New Hampshire - Day 1

The hotel room Jen has is a 2-bedroom suite.  It is basically an apartment with plenty of room for all three of us although none of us plan on spending much time there.  With Jen working all day every day, we are on our own until after 6pm. It's in Gilford, not far from Laconia, yet far enough that the traffic shouldn't be too horrible.

We decided that we would not go to any of the rally events until tomorrow assuming that local people who were attending would be at work so it could possibly be less busy.  So we will explore the area like a tourist should. On our way out of town, we stopped at the Laconia Harley dealer and bought Jeff a souvenir t-shirt. Not surprisingly, the place was packed so we had to park in the overflow lot across the street from the dealer.  Busy or not, we are glad to have that checked off of our to-do list.

Laconia, NH Area

Gilford, Meredith, Franklin, Alton are all towns around Laconia. Then there's Lake Winnipesaukee, Lake Winnisquam, Paugus Bay and Opechee Bay.  The city is surrounded by water and is full of rolling hills as a result of the White Mountains.  It is pretty here and all the little towns are quaint and the buildings are aged but well kept.  It reminds me of our visits to Door County, Galena and Cedarburg.  In order to make the most of this trip, as always, a stop at a quilt shop was on the agenda.  Amazingly, Keepsake Quilting which is considered a quilter's mecca is located in Center Harbor, just 20 miles away.  KQ is a world renown catalog with a retail store as well.  This is where I like to spend my tourism money. Lucky for me, Jen has a suitcase that is only half-full and I can fill up the other half with my souvenirs so I bought a fat quarter sampler with 80 different fabrics! (as well as a few other things). Which is something I could never do if I had to take it back on the bike.

Keepsake Quilting Center Harbor, NH

After shopping we asked the sales clerks if they could recommend a place to get lunch.  They suggested we head to Canoe.  It was about a block and a half away so we chose to walk.  With close to 1,200 miles under our belts this trip, a walk would do us some good. The place was perfect.  We ordered a selection of white wines and enjoyed a fantastic variety of seafood dishes.  Jeff had a seafood chowder and I had a fish sandwich then we shared a dish of vanilla ice cream made by a local shop that used local, organic milk.  It was all delicious.  We enjoyed the walk back to the bike to work off some of the great lunch. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon riding to Portsmouth, NH.  It is a costal town where we assumed we could step into the Atlantic Ocean. We rode Highway 1 into town and took a turn on Market Street.  It was definitely a tourist spot loaded with restaurants and shops. As it turned out, the town is really located on the Piscataqua River which opens into the Atlantic Ocean.  From this vantage point, we could see the Naval Shipyard across the river and the Atlantic Ocean behind it, but we weren't going to get close enough to walk in the water.  

Naval Shipyard

We took a walk through the area. There was so much history here. We stumbled upon a building that was constructed in 1716. 

Before heading back towards Laconia, we thought we would stop and have a cocktail somewhere.  We walked into a brewpub appropriately named Portsmouth Brewery.  It was there that we talked with a local man who had a lot to say about the area.  We learned all about the Smuttynose Ale we were drinking as well as the city.  We got back on the bike to be back at the hotel just in time to meet up with Jen and her Harley co-workers for a really nice dinner at the Lyons Den in Golford. 

By the end of the evening, I felt like I had accomplished an entire vacation full of experiences. I left Jeff outside of the hotel where a bunch of Harley employees were enjoying old fashioneds.  He and Jen joined in and hung out quite late after I went to bed.