Day trip to Portsmouth

As promised, we spent most of the day in Portsmouth and Kittery, having a great time looking around these two towns.

Before we left, we had to get “breakfast,” though it was already past 11 AM. The hotel manager suggested a few places, one of which is the Red Arrow Diner, a shoebox-sized diner that really packed ’em in. We waited patiently with a line of 20 other people to finally get two seats the bar. And you know what? It was worth it! People gladly wait however long it takes to get seated. We both enjoyed our meals and signed the guest book for good measure. If you’re ever in Manchester and are looking for food, check out the Red Arrow Diner: open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

We decided to meander up the coast along US 1-A starting in Hampton Beach rather than go straight to Portsmouth, so we enjoyed viewing the breakers, twisty coastal trees, and beach cottages. Along the way, we stopped at North Hampton State Park to take a walk on the sand. We walked around the beach for a few minutes before hopping back into the car.

One thing we’ve found is that New Hampshire has no state sales taxes or income taxes. Money for state parks is therefore hard to come by, making New Hampshire’s idea of a state park rather comical. North Hampton State Park consists of about 30 parking spaces near the beach! And the other state parks we visited here tend to have significant entry fees. Perhaps we’re spoiled by most of North Carolina’s state parks being free but it was a bit different than what we were used to.

Further north we came to Odiorne Point State Park, which turned out to be a more appropriate size for a state park. Odiorne Point Park was once a U.S. military base known as Fort Dearborn. The park was created when the U.S. Army donated the land to the state of New Hampshire. Among the sweeping views of the ocean and the abandoned gun emplacements from the old fort, the park is also the the place where New Hampshire was first settled in 1622.

After we had an enjoyable hike around the park, we headed north again and reached the nearby city of Portsmouth. We’d enjoyed exploring Portsmouth during our last visit 10 years ago and we enjoyed it again today. The weather had stayed cool, cloudy, and occasionally misty, which kept many people away from a music festival that was going on this weekend. Still, there were lots of people out and the place seemed to be thriving.

After taking a quick trip across the bridge to see the Portsmouth Harbor Inn and Spa on Water Street we’d stayed in during our last visit here, we headed back into Portsmouth to the Breaking New Grounds coffee shop. Here we sipped coffee and munched a scone while deciding what to go see.

I’d heard that the home of John Paul Jones, the “Father of the Navy,” was a museum so I suggested we go check that out. I got to the museum and discovered that Jones lived there only briefly and never actually owned the house: he was merely a boarder. Still, the museum provided shelter from the rain and had a cool exhibit about the Treaty of Portsmouth, which ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 (sometimes called “World War Zero”).

Kelly and I then crossed the road to the Portsmouth Discovery Center, a museum where we watched a short film about the history of Portsmouth. From there, we headed over to see the USS Albacore (AGSS 569) museum and tour the experimental submarine of the same name. The Albacore was a sub in service from 1953 to 1974 and designed to test new concepts. As such, it spent much of its life in the yards and was never deployed for battle. It’s innovative features set the course for all future U.S. submarines.

Kelly and I had fun exploring this tiny sub, which we had mostly to ourselves. An excellent audio tour provided accounts from the sailors who sailed her, bringing the boat seemingly to life. Other than two large holes cut in the hull for the entrance and exit and all the depth gauges missing their numbering, the boat is largely unchanged from when the boat last saw service. I found it interesting that the aluminum high-speed diesel engines ultimately doomed the sub: they were notoriously unreliable and the only way they powered the boat for as long as they did was through the cannibalization of parts from other subs. When those spare parts ran out the Navy was forced to retire the Albacore.

With our sub tour done, we made tracks over to Warren’s Lobster House in Kittery for a seafood dinner. It was here that Kelly finally got the third thing done on her list: eating lobster! We enjoyed a wonderful seafood meal before hopping back in the car for the trip back to Manchester.

Tomorrow we look around Manchester some more before catching an afternoon flight back to Raleigh. It’s been a great trip so far!