A Weekend Get Away

The city has so much to offer, but sometimes you need to take a trip to New Hampshire to get back in touch with your inner "New Englander."

We headed out to New Hampshire pretty early Saturday since we had so much planned. It was one of those beautiful fall days when the sun is shining and it's in the mid-60s. Our first stop was Brookdale Apple Farm in Hollis, NH. The cashier gave us our 1/2 bushel bag and we figured it was pay by the bag so we set out on our merry apple picking way. We filled our bag to the brim with over 60 apples. We got a nice mix of baking apples and eating apples. When we got to the check out we realized it was "pay the weight" of your bag. It was all good though since our apples were so delicious looking. I have to say that I really thought this apple farm was well organized and very clean and bug free (a big plus in my book)!

Our next stop was Parker's Maple House for a lovely rustic lunch. Then it was on to Miller State Park to see the panoramic view of all of the big mountains in New Hampshire. I'm not a huge state park person but the views were beautiful and we snacked on apples while we walked around so it was pretty nice.

After leaving the park we headed over to the Candlelite Inn in Bradford, NH. I can't say enough positive things about this Bed and Breakfast. The inn keeper was so sweet and told us all about the fun happenings going on. Plus, we stayed in the "Blue Room" which is of course my favorite color! We put our stuff away and headed over to The Fells- a historic property with beautiful gardens and forests.

The Fells was amazing and one of my favorite parts of the trip. The ecological walk along Lake Sunapee was beautiful. The historic home was beautifully decorated and the gardens were gorgeous. There was even a fairy village which made me think of building fairy houses with my classes when I was a classroom teacher.

We quickly headed back to our inn before heading out Daniel's Restaurant in Henniker, NH. We had a great table overlooking a river. Who knew red onion would taste so good in lobster salad? After a delicious dinner we headed over to the Bedford Village Inn to try out Corks Wine Bar. It took us a while to get a table, but I'm really glad that we waited. You know it's a good experience when you have six wine glasses, thanks to a wine flight tasting, on your table and a dessert that everyone else is staring at. I have never enjoyed a dessert so much as I enjoyed the Chocolate Bag. The Chocolate Bag was a eight inch chocolate molded sandwich bag filled with white chocolate and chocolate mousse with assorted berries and Chambord soaked sponge cake. It was so delicious. We left full and very, very happy.

The next morning we decided to live the small town life by hitting up the Chowder Fest Challenge by Lake Sunapee. We had a tough day ahead of us... 16 chowders to taste :-) There were a couple of scary chowders...who in their right minds makes a Chinese Manhattan Clam Chowder...but most of them were delicious. Our favorite was the Guinness Beef Stew but I don't think it ended up winning since these small towners were totally confused about it. With full bellies we decided to return to the city and catch the end of the Patriots game.

I certainly enjoyed my weekend away... but I was right back at the River again this morning!