My family and I are back in New Hampshire for a 2 week vacation, which is just now winding up. We like Wolfeboro, an isolated town on the eastern shores of Lake Winnipesaukee. The town also has several other lakes, notably Crescent Lake and Lake Wentworth. The smaller lakes are good for swimming and kayaking, and are connected to the town center by a multi-use path. We use the path a lot, mainly for biking. It ends by the old railway station at the edge of the town center and then runs along a variety of causeways through the forests and by the lakes out to Route 109 by the Fernald Station.
Even better, there is work going on which will eventually extend the trail all of the way out to Route 16.
This has been an unusually rainy summer, so we've only had good outdoor weather a little more than half the time.
There are things to do indoors as well. The Heifetz Institute runs a summer program for young musicians. In tandem with that, they also have a summer concert series. Two nights a week, they feature the young musicians, typically ranging in age from 13 to 24, in performances of the classical repertoire. This week, we saw several string players, on violin, viola and cello, each accompanied by a pianist, playing music by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Ravel among others. The musicians were very expressive and showed impressive command of their instruments.
As a change of pace from Wolfeboro, we also took a day trip to Portsmouth. I used Mapquest to find our way into the town center, following State Street and looking for Market. The Portsmouth web site has this really cool interactive map, which I used when preparing for the trip. However, we missed the turnoff for Market and ended up taking an inadvertent detour onto Pierce Island, which is a place shared by the commercial fishing industry and local kayakers. We turned around, and noticed that there was a seafood restaurant nearby, named Geno's, on Mechanic Street. First, we took a quick look at some gorgeous gardens in the nearby Prescott Park, then we walked a couple of blocks to Geno's. They feature Lobster Rolls and three different types of chowder and sit right on the water, alongside some commercial fishing boats. The food was excellent and we'd be happy to go back. They also had freshly baked pies. My oldest son confirmed that his peach pie was also very good.
From there, we went to look for the refurbished Wentworth by the Sea. This entailed taking a ride through the winding streets of an island known as Newcastle. The ride itself was entertaining, as there is an interesting mix of original housing and newer larger houses. We eventually found the Wentworth. It had been abandoned during the Eighties, after nearly 100 years of use as a grand hotel. However, it was restored a few years back and is now run by Marriott. It has some of the look of an older Grand Hotel, with three cupolas adjacent to red roofing ala the Del Coronado, but is much more modern. In fact, it was a bit too modern for my taste, as it seemed to be another example of packaging the New Hampshire experience for affluent people that don't actually want to sacrifice any of the amenities while going away on vacation. To be fair, it would not be hard to use the Wentworth as a fine launch point for the many outdoor activities that are within easy biking distance.
We found one on the way back. Adajacent to the Coast Guard station and a very visible set of Homeland Security signs, was an historic fort that dated from the revolution. The history was fascinating; in 1774, Paul Revere rode into Portsmouth to warn the locals that the British were coming to take away all gunpowder and ammunition. In the home of "Live Free or Die", that didn't go down well. Some 400 people stormed Fort William and Mary and took it over, four months before Revere's more famous ride.
We walked from the public lot along a blue line that brought us through the Coast Guard station and into the Fort. The fort still had signs of the small buildings that had been used to store ammunition and that were used for defensive purposes in subsequent wars. Just beyond the fort, was an amazing shoal of sandstone, complete with striations of colorful rocks, that looked out onto both Portsmouth Bay and a nearby lighthouse. We also talked with some artists who were busy painting the scene on a near cloudless day.
Portsmouth also had more to offer, but I'll save that for another entry. It's time to head out for lunch with my sons.