Things To Do In New Hampshire When You're Dead: Strawbery Banke Edition

A definite must see in New Hampshire is this section of Portsmouth that was slated for demolition and urban renewal. Fortunately, this was fought, and instead has been turned into an historical recreation village, with houses dating from the 17th, 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Portsmouth is also the town in 1905 where President Roosevelt had the Japanese and Russians come to meet to stop the Russo-Japanese War. There are still several buildings in town that hosted this.

The great lawn of the museum.

OK, the only weird thing about the place was that, this particular weekend, they were hosting this Fairy House Festival, with certain areas made to look like Fairy Houses. There were all sorts of little girls made up like Fairies, wings and all. This guy also had wings on, but he looked more like a Balrog.

Here is Nail Making Machine. I don't think the lamps are historically accurate.

There has been ship-building in Portsmouth since 1800, and they are rightly proud of this.

Detail of a Model Ship.

Not all the houses are from the Portsmouth area. they come from all over New England, and are brought here in their original condition. Once in Strawbery Banke, they are slowly renovated to look as they once did. Here is a Staircase form the 19th century in the process of being renovated.

More renovation.

One of the houses in the village has been recreated and restored complete with kitchen. they have people who dress up in period clothing, and this lady was cooling fare from the 1800's. Everything she made was done with classic methods. Even though it was a bit hot in here, it sure smelled delicious. She had just baked some bread. She had ground all the spices herself. To get Nutmeg in the amount she wanted, it took about 3 hours.

This lady looks just like one of the home schooling Moms back in Monterey. We don't know what she was doing here. Obviously following us.

This area will be kept as it is. Pretty narrow. Doesn't look like it would hold me.

Another area is a small corner grocery store that has been recreated to 1943. Somehow, they have managed to find actual foods in their packaging from this time period. The kids thought it was neat that candy only cost 10 cents.
Had to tell then the minimum wage was 30 cents an hour, and people made about $2.500 per year.

Not Cheerios, but Cheeri-oats for 13 cents.

Original canned items.

This staircase has been rescued, and will eventually be used in a house that was used by Redcoats.

This gentleman was ostensibly doing a demonstration of Barrel-making. The bid attraction was that he was shaving planks of wood for barrels, and he was making curls of wood. Kids stood in line for these!

It looked pretty difficult to do this.

Cousin It!

A ceramic watering bucket. It has many holes in the bottom, and one on the top. You sank the bucket in water, stopped up the hole on the top to create a vacuum, and it would hold the water.

Chamber Pot in one of the houses.

A lounge chair from the 1800's.

Before the Wii, this is what you did in free time. It hoop and stick. You whack the hoop with the stick, and see how far you can make it go. It is surprisingly difficult. This should be made for the Wii. It is almost there anyways.

This man has guests from across the continent, and is having a great time!

The lady in the middle is Mrs. Goodwin, owner of one of the houses at Strawbery Banke. She was in period dress, and worked in the garden with traditional tools. She also answered questions about her era.

I don't know who the other two young ladies are.

A fountain in the garden. The gardens were very nice, but those pictures will be in an upcoming post.

If you get a chance to go to the Boston area, this is one we can recommend without reservation.

http://www.strawberybanke.org/home.html

Things To Do In New Hampshire When You're Dead: Chuck E. Cheese Edition

What else is there to do in New Hampshire that one cannot do in California?

Why, go to Chuck E. Cheese!

With several children between our families having birthdays in September, it was time for a birthday party!

Here is the Scary animatronic guy himself.

A frightened child runs away from Chuck E. Cheese, with a camera to capture the horror.

" Hey, the rest of the party isn't here yet, let's dance!" David Bowie, eat your heart out!

The child in the back will soon be frightened again. This time from the dancing.

Even in New Hampshire, we still manage to throw gang signs.

Our table awaits the guests and the feasting. Well, Pizza and Pop.

Here another child does his imitation of Patrick McGoohan and James Caviezel.

Sooner or later, a Mendoza was going to end up in the back of police car on this trip. Just didn't expect it to be him....

So part of this birthday package was to have Chuck E. Cheese himself come on out in between baking pizzas, and present birthday crowns to the children. they had a screen counting down, and Amanda, our party coordinator, had us cheering for Chuck E. (sounds like a Rap stage name) to come on out.

Here the children are eagerly waiting for the 6 foot rodent to come out. Later on, Amanda would lead us in a birthday cheer:

I say, "HAPPY!" you say, "BIRTHDAY!"

"HAPPY!"

"BIRTHDAY!"

The single greatest moment of their lives. They will remember this moment just like Socrates reminded Crito that he owed a Rooster to Asclepius.

I say, "HAPPY!" you say, "BIRTHDAY!"

"HAPPY!"

"BIRTHDAY!"

It should be noted here that even some of the adults REALLY got into this cheer!

For the birthday children, they had this enclosed space called "Ticket Blaster," where you could get hundreds of tickets to buy fake mustaches and Easy Bake Ovens. The child inside the Ticket Blaster is being encouraged and even yelled at by the other kids.

Those Horse riding lessons are coming in handy!

What else is there to do in New Hampshire?

Stay tuned for the next edition of....

Things To Do In New Hampshire When You're Dead!

Things To Do In New Hampshire When You're Dead: Atlantic Ocean Edition

So besides apple picking, what else is there to do in New Hampshire? For such a tiny state (about 9.400 square miles, about twice the size of Monterey County, or the same size as Fresno County), it has an amazing diversity.

No really, there was tons to do, and can't all be done in one visit. Here is just a small part of what else we did in New Hampshire.

One of the things we did was escape to the next state over, Maine.

In this corner of the world, the Atlantic Ocean is just a few minutes away. So off we went to the beaches at York. According the Census Bureau, this area has less than 1% Hispanic in terms of population. Didn't see any either.

I heard from a friend that this a great spot to go surfing. Wish we could have seen someone doing that.

That is Neddick Lighthouse in the background.

For a state that has been ravaged so many times by Killer Flus, Vampires, UFO's, Clowns, Rabid Dogs, inter-dimensional predatory life-forms, it was in remarkably good condition.

Dipping one's feet in the Atlantic.

We Go Apple Picking In New Hampshire!

So went Apple picking the our first full day in New Hampshire, and we have to tell you, it is a beautiful state.

We were taken to one of many apple picking sites in the tri-state area. Yeah, there are apples around here, but c'mon, it was in New Hampshire!

They all looked so good!

Some needed help to reach the best ones...

But the U.S Navy had sent some of its best to help out in the effort!

Hey if you start to eat it now, you won't have to pay for it!

It was paid for.

Picking with friends.

Here, our daughter pays tribute to her favourite book cover.

"Hey, wait! Why are you hitting me! Put the Bow and Arrow down!"

Just some of the 87 pounds of Apples picked.

There were other things to pick here as well, like a pumpkin to decorate or to cook for pie...

Yeah, I went there.