Greg Michaels: Vacation Pt. 2

The second half of my vacation was a little different than the first. It was about visiting, shopping, and balloons. Wednesday we more or less hung out at the house and did some light cleaning. In the evening we went over to Lynn’s mother’s house to meet up with Lynn’s extended family as they arrived from New Brunswick to visit and do some back to school shopping.

Friday first thing, I went to the Great Falls Balloon Festival by myself because Lynn wasn’t feeling well and the boys didn’t want to get up at 5am. Saw all of the balloons go up even the crab and penguin. Thought about video bombing the live shots from channels 6 and 8 but in the end figured I’m too old for that. We missed the Friday evening launch because we all went shopping in New Hampshire.

Friday afternoon we all went to Settler’s Green in North Conway to do that back to school shopping mentioned above. We arrived at about 2pm, strolled through the stores until about 5pm and then ate at Applebees. And yes people there is tax on food at restaurants in New Hampshire.

After our 2 for $20 meals we all did a bit more shopping at Settlers' Green. The last place we all went was The Christmas Tree Shop (CTS) across the street. This is where the fun turns to “uh oh.” It was about 8:30 pm and we locked the keys in our car after taking Vikki out. I thought about bringing up driving home to get the other set of keys. However, I would have hated to get home only find the door locked. Auburn from North Conway is about an hour and 15 minutes so, I figured with the time and gas the cost would end up being about the same as calling a tow service. We first thought about the police department, but the clerk at the CTS told us the police won’t unlock cars anymore.

So we called Mt. Washington Valley Towing and they came within about 5 minutes and unlocked our car in less than a minute with what looked like a blood pressure balloon and a bendy ruler. All that for $85, fewer than 10 minutes and the job was done? I tell you I’m in the wrong business. I was stressing about the amount but then I remembered with my insurance company, State Farm, I get free tows. Assuming if you use "the card" too often your premiums will go up but knowing I would be reimbursed I did breathe a bit easier. Yes the guy came and did the job in less time than it took for our extended family to shop inside the store.

We weren’t going to buy anything but succumbed to getting Justin new basketball sneakers at Under-Armor and got Dylan a few new shirts at Aeropostale. The tee shirts were all $2.99, Score! We also bought Vikki got a thing or two at Oshkosh B'gosh.  Aside for that we were good.

On Saturday we spent much of our time at Simard-Payne Park with the balloons.  In a nutshell that was the second half of my August 2013 vacation.