Excellent Weekend

On Thursday night my boyfriend and I went to the Rochester Fair. This was the second year we've been. The same old guy was playing the accordion at the entrance. The apple crisp shack was in the same spot, as were all the pizza, french fry, fried dough and sausage sellers. We watched a bit of the oxen pull and went through all the livestock barns. We saw some alpacas, which were like smaller, more delicate llamas. I want one.
We ate the requisite greasy fair food. The games and rides and crowds on the midway freaked me out as the always do. The ferris wheel ride was a little bit scary, but the view was nice, the weather was just right and the company was good.
On Friday we went hiking. My boyfriend has done a lot of hiking all over the state and I get to benefit from his wealth of knowledge. We drove up to Holderness and hiked Mt Percival and Mt. Morgan. The hike was a little under 5.5 miles, up one mountain across a ridge trail to the top of the other one and then back down. It was perfect September weather-- sunny and warm with a good breeze. Right before you reach the summit of Mt. Percival the trail splits and you can choose to hike up the scenic cliffside route or go the adventurous way up through the cave route. We went for the caves. When I saw the yellow spray painted trail marking arrow pointing to a tiny triangle opening in the rocks that looked about big enough for my dog to pass through, I thought it was a joke. My boyfriend assured me it wasn't. We had to take off our packs and pass them through ahead of us as we took turns getting into the cave. Inside the cave was pretty spacious. I took some nice pictures, but I've maxxed out my flickr quota for the month so I can't upload the photos for another week. The way out of the cave looked as small as the entrance and it did take a fair deal of contorting to make my way out. From there we had to climb over some fairly big pieces of rock to make it to the summit. I'm afraid of heights and of falling on big pointy rocks and splitting my head open like a melon, but I really had a lot of fun climbing up through the cave anyway. If I ever do it again I may even take a look around and see if it doesn't freak me out completely.