End of the Year Review Part 3 Daytrips, Wildlife, Movies, and New Hampshire, Miscellaneous Roled into one

I spent most of the year fishing. I did very little actual bird watching or wildlife viewing.  I did manage to do some daytrips. Many of those were all day fishing adventures. I will not write about them here since they were taken care of in the last two posts. Looking back on this year, I have to say it was one of the most fun of my life. Not the best, but there were no deaths in my family. There were no disasters, I got my job back, and all in all no stresses in my life other than day to day worries we all have.

I did not go on any actual vacations this year. I was never away from home more than 2 nights at a time. I hope next year to go on a real vacation. I did make it to New Hampshire for five overnight trips. I have to say I had an absolute blast up there. My heart actually starts beating faster and I get so excited when I know I'm going to NH the next day.Without further adue, here is my year in a nutshell...

Wildlife:
Believe it or not I did not go bird watching once all year. Every chance I had, I chose fishing instead.  The only " life animal " I saw were fish. I did not see any new birds, mammals, or reptiles. The fish were the some of the same ones I caught new ( tiger trout, lake trout, rock bass). I also saw a wild salmon in a river. So I guess I saw 4 life animals, but only fish.

I keep track of how many deer, moose, eagles, bear and turkeys I see every year. Its fun to compare year to year. Here are my totals form this year and last ( only from New England for 2010 not western vacation).

Species       2011     2010
Deer             12         8
Moose          3           1
Eagle            1            0
Turkey          38         5
Bear               0           0 (None in New England)

I saw way more than 38 turkeys this year. I probably saw more than 100. However, I saw birds in the same areas many times. They were most likely from the same flocks. I didn't count them more than once. I probably saw turkeys almost once a week. I saw the eagle at Wachusetts Reservoir. The moose in New Hampshire. Surprisingly I only saw 8 deer with all the driving I did.

Daytrips:
I did 28 daytrips this year. Some of them were all day fishing trips. Again I won't waste your time with these. I do consider concerts and baseball games as daytrips. However, I didn't go to any concerts this year. I only went to two baseball games. Both were to watch Chris Pickering pitch in the Cape Cod Baseball League. I write about these daytrips to give you ideas, or if you have any questions about directions, admission or what to do let me know.

Laurie and I went to Castle Island in Boston. It was a rainy day but what a pretty place that juts into Boston Harbor. Laurie, DJ and myself went to Stars on Ice.  June 30/ July 1 We took Amber on her first ever camping trip at George Washington State Forest. The next day DJ and I went kayaking in salt water and saw sea turtles. Also in July, we went to Franklin Park Zoo.  I went blue crabbing about 5 times. It was fun getting muddy and wet.  Sept 3 we went to Crescent Park Carousel. Lastly, on Wednesday for Amber's Christmas present we went to Disney on Ice.

I went to 35 movies.
The best movies of the year were:  
50/50,   Dolphin Tale, Harry Potter, Crazy Stupid Love
Funniest movie was Bridesmaids, second funniest was The Change Up,
Best comic book movie  was Thor

New Hampshire:

I will spare you all the details about my New Hampshire trips. I already wrote about them, so this will be a quick summary. I went five times. The first was Memorial Day weekend, the last in September.
I caught 84 brookies and 1 rainbow trout.  I did catch some wild trout.
We hiked two mountains, Jackson and Cannon. We also did a hike to Arethusa Falls.  I saw three moose. One highlight was seeing tons of lady slippers. We even saw a couple white ones. I love NH and plan on making many trips next year.