Love Boats

Last month, Roger and I took a short trip out to the New Hampshire Seacoast, the shortest stretch of coast for any state.

The chief city of the area, Portsmouth, is about two hours away from White River Junction. Not very far at all. It's a lovely seaport town, with an artsy community and lots of little boutiques around the center square. We checked in at the Martin Hill Inn - one of the oldest b&bs in New Hampshire - at around 9 o'clock and headed out to the "downtown" to eat. Fortunately, for us, Portsmouth is a bustling metropolis compared to Hanover and we were able to find several places open for a late dinner. We settled on the Portsmouth Brewery. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs - either that or we had forgotten how to order in "the big city" - and we got two pizzas with an appetizer of mussels, and ended up taking most of the pizzas home. (They stayed in the car for most of the weekend - it was that cold outside. We tried having them for lunch the next day, but frozen tomatoes aren't as appetizing as you would think.)

The next morning, we woke up to meet our b&b-mates. An older crowd, we noticed, although we were surprised when Curt Schilling joined us for breakfast! Actually, it was just someone who looked and sounded very much like him. "Curt" and his wife were the talkers in our group. We've noticed there's always one couple at b&bs that stands out; it's not a bad thing, it makes things lively.

Unlike our neighbors, we decided to walk into town. It wasn't far, although it was a bit chilly. Still, the nice brisk walk woke us up and we were ready to explore. We ducked into a few shoe shops and bookstores, somehow always managing to bump into "Curt" - it is a small town after all. Although the town was very cute, we quickly exhausted our map and headed home to grab the car. We decided to drive up the coast a bit, trying to avoid the outlets at the Kittery. We drove all the way to Portland, ME, about an hour away, and looked up Hadlock Field, where the Portland Sea Dogs play. (BTW, Roger has no love for Maine's rotaries.)

We drove back and supped at Jumpin' Jays, a noted fish place. Then we fell asleep while reading Alice Munro and National Geographic's "Best Places to Live." (What do people think about Santa Fe, NM?)

Sunday, we got coffee and enjoyed the paper at a nearby cafe. We took in the morning sun and made sure to get some pictures of the tugboats in the bay - an iconic image of the city - before heading home. We even got a tugboat magnet at Tug Boat Alley for our refrigerator.

It was a fun trip - not too tiring. We even got to stop in Concord on the way home and do some laptop shopping. Have you seen our new Gateway M320X? We've named it the Zeppelin.