New Hampshire

Today I was invited along on the annual Precision Engineering research group trip to New Hampshire put on by Prof. Slocum for his grad students. Got a ride out in the morning from a guy called Folkers in his Camero. Got to Slocum's house and what do you know, it's got a bit of a Meadowhead Farm vibe about it. Got greeted by the biggest dog in the world, or a great pyrenees called Inca. They also have a little spaniel called Lucille who had a cast on her leg which was rather adorable.

There were around 20 of us, a lot of spouses and even a couple of kids there. We made the packed lunches in an efficient fashion around the breakfast island. I got involved with some peanut butter and jelly.

We drove a fair way upwards and hiked a half hour or so up to a peak and sheltered from the wind whilst we ate lunch. Nice to get some fresh air. Then we drove to a farm for a pit of apple picking. It was a lot of fun! I busted out some pretty mean apple picking skills and shimmied up a tree to get the perfect apple off one of the top branches. Apples of the day were the Macintosh and the Macoun, keeping things nice and Scottish. I managed to eat three during the picking and we came away with 10 massive bags and pocket fulls. Went via the farm shop and obviously bought about 6 dozen cider flavoured donuts just to undo any health benefits of the morning activities.

Got back to Slocum's ranch and the ladies went inside to bake some apple pies whilst the men went and chopped wood. Slocum went off to try and shoot some wild turkey with his bow that we'd seen on the drive back. They didn't have much luck so instead he set about slicing a tree up with Danielle and a large chainsaw to fashion a couple of table tops. Needless to say, my apple pie was frickin' fantastic.

We sat around a fire pit whilst the barbecue was fired up. We had some amazing steaks from the butcher that were pretty incredible. I've got to stop moaning about American food! Just need to buy a car and drive myself to a butcher. It was a really fun day. Met Mrs. Slocum senior and Mrs. Slocum who were both at MIT as well, then got a lift back to Massachusetts with the youngest of Slocum's kids and we talked about words which were different. That conversation never gets old. Crisps and lollipop came out as pretty popular examples.