A Lil Getaway

For someone who grew up in flat swampland and in the age of the internet, I’ve never quite needed to unplug and return to nature - the hiking-culture, tall-tree-growing, so-off-the-beaten-path-that-your-car-jiggles-on-loose-pebbles kind of nature. What I do crave, and always will, is quality time with people I care about. If that necessitates unplugging from technology or transplanting myself into nature then so be it! And that’s exactly where I found myself this past weekend: Epsom, New Hampshire.

I’d be lying if I ended up there out of pure desire to cash in quality time pre the nonstop flurry of graduation events… Rather, as all millennials fall prey to, the expertly advertised Getaway cabins caught my recurring attention on Instagram. So, for my 22nd birthday, Curtis sweetly made us a reservation - one that had to be booked several months in advance given the unfathomable popularity of these shipping container turned cabin heavens. Our little getaway was booked for May 4th, and now, two days out from it, I wish it was May 4th once again.

Being on this getaway was one of those nonstop stream of perfect moments I knew I wanted to remember forever, so I constantly caught myself working hard to remember each beautiful detail, while also focusing on not working hard at all and being present instead.

The trip began, as all under 25 year olds know, with the sourcing of legal wheels to drive the 1.5 hours to our destination. Luckily in the Age of Apps we found “Turo,” secured a cute little Toyota, picked up provisions at Trader Joes, and hit the road. Given that Curtis is trained to drive on the opposite side of the road, the chauffeuring was left to me - and with only one wrong turn, we made it there and back in one piece!

Once there we took time to peruse the property and planned all the fun things we wanted to do in the ~20 hours we had to be there: cook dinner, drink some wine, make a campfire, roast some marshmallows, drink some wine, watch a movie, drink some more wine, sleep, and chef some egg sandwiches for breakfast. As all trips often end up, we did maybe a fraction of those things. Immediately upon arrival, we lounged, read the Getaway provided literature, jointly worked on a Sudoku included in their little booklet, and giggled as we tried to solve the riddles they posed to us. We played some cards, drank some wine, and noticed how quickly the time was passing on the one day in our college years that we’ve ever been able to completely ignore what time it is.

It quickly became 9pm and we hadn’t made dinner yet. As we cooked to the tunes of the “Have a Great Day!” playlist on Spotify, we marveled at the novelty of this little cabin container, and felt simply happy to be there together. As our meat sizzled and the carrots I chopped too chunkily (sorry!) refused to soften, we were acutely aware of not setting off the fire alarm. Our meal prep was spared, and we stuffed our faces with tiny-kitchen-cooked pasta before we watched a movie I pre-downloaded on my phone (because apparently Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Google Play refuse to let you download movies on your computer… but I’m not bitter). We then drifted off to sleep and woke up to the most gorgeous and uninterrupted forest view. And yes, I made Curtis head outside in his PJs to take photos of me for the same Instagram that advertised us these cabins in the first place.

The citrusy tinge of a sun almost setting

The remnants of “Blue Dawn” shortly after waking up (bonus points to anyone who gets the reference)

As we cooked our egg sandwiches and cleaned up remnants of the previous evening in advance of our 11am checkout time, we got too comfortable with the smoke in our skillet and eventually set off the fire alarm we had been so careful to avoid. Luckily batting a shirt at the alarm did the trick, and we were back to enjoying the peaceful emptiness of nature for a few more minutes before we had to go.

With the sweetest of dreams and the most wholesome of memories in our rearview mirror, we drove away from our little Getaway cabin. The drive home was filled with residual laughter from the riddles we solved, meals we cooked, and failed desire to build a campfire. And when we finally got back to campus, we felt refreshed from our brief day away, and thankful for that little slice of quality time.

This shot was taken by balancing my phone on the spindly branches of a tree - no iPhones were damaged in the taking of this photo, only later would one shatter on a concrete sidewalk.

P.s. if anyone from the Getaway company somehow found their way to this post, I strongly recommend putting the answers to the riddles in the complimentary S’mores package ;)

Xx, Maia