Do you have thoughtful and generous children like mine? If so, then you are blessed indeed. Let me tell you about one of my blessings. I rarely travel. Between financial issues – or lack thereof – and the fact that I don’t do UP at all, and never enough time off of work for me to drive anywhere, I’m pretty much a home body.
However, this time I allowed my son to talk me into – gulp- flying to New Hampshire to meet his beautiful family. Yes, I said meet. My son, Dean and his beautiful wife, Emily, have four fabulous children. I met the first one when she was a beautiful toddler. But up until this September, I had never met the other three. Two more little girls and an adorable boy. It makes me emotional just to think about them now. As you can see, I handled the flight like a champion.
But, my desperation to meet my family allowed me to survive the trip. My son’s family lives in the small town of Rochester, New Hampshire. This picturesque little village comes as close to a Thomas Kincade painting as humanely possible. The shops are quaint. The streets are clean. The homes are so cozy. Stupid me forgot to take photos of the town itself because I was too busy admiring it. Rochester is surrounded by luscious forests dotted with cabins and mini-mansions. Take your pick.
My first night there, we went to a fireworks display in Maine to celebrate Eliot Festival Days.
I was so excited to see another state. In Florida, you can travel eight hours and never cross the border. From Rochester, you can travel from New Hampshire to Maine, to Massachusetts, and beyond. What an experience.
The following day, my husband and I got to watch our granddaughters at their volleyball practice. Then we went to the Appleview orchard.
We got to pick all the apples we could possibly gather. And we gathered plenty. We got to ride the hay ride, see some farm animals, and wander slowly through the Appleview Store. It was a good thing my husband held tight to our credit card.
The following day, we traveled to Oyster River High where we watched our granddaughters practice their field hockey. My brother, Rick, who lives in Vermont, popped over to say hello. (See, isn’t it cool that you can jump from one state to another so easily? You just can’t do that when you live in Central Florida)
Next, we went to visit the University of New Hampshire where my son works as the Event Manager.
The campus was absolutely charming. We had lunch at the arena where he works. The temperature dipped a bit as it was currently set up for the hockey season. (Another event you rarely witness in Florida)
We then went to Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH to visit the Puddle Dock neighborhood and experienced a 1700s village next to the harbor preserved just as it was when it hosted the shipping boats. They had guides dressed in period costumes from the 1700s to 1800s. These guides explained how they operated their little businesses, how they created cloth, how the merchants stored their goods, how the few children there were educated, treated medically, and of course the rum runners. We didn’t realize until we were about to leave, that each house had an American flag from the time and era of there existence. I would truly recommend a visit if you are in the neighborhood.
That night we got to share some smores with our beautiful grand babies. We played games and my son set up a bounce house for them. Not me. But, I got to watch. Their energy was exhausting, but I couldn’t imagine a better way to end our mini vacation to New Hampshire.