Final Wave of Vacation - New Hampshire

This is our third and final summer vacation post.

While our first two vacation destinations (Indiana and Nova Scotia) were centered on family, our last week (8 days in fact!) was spent purely with friends. It felt very "homey" as this was the only spot during our trip where we had actually lived together as a family. After 2 years away from our Manchester, NH roots, there was a lot of catching up to do and little time to do it in. We made the most of the 8 days - saw lots of folks (met lots of babies) and had lots of fun! Special thanks to our friends who took care of so much organizing on our behalf and also to friends who made such an effort to see us. We had travelers from NYC, Rhode Island and Vermont!

We parked ourselves at the Klein-Rosenthal household, otherwise known as Rocky's place. Ella and Rocky were soon back to being best buds.

The biggest get-together was at Clough State Park, where our friends had reserved a pavilion of picnic tables and ordered up tons of good eats (including S'Mac) for the Parker Party. It was a lovely day and we enjoyed swimming in the lake and basking in the sun while catching up with friends.

We also got to bask in the sun at Erin & Andy's place!

Of course, no visit to NH would be complete without seeing the Nobis crew. Unfortunately, we don't have any photos from our gathering at the Green Martini in Concord. It was great to see Maylia's co-workers, though! We also had a gathering with Jeff's former co-workers, hosted by the Zecchinos. As usual, the treated us like royalty and we had a stellar time. Ella especially enjoyed hanging out with the Zecchino girls. Here are the guys, reunited.




A big item on our agenda was having Mattias baptized. We chose the same church as we had for Ella - Brookside Congregational Church. However, this was a smaller affair with Catharine, Dave and Owen being the only guests able to make it. We were sorry to hear Pastor Bill had moved on, but happy to learn Carolyn Keilig had taken his place. (Her husband, Roger, actually hired Maylia at Nobis. Roger was kind enough to attend the ceremony as well.) It was a lovely service and we really appreciate Carolyn squeezing us in!




Eating was a major focus of our time in NH. There were numerous yummy dinner parties and brunches hosted by Michelle & Jeff, Catharine & Dave, and Erin & Andy.




We also ate at some of our fave haunts, Jewel and the Beanstalk...




Sara (which is sadly closing)...




Piccola Italia (where we surprised Michelle with a birthday bash)...




and La Caretta (the only place open on our chosen Girls night!).



Also on our list (Jeff's list) was to satisfy some serious sugar cravings before heading back to the land of $20 Oreos. While in NH (where sweets are cheap and plentiful), Jeff put away no fewer than 4 boxes of Swiss rolls, 2 boxes of Lucky Charms, 2 trays of Oreos (1 was double-stuff), and a box of Twinkies. Jeff's been catching up on sleep since coming back to Prague.

Of course, the most important part of our time in NH was just being with friends...




...and meeting new members of our crew!