Beach Day!

In the afternoon after our Portsmouth excursion, we headed to the beach. There is a small stretch of New Hampshire that is on the coast, a little south of Portsmouth. It is everything you would expect a New England beach to be. It is sandy, though a little rocky, with cold but refreshing water. There are lobster shacks up and down the highway with quintessential beach houses lining the rocky points. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon.

Debby loves the beach!

We watched them play fetch for about an hour. This puppy loves the waves!

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is a wonderful place to visit. All day you imagine what your life would look like if you lived there. Who are the people who do live there? We go every time we visit New Hampshire, and this trip was no different. It's a tangle of fun, sea food, a little bit of granola, mixed with a smack of hippie, a dash of well-to-do hipster, and a pile of yuppie. We always come to shop around, check out the art galleries, the cooky shops, and always to try a new restaurant.

This year we spotted a fish shack on the water that served the best fish and chips I've ever had. The fish was caught earlier that morning. Haddock. Apparently something popular in New England, though I can't say I have ever heard of it before. We were seated on the deck right above the water. There was plastic fastened all around the deck rails, presumably to keep stray silverware and ladies' purses from failing into the briny deep. Here are my views from our table:

The tugboat came in just before we ordered.

Mr. M and me

Mom and me

Pretty Mama

Maine, across the harbor.

After lunch, we strolled around town. Down the road along the harbor, you can take a garden staircase back to the center of town:

Open Mic Night...say what now?

In Milford, NH, there is actually quite the little music scene. Milford is the next town over from Amherst, where the "Oval" is where everything that is anything happens. There are delicious restaurants, cute little shops, and festivals in the grassy center of the it all. If you're paying attention during the presidential campaigns, they usually stop in Milford very first to have "breakfast on the Oval" and to talk with locals.

At night, the dinner restaurants kick it up a notch and several places have live music, almost every night of the week. One of Parents' favorite new places is the Pasta Loft. The Pasta Loft not only has awesome food, but they also have an open air bar on the roof, live music, and lots of extremely fun people. Wednesday is open mic night.

Mr. M is an accomplished guitar player. He was in a band back in SLC for years and years, playing at parties, bars, and restaurants. Since he moved to NH, he has been trying to find a new band with a good fit, with more or less success. Once he discovered open mic night at the Pasta Loft, he has been trying to get up the nerve to dive in and play some songs, but hasn't done so yet. He asked me to sing with him. Without even thinking about it I said, "Sure!"

Well...he was pretty serious about making this happen. I knew it was something he wanted to do, but considering all of the other fun things we had planned during the trip I didn't think it was likely to go through.

Oh, how wrong I was.

The next day he asked what songs I wanted to sing. So we picked some. And we practiced. And we invited family. And we practiced some more. And it kept getting closer. And we kept practicing. On the way to the restaurant, Mom called some friends that they met there a couple of weeks ago who wanted to see Mr. M play. Giddy up.

Me and Mr. M, singing our guts out.

I was solo on this one.

Having never done anything remotely close to this, I was extremely nervous. I'm not a singer. I can sing, but that is very different than being a "singer." Getting up in front of a bunch of people and getting used to a microphone right then and there was scary, but I rallied! I am really glad I got up the guts to get up there and share this daddy-daughter moment with Mr. M.

Joe English

The next morning, Mom, Auntie M, Cousins, and I went hiking on the Joe English Reservation. This little nature preserve is only about a mile or two from Parents' house. We started off on Chestnut Hill Road, wound our way to the beaver pond, and snaked our way back along a completely different trail. It was a beautiful morning and a great way to explore Parents' new backyard.

Moss and a little frog, about the size of a quarter.

Cousins, Auntie M, and Me

Beaver Pond

Cousin #1

Mom and Auntie M

Cousin #3

Beaver Pond Bridge

Welcome to Amherst, NH

Last fall my parents moved to New Hampshire. They had been thinking about moving there FOREVER, and finally decided to put the plan in motion. Parents moved their jobs, put the house on the market, and found a lovely home on top of a beautiful hill in Amherst, in south-central New Hampshire.

The move has definitely been a challenge for us all. We are a close-knit family and spend a lot of time together. Parents are two of my best friends and as Little Sister and I get older, the closer we all seem to get. However, the move has definitely been wonderful, too! Little Sister and I are even better friends as we depend on each other and we have created a little family of our own together with Roomie and Pepino in addition to Grandma and some other close friends.

My favorite thing about this change is that I get to go visit! I was able to go for a whole week at the end of July. The next few posts will be about our adventures in "The Shire." I had a completely lovely time. I got to catch up with Parents, as well as Uncle E, Auntie M, and Cousins. Their family moved to The Shire when I was in high school and things haven't really been the same around here since then. Uncle E and Auntie M are two of my greatest heroes. The helped Mom in raising us as she was doing the single-mom thing when we were younger and we've never looked back.

Anyway, more about my trip. The first day we spent exploring the surrounding areas, shopping, playing ping pong in the basement (the previous owners left it when they moved - Score!), getting coffee, and celebrating my birthday. A few days after I arrived we went to the town square where we had a picnic and listened to some live music with Auntie M and Cousins.

Mom

Mr. M - the best step-dad any girl could ever hope for.

In case you are wondering, yes. Yes, this man is indeed walking his four dogs and his huge parrot* at the town square.

*See backpack

Whenever we go to The Shire to visit Uncle E and Auntie M, we always go to Haywards. It is a little  building right off the highway in Milford that has the most excellent variety of ice cream. This trip was, of course, no different. The best part about Haywards is the field behind the picnic tables.

Mr. M and Cousin #3

Hayward field at sunset