New Hampshire to Maine, with a foray into Vermont

 

Summer park, winter ice rink

We spent 3 days in Nashua New Hampshire. The drive there was really tough. . .navigating around New York City proved more challenging than the route around Chicago a couple of weeks ago. 

But Nashua was an interesting place. Our lodging was pretty dreadful. . . tiny, cramped, an advertised kitchen that didn't exist, as well as AC that didn't cool. Good WiFi and netflix access, though. And the town is pretty cool, in a rough-and-tumble way. We loved the fact that this large park we found to stroll with Jasper is actually an ice rink in the winter. That's how cold it gets, and remains! There were a bunch of nice dog friendly patios, and an absolutely wonderful bakery as well. On our way out of town, we discovered the river walk area in the city. There are huge old factories standing that are being converted to condos. Very old industrial buildings that speak of a pragmatic past.

. . . turned to living space

And walking space. . .

We spend one of our Nashua days driving 3 hours to Mt. Tabor Vermont to see a house that was ever-do-tantalizing on Zillow. It had some wonderful features, but turned out that it was a good thing we got to see it. It was in deepest darkest Vermont. . .beautiful, but close to. . . very little. Manchester, VT is a cute town. . .but a little too cute for us. It was great to drive through Vermont, though. It's not called the Green Mountain State for nothing.

However, we returned home to our not-so-great AirBnb absolutely exhausted, and ate what we could find for dinner. It was ok. All part of the learning curve.

AND! Today, we reached our destination state: Maine. I am hopeful that we will be able to find what we're looking for. We're in touch with a realtor named Marjorie, and will see some homes in South central Maine on Sunday. In the meantime, we had another wonderful dinner on a deck in Boothbay Harbor. These forays are tough on Jasper, so I'm SOOO glad that the weather is cooling so that he can wait in the car, instead of on a deck above large bodies of water. It really was lovely. The food was good.  . not great. . .my second lobster roll and a great glass of California Pinot Gris.

View from the deck

The place, Mine Oyster, offered beautiful views and inadequate staffing. But we had our patient heads on, adult beverages, and all the time in the world. How lucky are we? And then the rain came through. . once again beautiful, and again we were protected by an awning.

Some images. . . .

How the IPhone sees the rain

How I see a yacht