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We left from New England FOR our New England leaf-peeping getaway on a Friday night after work. We figured it would be fun to see the same beautiful leaves from a different perspective, in New Hampshire. From MA it took about 3 hours to get to our destination:
The Spruce Moose Lodge in the village of North Conway, New Hampshire.

However, the journey there was not without its freaky moments. We were in New Hampshire, for a short period of time, when we get behind a pickup truck going very slowly. Now mind you, it is a dark and rainy night, but even for this kind of night, this truck was going SLOW. So still, we are traveling a safe distance behind for several miles, until all of a sudden he speeds up. As he is speeding up, he starts to fish-tail on the wet pavement, and then just speeds off into the distance.
At another point we are on a very high cliff. We were very glad while looking at the map that we were in fact driving at night, because if it had been daylight and we could see the hairpin turns in all their glory, we may not have made it to North Conway, we may have just gone back home!
Eventually we arrive at the Spruce Moose Lodge, unscathed and happy to be there.
The Lodge is run by the wife/husband team Nellie and Leon. They bought the Lodge about 1 ½ years ago and have since renovated it. The Lodge is comprised of a large Victorian style house with 9 guestrooms ($79 and up), along with 3 cottages ($105 and up) and 2 Jacuzzi Apartments ($119 and up), each equipped, obviously with a Jacuzzi tub. We stayed in one of these apartments, called “Roger’s Retreat”. It distinguished itself from the rest by having a moose flag flying on the outside. Inside was a cozy and wonderful little bungalow. The bungalow had a large comfortable bed, gas fireplace, huge Jacuzzi tub as well as a shower in the small bathroom. Our bungalow’s theme was definitely moose – there were moose lamps, and statues, candleholders, etc. It really made us feel like we were in a rustic cottage in the wilds of a New England wood- cozy and warm and perfect for a fall getaway. When we arrived, per prior arrangement (we really need to get Roberto to start creating romantic getaway packages for other couples…but I suppose this is research…lucky me!) we had waiting for us champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries. We also had a lovely little bath basket full of soaps, bath bubbles, and toiletries. We had a very restful and relaxing night to say the least. I think “floating” was a frequent adjective of the night.
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Breakfast the next day was delicious. We had a choice of Green Mountain coffee, assorted teas or hot chocolate. Breakfast itself was a quiche with sautéed peppers and onions, served with home fries, bacon and OJ. The bacon was cooked to perfection and the quiche was delicious, even if a bit cold when it was served to us. We really enjoyed the bed and breakfast atmosphere. We got to meet almost everyone staying at the Inn over breakfast, and it really led to some nice conversations. You don’t find that kind of atmosphere at your run of the mill hotel. Also the Lodge is home to Whitman and Lilly, two wonderful dogs who really made the guests feel even more at home.

After breakfast we headed out for the main event: The Conway Scenic Railroad.

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Roberto had booked us for the 5 ½ hour tour. They also offer shorter tours as well as themed tours, like “The Polar Express Tour”, “Pumpkin Patch Tour” and various dining trips. But we wanted the real deal. We wanted to see the leaves! We had a great time. If you decide to take this trip, I recommend buying first class tickets, they are not much more expensive, but the advantage of climate controlled cars is very advantageous. Most of the leaves were past peak when we took our leaf-peeping tour, but there were still some pretty nice colors to enjoy. The scenery itself was majestic, and it was just a relaxing way to spend the day, enjoying the scenery.
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The tour is narrated, which is great and gives you some sense of the history of the place. We noticed that most of our fellow passengers were quite a bit older than us, but that was fine for us, as it meant no screaming kids.
Luckily for us, we had some really wonderful seat mates, Lana and Chris, who have been friends since they were 3 years old, even though they lived across the country from each other by the time they were 10 years of age. We really enjoyed their company and conversation as we rode through the hills and notches of New Hampshire.
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Some of the highlights of the trip were: The Frankenstein Tressle, a tiny bridge no bigger than the train’s width and way high up in the sky. It brought many “oh’s and ah’s. We also traveled through the Crawford Notch which the first train traveled through 130 years ago.
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After the train ride, we were definitely thinking about dinner. We had read a lot of good reviews of the 1785 Inn from Frommer’s website. So we decided to check it out.

It was a beautiful Inn with lots of fireplaces and decorated with every possible color of fall mum. We got there at about 5 PM when they were just starting to serve dinner, so we got the advantage of being seated with the best view. The service was great. Our server Eric, was very entertaining. For example, instead of just giving us the run of the mill tableside made Caesar salad, he made it “Trail Side” which consisted of making a Caesar salad while yodeling. For dinner I had one of the evening’s specials- a delicious farm-raised Elk steak. It was delicious although pricey, which was a shocking surprise when we got the bill, as it was about double the price of most other selections. It would have been nice to have a clue about that earlier…..Roberto had rabbit with a sherry cream sauce served with pasta. One nice feature of the Inn is that for wines you can order 1oz. or 2oz. samples of most of their wines. So we decided to share a trio – champagne, a shiraz and a pinot noir. It was a nice way to have something different than a standard glass of wine. They had a nice dessert tray to end the meal. We shared a chocolate mousse in a solid chocolate cup with a raspberry sauce. Appetizer prices are in the $10 range, dinners $20, and desserts $5.

So for a trip that lasted less than 24 hours, we had a very relaxing time and were really able to unwind and enjoy ourselves thoroughly.

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