Post-Vacation "Vacation"

Just got back in the wee hours last night from another vacation. The definition of "vacation" definitely changes after kids. The beach was fun, but we still had to wake up early and chase the kids around.
Two days after we got home from the beach I took a train by myself to VT, where my parents had rented a tiny cabin on the lake near my mom's hometown. The train was running late, so after 13 hours on the train and a quick but nice dinner at the Tip Top Cafe in White River Junction VT we had another 2.5 hours of driving to get to the lake. The main selling point of this trip was having roughly 12 hours of time each way on the train to work on my thesis. On the way up I was still in the throes of my cold, and ended up crashing for long stretches of the ride. On the way home my train was even more delayed and I was just tired and uninspired, but did get some work done.
In between I had 2 days in the Great Northeast Kingdom of north eastern VT/north western NH. No cell phone reception, no internet access, and 7 miles of unpaved dirt road to get to remote Maidstone lake. We drove around a lot visiting family and friends, and the typical car conversation was "Are we in NH?" "No, we crossed over into VT." "Are you sure? "Ah [bleep] there's Canada, turn around."
I did meet my personal goal of consuming as many lobster rolls and chocolate frappes as possible in 48 hours (and a few fried clams), mostly from the Spa Restaurant in W. Stewartstown. I did not however, see a loon, the black and white-spotted duck-like water fowl, although I heard their high-pitched coyote-like yodeling calls frequently. Thankfully we did not see any moose on the roads, which make driving after dusk extremely hazardous, especially since we were so close to the area known as "moose alley."
We did go to the first day of the 16th annual Moose Festival and had nice visits with some family and friends. Still tired from all the traveling though, and this morning it was Eli's turn to host playgroup for his friends from his old daycare. Off to bed.
Tomorrow really is supposed to be Eli's first day at his new preschool. Hopefully it will be an easy transition.