Sue and I treated ourselves to some Valentines Day Adventures Wednesday 02/12/20. We visited The Flume Gorge up in Lincoln, NH for some winter hiking, then to the spectacular Ice Castles exhibit in Woodstock, NH, and dinner at the Covered Bridge Farm Table restaurant in Campton, NH.

Sue at in front of the Flume Gorge Visitor Center, Lincoln, NH.

It had been snowing for the last couple of days, and overnight Tuesday we picked up a couple of more inches. But all of that had cleared away by around noon, and we were looking forward to great weather for our adventures.

New snow early Wednesday morning.

One of Sue's goals has been to winter hike through The Flume Gorge in Lincoln, NH, and so that was our first destination. We headed out around 1:15 pm after dropping The Beau Dog off for the day with Steve and Cathy. We took Route 140 out of Alton, NH over to Tilton, NH where we picked up I-93 North to Exit 34. What spectacular views we had along 93!

Off Exit 34 along Route 3 just before arriving at The Flume.

The Flume Gorge is a natural gorge extending 800 feet horizontally at the base of Mount Liberty in Franconia Notch State Park. We had hiked the park trails back on 06/07/18 when we took a short 2 day vacation to see the Lupine Festival in Sugar Hill, NH. The views and trails are quite different in the winter!

Sue at in front of the Flume Gorge Visitor Center, Lincoln, NH.

It's just after 3:00 pm, and 'City Boy' is ready to hike!

Taking a picture of the photographer taking a picture.

What a great view of the mountains in the distance.

One of the most dramatic and beautiful views we saw.

Such a great time!

It's a 2 mile hike from the visitor center up to the gorge itself and then back down to the center. Because the park is not open in the winter, the trails are not maintained, and so it's rough going a lot of the way.

Though it wasn't really that icy — more soft granular snow that was somewhat slippery — we were glad we had our Yaktrax hiking cleats strapped onto our boots. And warm socks!

We must have been moving along pretty good though because we left the car just after 3:00 pm, and were back at the car taking our gear off by 4:30 pm. The sun was beginning to drop toward the tree line on the mountains across from us, and provided a wonderful scenic backdrop.

From The Flume parking lot, we headed south on Route 3 into North Woodstock, NH to the Ice Castles of New Hampshire exhibit. It's only about a 15 minute drive and so we took a small side trip down into Lincoln, NH to check things out there. Both are the prettiest small New England towns you could imagine.

Sun unstrapping her camera for action!

On the way out, looking back toward Ice Castles.

What a terrific experience Ice Castles is. Just amazing: 25,000 tons of ice. That's just a whole lot of ice....

From Ice Castles we took I-93 south about 20 minutes into Campton, NH to have dinner at the Covered Bridge Farm Table restaurant; a pretty building tucked into the woods overlooking the scenic Pemigewasset River and Historic Blair Covered Bridge.

Retired, relaxed, and having a wonderful time!

I have to tell you that the food here is absolutely outstanding. The restaurant was actually featured on Restaurant Impossible with Robert Irvine back in 2004. The chef and owner has really done a wonderful job creating an interesting menu. We had such great meals there that I wrote the following Yelp! review:

Wonderful 02/12/20 dinner at the Covered Bridge Farm Table restaurant, Campton, NH

I got a nice glass of Chianti, and Sue chose an intriguing Mike's Adult Coffee Milk: Olives, Espresso Vodka, Kahlua and milk. Being pretty hungry, we ordered the Roasted Beet Salad to share as an appetizer. The Arugula, candied walnuts, and goat cheese with citrus vinaigrette had the most spectacular flavors. Very impressive start to our meals.

For her dinner, Sue chose a cup of the Ginger Carrot Soup: lime crema and pepitas. It was beyond good. That's all I can say. and her dinner selection of the Peruvian Chicken Sandwich Wrap made with grilled chicken, pickled red onions, guacamole, romaine, feta cheese, and a jalapeno cilantro aioli wrapped in a warm pita was a marvel of flavor.

My dinner was so good, I would drive all the way back up there just to have it again! I selected the Chicken Francaise Picatta: Egg battered with capers, diced tomatoes and fresh spinach in a white wine garlic sauce served over linguine. Beyond good.

There was so much of it, that I brought the rest home to have for lunch Friday. Sue asked me if I could duplicate it some night for dinner. All I could say was, "Not a chance. That is way, way above what I could even vision a start to...." Overall, some of the best dinners we've ever had.

We had a really nice, calming ride home after dinner. It's about an hour and a quarter back to Steve and Cathy's where we picked Beau up, so we didn't get home until around 9:30 pm. It wasn't tough getting to sleep, that's for sure!