Lindsey and I took a mid-week jaunt to the Lakes Region last year, I’ve wanted to return and explore a different part of the state. After moving Jordan’s car seat to their rental car and packing the trunk, the whole family jumps in for the two-hour ride on Saturday afternoon (the traffic out of the city is bad, but not nearly as bad as 2022’s Friday night rush hour apocalypse). Jordan alternately naps, snacks on cranberries and “pizza” (Jane’s latest invention: a white-bread sandwich with egg, ketchup, and cheese), and has Jane and my mom sing him nursery rhymes and songs on the ride up north. The ride is mostly uneventful, and the traffic fades away after we turn off I-93N just before Concord.
We check into our lodging, a rented cabin along the shore of Chalk Pond, a small freshwater pond in the hamlet of Newbury, just a few miles from Lake Sunapee. After exploring the waterfront and saying ‘hello’ to the mechanical owl on the nearby dock, Jordan settles in and begins playing in the downstairs basement, which features kids’ toys, figurines, and a cute little karaoke set. My mom and I head out to do groceries at the Hannaford’s in the town of New London, a few miles up the road; on the menu for tonight is a quickly salt-cured and butter-grileld flank steak served with ponzu-scallion chimichurri; a rustic ratatouille of cubed autumn vegetables; a pot of ditalini pasta with ham and corn (for Jordan), and fresh bread. After dinner, we relax in the living room, and Jordan gets to partake in a nice Yeh family vacation tradition: access to television! After setting some boundaries, we let the kiddo watch some of his favorite Youtube videos (wildlife documentaries, helicopers, and firetrucks) as he munches on sliced pear. At night, after everyone has gone to sleep, I set up my tripod from the comfort of the house and shoot some long-exposure scenes of the brightly lit cabin across the pond. The view from our house, framed by beautiful, flame-red sugar maples, will be a frequent subject over the next few days.
In the morning, the weather is misty and drizzly. Ater a lazy breakfast and a little more shooting out the back porch (from both upstairs in the living, and downstairs in the basement, which offer different perspectives on the lake with slightly different frames of foliage), Jane, Jordan, and I head out to circumnavigate Lake Sunapee and take a first pass at exploring the area while my parents relax. We stop first on the south shore of the lake, where despite the moody weather, Jordan is in excellent spirits and unusually cooperative with my efforts to grab a family photo. Sunapee (Algonquian, Soo-Nipi: "Wild Goose Waters"), though not nearly as large as last year’s Lake Winnipesaukee, is still quite impressive, and similar to New England’s other large lakes, it is a massive freshwater remnant of the last glacial retreat ten thousand years ago. Just a few feet down the road, we stop again to let Jordan toddle around the Bell Cove Caboose, which usually houses a one-room historic museum in its interior (not open this Sunday morning, though Jordan obviously does not mind). After he has his fun running up and down the nearby wheelchair ramp multiple times, we continue northward to Sunapee Harbor.
Parking by the waterfront, we take a look around the area; Jane and Jordan climb into a nearby ski lift car (for fun), while I admire the foliage. We wind up taking a brief walk along the Sugar River, which forms the outlet for the main lake and eventually flows westward into the Connecticut River. By the river, there are beautiful maple trees with deep red and orange hues; I photograph the trees, their reflections, their leaves fallen in the water, and some poorly tolerated attempts at family portraits on the nearby covered bridge. We make a mental note to bring Grandma and Grandpa back here later in the day.
After stopping in a nearby bakery/deli and purchasing a handful of treats for home (some maple donuts and whoopie pie), we finish our trip around the north side of the lake, returning back to Chalk Pond in time for Jordan (who is gradually melting down) to eat a quick lunch of leftover pasta and go down for his mid-day nap. Jane and I follow suit after a lunch of open-face sliced turkey sandwiches with crushed walnuts and cranberry jam.
In the afternoon, after the entire family is awake (and after some obligatory photos from the back porch, where Chalk Pond is now beautifully calm and reflective), we pile back into the car, this time with the grandparents, to re-visit Sunapee Harbor. Along the way, we stop near Herrick Cove to admire the scenery and photograph the nearby lighthouse. I take some cute photos of Jordan with his grandparents on the nearby dock, Jordan nonchalantly ripping off his jacket hoodie (the child is less impervious to unwanted clothing than he is to the cold, apparently). At Sunapee Harbor, my parents walk around the Sugar River bridge and admire the foliage, and we take a tripod portrait of all five of us together, beneath the covered bridge with the river and foliage as a backdrop.
By this point, the sky is growing dark, and the weather no less rainy and threatening, so we complete the loop (going the opposite direction as we did in the morning). Along the way, we decide spontaneously to stop off at Bubba’s Bar and Grille, in Newbury at the south end of the lake. Jordan being a toddler now, it’s nice that we can be spontaneous and go to restaurants together as a family — although he must travel, of course, with his little lunchbox that includes bibs, towels, baby utensils, and a healthy helping of pre-washed berries and snacks. The food tonight is decidedly average; I have a fried seafood platter and my mom has a hot lobster roll that are roughly as advertised; Jane has a bizarrely vinegarey risotto; and my dad has a fairly undercooked bison burger. Jordan, with his kid’s menu order of Kraft Mac and Cheese, makes out the happiest, scarfing down his meal along with some donated lobster from his grandma. After filling up the car at the nearby gas station, we make the short drive a few minutes back to Chalk Pond Road and settle in for the night.
