Vacation Catch-up, Part 1: Porstmouth, NH

Well, folks. I had a spectacular time on my recent vacation to New Hampshire. This was the first time in a very, very, very long time that I had gone on a trip by myself. And, I'll be honest... it was tough at first. But I stayed on plan... did things that I enjoyed... and made the most of the time I had!

My first stop was Portsmouth, on the coast of New Hampshire. What a cute, quaint town it is. I did lots of shopping... bought this awesome chocolate brown wool coat with a vintage flower pattern (I actually left all my coats at home and so I had to buy one!)... and a cool owl pillow (found this in the dressing room of another store while I was trying on another jacket!). And lots of other goodies!

There were just too many restaurants with yummy menus to choose from, so I went for "atmosphere". On the first night I ate at the Portsmouth Brewery and on the second night, I ate at the Dolphin Stryker...
Walked around the town for two days and enjoyed all the different architectural elements. I really love all the chimneys!
On the last day, I went to the living history museum at Strawberry Banke. That was Portsmouth's original name... as the settlers that landed on her shores found tons of strawberry plants that had fruit as big as their fists! What if they had landed during apple season?
Historic sites are one of my favorite places to visit. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was a simpler time... when great care was put into everything people did...
I absolutely love the old timey general stores...
Maybe it's the vintage packaging. I do love graphic design and these old boxes and cans are sooo retro...
And the gardens were absolutely beautiful. I walked around for hours just amongst the plants and flowers...
All-in-all a great trip. A little lonesome being on my own... but that's good. I'm finding myself again... and I was really lost. I'll be covering my art retreat in the next post, so stay tuned for more tales from New Hampshire...