New Hampshire - How Much Does Free Freedom Cost?

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Like it or not, first impressions are important because they are so hard to change. Ride along with us in our cramped minivan for our first impression of New Hampshire. As we cross the state line from Maine into New Hampshire, we see the typical "Welcome to New Hampshire" sign; we hear Chloe from the back screaming, “We’re in New Hampshire!” and we feel the difference in the roads. Next comes the usual welcome center rest area with tourist information and state liquor store…whoa!  Put the brakes on. A state liquor store? Yep, that’s right, a state liquor store at the interstate rest area. They even advertise that it’s always tax free, so stock up and save.

In case you didn’t catch that, let me repeat it while it sinks in.  The rest area where you take a rest from driving a vehicle had a liquor store encouraging you to purchase alcohol.  It’s no wonder the first sign we saw on the interstate in Maine was one warning that they prosecute drunk drivers. 

In addition we learned NH is also the only state without a law requiring seat belts.  “Live Free or Die” is New Hampshire’s state motto. Suddenly it all makes sense. They take their freedom seriously here. I actually tried driving without a seat belt, but it felt so weird not wearing one that I put it on - that and the fact that the van kept making an annoying dinging noise until I put it on. To me, it just wasn’t worth living free if it meant I had a headache. 

Here are some highlights from our week in New Hampshire:

Best Meal: The Melt Away in Tilton. Okay, so I may be just a little biased because they hosted us for a donor signup promotion at their restaurant, but it is such a cute place! The restaurant is “housed” in a remodeled old house, which is now half ice cream shoppe and half sandwich shop. The Grate Grilled Cheese really hit the spot - comfort food on a rainy day. 

We also had to try a frappe since they were giving one away to each new organ donor who signed up at the event. I always thought a frappe was some sort of a fancy coffee drink, but I noticed they had a strawberry flavor, and that just didn’t make sense to me. After a little research, which of course included trying one, we discovered that in New England a frappe is a milkshake. Now, there’s a New England quirk I like!

Worst Meal: Christy’s Pizza in Hampton Beach. Since we had a several hour drive to the coast for our fishing trip, we purposefully waited to grab a bite to eat until we arrived in Hampton Beach.  Making sure we didn’t miss the boat was just a little more important than eating lunch. What we didn’t realize was that Hampton Beach is a tourist town and pretty much closes up after Labor Day…it was deserted to say the least. The only place we found that wasn’t all boarded up for the winter was Christy’s Pizza. It was a walk-up window where the slices are ready in 5 minutes, so it was quick, edible, and cheap, but that’s about all you can say about it. By the way, we would have taken our lunch in the cooler, but no one wanted to eat after touching fish!

Best Deal: At Ninety Nine Restaurant, kids eat free after the Boston Red Sox win. Go Sox! They even had free popcorn and a decent lunch menu. I loved the Portabello Mushroom Sandwich, and much to my surprise Levi enjoyed the Crispy Haddock BLT. 

Biggest Surprise: New Hampshire has everything!  It has mountains, a lakes region, and a small section of coastline touching the Atlantic Ocean. We stayed centrally in order to see it all. What we didn’t plan for was the rain that poured that week, preventing us from seeing much of it. 

Biggest Disappointment: Not being able to ride the oldest floating Post Office in the U.S. because it stopped running for the season about two weeks earlier. Each year the Sophie C delivers mail daily to five islands and, in addition, sells stamps and ice cream to passengers and visitors on Lake Winnipesaukee - before mid-September anyway.  To make matters worse, I had been purposefully holding off purchasing stamps, so we had a good excuse to go on the Sophie C mail boat. 

Biggest Twinge of Homesickness: I don’t think I had one. Am I getting used to this travel thing?

Best Tourist Spot: The whole lakes region, including Squam Lake where On Golden Pond was filmed. All the usual lake activities are there, including plenty of places to play mini golf, which we did of course in keeping with Levi's goal of mini golfing in every state.

Best Drive: Driving thru the White Mountains on the way to Vermont. The fall colors were plentiful, and the view was incredible around every bend.  Mike and I were like kids in a candy store with each new view.

Best Memory: Watching the kids mackerel fishing. We went fishing on the Atlantic Ocean. The bluefish weren’t biting at all, but the mate brought out mackerel poles for the kids and taught them how to catch mackerel. It was super easy, and you didn’t even have to bait the hook! You just plunked your pole out in the water, jerked it up, and bam, you got a fish. As a double bonus, you didn’t need to pull the fish off the hook either. You just turned the hook upside down and shook it until the mackerel came off and plopped into the bucket. Now that’s my kind of fishing, and the kids had a ball because there was a lot of action.

Funniest Memory: Chloe’s face when she was baiting her hook with herring. The herring was bigger than most of the fish she’s ever caught! To make matters worse, you had to push the hook through the herring’s eyes, and the eyes would sometimes pop out and stick to the end of the hook. It was gross! (Now do you see why no one wanted to take lunch in a cooler?) The pictures of her expressions are priceless, though.  Be sure to check them out.

Worst Memory: Interestingly enough it was on the same fishing boat. Everyone around us was smoking, and if their second hand smoke wasn’t annoying enough, I was appalled to see one group toss their butts in the water! Cigarette butts discarded on dry land are bad enough.  The kids and I have spent many Earth Days picking up litter, the majority of which is cigarette butts, but butts floating in the ocean just seem even worse. Their lack of respect for others and the Earth is very sad to me.

My NH Hike: Franconia Notch State Park Flume Gorge. At the park, we forked out the money for the four of us to hike the Flume Gorge and then ride the tram to the top of Cannon Mountain. Oh, how I wished it were a national park and qualified on our park pass. The Flume Gorge was a nice 2 mile hike through a covered bridge, small gorge, waterfall, and 2 small caves. The kids were relatively bored after the freedom hiking at Acadia National Park in Maine and across the rocks to the lighthouse in Massachusetts, but the adventures of Bear Cave and Wolf Den saved the hike.

The tram ride was nice to do. Apparently, the haze we missed in Maine when we were at Penobscott Observatory and were able to see further than they had all year settled in New Hampshire, so the view from Cannon Mountain was diminished as a result. There was one fun part: walking the rim trail. It had rock ledges where it appeared as if you could fall hundreds of feet down the mountain. It freaked Mike out a little, so we had fun toying with him.  

Biggest Revelation: The best way to register organ donors is one-on-one conversations with them. For us, we're more effective at conquering the myths about organ donation that people hold on to when we talk to people personally. Now, somehow, we just need to talk to every American who's not registered. Only 10% of New Hampshirites are registered, so we especially needed to talk to them.

What We Did Miss: Castle in the Clouds because of the rain; Old Man on the Mountain (the one on the back of the NH quarter) because it already collapsed; and other places recommended to us.

In Summary: New Hampshire, what a slogan you have! We love your attitude.  Can you please apply it towards organ donor registration as well and raise your meager 10% registered?

The Mom