Crispy Buttered Bottoms

Loyal readers will remember our traveling party's effusive praise for this Inn's restaurant last night.  So it was only natural that we'd give its breakfast a try.  We were rewarded with another world class dining experience.  We ordered Buckwheat Pancakes (crispy edges!!) with real maple syrup for the group to share, Karen and I tried the Eggs Benedict and Sherry ordered bacon and eggs.  It was a delightful dining experience for each of us; our food was duh-lish-iss.

KC took a monumental gamble and ordered the Biscuits and Gravy.  To KC there is no meal more crucial than breakfast and nothing better to enjoy for breakfast than sausage gravy and biscuits.  Now there is a distinct possibility that any given restaurant, including those south of the Mason Dixon line, will screw up his gravy and biscuits and EVERY reason to believe that some Yankee in New Hampshire would make a royal mess of things.  This was a test with very little reason to believe it would succeed.  I'm afraid that the odds were heavily stacked against the Inn and KC and for the life of me, I cannot understand why he did this.

And yet our young cook at this historic New Hampshire Inn drove that ball deep into right field,  over the fence and over the back wall of the stadium.  It was a walk off homer.  The fans went wild!

From his first bite to his last, KC gushed about the deliciousness of his biscuits and their crispy buttered bottoms.  Each of us were treated to a sample bite and each of us agreed.  When asked to rank these against all Gravy and Biscuits that had come before, KC proclaimed them to be the very best biscuits and gravy he'd EVER eaten.  Number One.

We met the cook after breakfast...a 22 year old native of the region...and she gave KC a Gravy and Biscuits training course while we stood in the lobby.  The secrets were revealed and KC will begin preparing his own version of these biscuits with their butter soaked crispy bottoms as soon as he arrives home.

A uniquely New Hampshire sprot

Our featured activity for today was to visit Mount Washington, a 6,300' peak in the White Mountains that is famous for its horrific weather conditions.  It has the second highest wind speeds ever recorded on earth (231 MPH), has recorded annual snowfall of 42 feet and can see temperatures drop to -50 degrees.

Entering Mount Washington Auto Road

Halfway up the mountain

The entrance to the summit road was about a 45 minute drive from the Inn.  After paying $56 to enter we began the very windy (that's both "win-dee" and "wine-dee") and narrow road to the top.  The total distance was about 8 miles, which Travis Pastrana covered in under 6 minutes in a 650 HP Subaru rally car (a record that still stands).

Near the summit of Mount Washington

Karen gesturing to the masses

The road is quite narrow, very curvy with no guard rails to save us from ourselves.  As the elevation steadily increased the views became more stunning and the vegetation constantly changed from northern hardwood forest to Spruce/Fir Forest to Balsam Fir forest with stunted/bonzai type trees that are 2' tall and a hundred years old to an Alpine Zone above the treeline.

This is what the mountain is capable of

KC explained to us about a particular cloud formation called Lenticular clouds.  These are formed when air flows encounter a mechanical disruption, such as a mountain.  Apparently Mount Washington frequently forms these clouds which pilots go to great lengths to avoid.  KC met a retired railroad engineer and was explaining all of this to him.  The photo below shows a Lenticular (dome shaped) formation above the engineer's head.

KC chats up a retired railroad engineer from Roanoke, VA

Faking a heavy wind...it was a light breeze.

This crew has seen a lot together

At the summit the temps were a "balmy" 60 degrees with wind gusting around 20MPH and mostly sunny skies.  It was a freakishly nice day at the summit of Mount Washington.  The summit is home to numerous buildings for scientific purposes or to host hikers of old.  We now have typical gift shops, restaurants and museums.

The Cog Railway on its way down the mountain

One of five Cog Engines and cars operating on the mountain

BFF's looking down the mountain as a Cog Railcar leaves the summit

On its way to the bottom

There is also a VERY cool stopping point for the COG railroad which carries a hundred or so tourists up a 34% slope track.  Since railroads can't climb much over a 3-5% slope this rail engine needs to pull itself up a path that is geared (or "cogged").  They operate 5 engines and cars that run simultaneously on separate schedules.  Its amazing to watch the crawl along their tracks at crazy angles.

Post script:  Dinner last night was our third consecutive meal at the Inn and it was another hit.  Different items from the menu and they were terrific.  We had the same waiter, Driss from Morocco, and he was fantastic.  We talked with him about his immigration to the US, a bit about life in Morocco and his experience in NYC where he first lived.  World class waiter!

Can any of my readers guess where breakfast will be tomorrow?