Anyway, as we planned our vacation, we didn't really know what we wanted to do, we just knew we wanted to get out of town and visit some beautiful places. She found this place in New Hampshire called The Balsams and I really wanted to go to the Maine coast. So we did a bit of both.We planned to stay two nights in The Balsams. We knew that it was really far north, almost to Canada, but we didn't realize it was going to be so remote. It was a beautiful resort in the middle of nowhere. Seriously. Even our GPS couldn't find it. What people do there is arrive... and then don't leave. The resort had a ping pong table, a pool table, old-school video games, board games and lots of books. There was a pool, but it didn't open until Memorial day and a golf course, but we don't play. There's also skiing, which isn't that useful in May. Other than that, people check in, eat all their meals there and hang out all day. It's pretty much like Dirty Dancing. We had dinner in the tavern because the dining room was being used by some county executives for a conference or something. We would have had dinner there, anyway, because jeans are not allowed in the dining room, which of course we didn't know beforehand, so we only brought jeans with us. Well, that's not entirely true. I also brought a jean skirt!
The next morning, they were having another conference in the dining room -- teen pregnancy prevention, which was a preacher shouting like a cheerleader at teen-agers to guard their goods. (I hope it works!) As we were eating, an older couple stopped by our table as we ate breakfast. (again, very Dirty Dancing.) They asked if we had been to the resort before, to which we said no.
They said that they had been to this place several times for Christmas and were surprised (and not happy) that these two conferences were going on. They pretty much said that they did not think that this was a good vacation place for young gals like ourselves and asked about our plans for the rest of the vacation. After telling them that we planned to head back south to Portland, they left, but then came back, a map in hand, and told us that we should see if we could check out early. I was ready to stay for the two nights, as planned, and figured we'd have a great time hiking or biking or whatever else we decided to do. However, I wasn't keen on the idea of eating every meal at this place and there weren't many choices outside of the resort. And then it started raining. Heidi went to the desk and asked what there was to do in town. 
The woman behind the desk started laughing. Next, Heidi asked if there were restaurants that we could try or a movie theater. Again, she laughed. She then asked about shopping.... more laughter. The woman behind the desk then told us that we could go to Wal-Mart or Rite-Aid, but we'd have to drive an hour. Heidi then decided to take the old couple's suggestion to check out early. The woman, after laughing at us for a few minutes, said, "Well, usually we don't do this, but if you can check out by 12:00, I'll let you." We went upstairs and called the B&B in Portland to see if they could take us early. When they said yes, we said, "Let's get the hell out of the Balsams." After less than 24 hours, we checked out. We took a short drive up a mountain to where the golf course is and a view of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Canada. And then we were off to the next place....
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