New Hampshire

On my way up to Maine, I drove through the south east corner of New Hampshire. A new state is always a big deal for me, so I had to get out of the car and walk around a bit. I checked out the path the GPS had me on, and decided that Portsmouth wouldn't be too far out of the way, and would be the most promising stop.

I'll be honest. I know nothing about New Hampshire apart from the fact that it's important for the presidential primaries, and I think it's known as the "Live Free or Die" state.

I parked at a park down by the waterfront and did some walking around. I gather that Portsmouth is a port city, they do some lobster catching nearby, someone still makes wooden boats with minimal use of power tools, history is important, and the city council has done a great job of making sure that the historical architecture isn't lost.

Not sure what else there is to do in Portsmouth, or NH for that matter, but I'm glad I stopped to walk around for a bit.

(Boats in the Harbor. Maybe ready to go out for Lobster?)

(Some interesting art on the side of the building.)

(A poorly composed photo of a neat old building.)

(A look down an empty street in the morning. It was so quaint and beautiful.)

Last but not least, below is a picture of public art that I found to be fascinating. It is a large wood board across from the park in Portsmouth. Spray painted onto the board is the phrase "Before I die" and then dozens of lines that say "Before I die I want to _________________" There is a box of chalk on the left side of the board, and you are free to grab a chalk and fill in a blank. You'll see someone wrote "take a segway tour," which might have been advertising, because I did see a segway tour going through the park. People had written interesting things, such as "buy real sunglasses," and "See the Great Wall of China," and my favorite, "have my children move back to NE." I love public art!

I got me to thinking. What would I write? I didn't write anything on the board, but it certainly gave me something to contemplate. I added four new states to my "states visited" list this week. Now I'm down to just 9 states left to visit: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Vermont. I'd like to finish this list before I die.