For just the second time in 4 1/2 years, Technohubby and I got away for an overnight stay…a little escape…just the two of us. We headed north to the White Mountains. Most of the foliage in New Hampshire looks like this now…late autumn foliage…sort of a monochromatic butternut brown color. I tend to think of it as “November’s color”, but this year it seems to have arrived a bit early (which I’m assuming was caused by much rain this autumn).
We were thrilled to be staying here! It’s the Mt. Washington Hotel! It was built between 1900-1902, the grand era of hotels…full of old century charm and elegance!
The front entrance was beautifully decorated with banks of mums, cornstalks, and straw bales.
Although the lobby is very elegant, it’s a New England-sort of elegant. It’s not over-the-top. It’s not slick and stylized. It’s a comfortable elegance, where crystal chandeliers and a stuffed moose head live harmoniously in the same room.
In the lobby, there is this old grandfather’s clock. A little plaque next to the clock said that this clock was purchased for the opening of the hotel. It was a tradition, from that first year and every year for the next 95 years, that the first guest who checked in for the season would be allowed to start the clock. And the last guest checking out at the close of the season stopped the clock. The tradition ended when the hotel became a year-round resort.
Behind the lobby is an “enclosed porch”, for lack of a better term, with large, comfortable, brown wicker furniture (I love brown wicker!) and a sweeping view of the mountains behind the hotel.
The hallmark of the hotel is its expansive, wrap around porch, where you can sit in the comfy chairs and enjoy the views of the White Mountains, including Mt. Washington.
Our room was lovely and comfortable! It had doors to the adjoining rooms on each side. There was a little sign posted on those doors that explained that when the hotel was built, families would come and stay for weeks and weeks. They would bring their children, servants, caretakers, etc., and they would want to visit with one another. So the adjoining rooms made that easy. It said that if you opened all the adjoining room doors, you could walk from one end of the hotel to the other without ever going out into the hallway.
The next morning, I walked down the stairs to find the bakery and purchase breakfast to take back up to our room. I could feel this whoosh of cool air rushing up at me as I came down. And when I reached the main floor, I realized that the fresh, morning air was wafting in through these open double doors. The view just took my breath away! What a beautiful way to start the morning!
Part of the morning was spent reading by the fire, beneath the watchful eyes of the moose.
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