New Hampshire Magazine July 2022

BEST OF NH

Where to find the

BEST

READERS' AND EDITOR'S PICKS IN MORE THAN 100 CATEGORIES

magazine The M/S Mount Washington Celebrates 150 Years Off-road Pedaling for Everyone

eats, drinks, music, shops, services, sweets & more!

how many readers ☞14,359: That's made their favorites known

There’s a

coming to life at The Baldwin.

The Baldwin is ushering in a new era for New Hampshire seniors and people are taking note.

They’re discovering a community with exciting amenities, opportunities for resident involvement, lifelong learning, and farm-to-table dining. They’re looking forward to mixing it up in a walkable, intergenerational environment. And they’ve found peace of mind with contract options — including an available LifeCare contract — and a flexible continuum of healthcare services.

DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE. Limited opportunities remain. Call 603.404.6080 to learn more today.

See our construction progress!

Simply scan this QR code with your smartphone’s camera or go to: TheBaldwinNH.org/Construction_Update The Baldwin Welcome Center 1E Commons Drive, No. 24 Londonderry, NH 03053 603.404.6080 TheBaldwinNH.org The Baldwin is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

Experience it all A destination for tax-free shopping and endless activities

Take a trip to the White Mountains and discover tax-free outlet shopping, local dining and experiences. Sprawl out around our common green spaces and find inspiration through public art and gardens. You never know what surprise is around the next corner. Outdoor ping pong, live music or a perfect mountain view.

For trip ideas and lodging, visit settlersgreen.com/north-conway

North Conway, New Hampshire

2 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

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4 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

The Meals of Thanks program, sponsored by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, began in 2020 with more than 900 meals prepared by New England’s Tap House Grille on National Nurses Month in May. Since then, thousands of meals have been distributed to places such as the New Hampshire Food Bank, the Manchester VA Medical Center and The Way Home at Christmas, Thanksgiving and Veterans Day. This past May, we returned to where we began, delivering a total of 1,000 meals to nurses at Elliot Hospital and Catholic Medical Center in Manchester.

A special thank-you is due to Harvard Pilgrim Health Care for supporting this program since the start, and to the amazing volunteers from Connection, who went above and beyond to ensure the day’s success. And thanks as well to our other valued sponsors, Amoskeag Beverages, Cirtronics and People’s United. You make this all possible!

Sponsored by:

Supporters:

PHOTOS BY KENDAL J. BUSH

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 5

Kalled Gallery

Rings: boulder opal in 22k gold and sterling silver Necklace: Drusy quartz, boulder opal, and apatite in 22k and 18k gold

Wolfeboro, NH Santa Fe, NM

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6 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 7

NHMAGAZINE.COM Vice President/Publisher Ernesto Burden x5117 eburden@mcleancommunications.com Editor Rick Broussard x5119 editor@nhmagazine.com Art Director John R. Goodwin x5131 jgoodwin@mcleancommunications.com Managing Editor Erica Thoits x5130 ethoits@nhmagazine.com Associate Editor Emily Heidt x5115 eheidt@nhmagazine.com Contributing Editors Barbara Coles barbaracoles@comcast.net

Robert Cook x5112 rcook@mcleancommunications.com Production Manager Jodie Hall x5122 jhall@nhbr.com Senior Graphic Designer Nancy Tichanuk x5126 ntichanuk@mcleancommunications.com Senior Graphic Production Artist Nicole Huot x5116 nhuot@mcleancommunications.com Sales Executives Josh Auger x5144 jauger@nhmagazine.com

VERNON FAMILY FARM EVENTS Featuring live music with incredible local bands and local food by Vernon Kitchen, this summer’s events at the farm calendar is packed with community fun. Make sure to save the dates for your favorite shows!

301 Piscassic Road, Newfields | 603.340.4321 | vernonfamilyfarm.com

Jessica Schooley x5143 jschooley@mcleancommunications.com Operations Manager Ren Chase x5114 rchase@mcleancommunications.com Business/Sales Coordinator Heather Rood x5110 hrood@mcleancommunications.com Digital Operations Morgen Connor x5149 and Marketing Manager mconnor@mcleancommunications.com Contributing Photographer Kendal J. Bush kendal@kendaljbush.com Billing Specialist/IT Coordinator Gail Bleakley (603) 563-8111 x113 gailb@yankeepub.com

VP/Consumer Marketing Brook Holmberg brookh@yankeepub.com VP/Retail Sales Sherin Pierce sherinp@yankeepub.com

A SUBSIDIARY OF YANKEE PUBLISHING INC., AN EMPLOYEE-OWNED COMPANY 150 Dow Street, Manchester, NH 03101 (603) 624-1442, fax (603) 624-1310 E-mail: editor@nhmagazine.com Advertising: sales@nhmagazine.com Subscription information: Subscribe online at: nhmagazine.com or e-mail customerservice@nhmagazine.com To order by phone call: (877) 494-2036

© 2022 McLean Communications, LLC

Effortless Styles for Every Day and Special Occasions

GONDWANA & DIVINE CLOTHING CO. NH’s Most Awarded Boutique 13 N. Main Street, Concord, NH • Open 7 Days 603-228-1101 • Shop at GondwanaClothing.com 8 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

New Hampshire Magazine® is published by McLean Communications, Inc., 150 Dow St., Manchester, NH 03101, (603) 624-1442. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any mistakes in advertisements or editorial. Statements/opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect or represent those of this publication or its officers. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, McLean Communications, LLC.: New Hampshire Magazine disclaims all responsibility for omissions and errors. New Hampshire Magazine is published monthly, with the exception of February and April. USPS permit number 022-604. Periodical postage paid at Manchester 03103-9651. Postmaster send address changes to: New Hampshire Magazine, P.O. Box 37900, Boone, IA 50037-0900 PRINTED IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

Contents IMAGES BY: ETHAN LEMIEUX / COURTESY M/S MOUNT WASHINGTON / JAY ZYNISM / ALEXANDRIA PEARY / STILLMAN ROGERS / COURTESY IMAGE / MARSHALL HUDSON / GLORIA DIIANNI

36

First Things

44

603 Navigator

July 2022

52

603 Informer

10 Editor’s Note 12 Contributors Page 14 Feedback

603 Living 86 Summer Reading

Local Book Recommendations

by Lisa Rogak and Crystal Kent

90 Calendar

Features

Summer Events

edited by Emily Heidt

30 Transcript

Meet actor Gordon Clapp of the Peterborough Players.

by David Mendelsohn

36 Get Dirty

This summer, hop on a gravel bike, leave the roads behind, and embark on a new type of bicycling adventure.

by Brion O’Connor

44 The M/S Mount Washington at 150

We’re celebrating the icon of Lake Winnipesaukee on this milestone anniversary.

16 Things to Do

A New Hampshire European Vacation

by Alexandria Peary

See an Original Copy of the Declaration of Independence

by Bonnie Meroth

26 Politics

by Robert Cook

Identity Crisis

52 Best of NH 2022

by James Pindell

The results of the annual Best of NH Readers’ Poll and the Editor’s Picks are your ultimate guide to exploring New Hampshire, from restaurants and resorts to shops and music venues.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTIONS 32 Guide to Retirement Living 80 Best of NH Hall of Fame 94 Ready-to-drink Cocktails

24 History

28 What Do You Know?

Goodrich Rock

by Marshall Hudson

100 Health

Improving Sleep Quality

by Karen A. Jamrog

102 Seniority

Unretirement

by Lynne Snierson

104 Ayuh

Small Miracles

20 Our Town

Exploring Rye

by Barbara Radcliffe Rogers

by Rebecca Rule illustration by Brad Fitzpatrick

Volume 36, Number 5 ISSN 1532-0219

ON THE COVER The winners of this year’s Best of NH Readers’ Poll and Editor’s Picks can be found on page 52. Illustration by John R. Goodwin nhmagazine.com | July 2022 9

EDITOR’S NOTE

The Stars of Summer Our Best of New Hampshire issue is a snapshot of a moving target. The great Granite State is a dynamic place with lots of players competing for attention.

For something even more consistently out-of-this-world amazing, just look up.

Community Showcases

Concerts

Movies Musical Theater Summer Camp

sible Acces ll! for A

www.PrescottPark.org 603.436.2848

Brighten someone’s day– send flowers!

Florals & Plants for Personal & Professional Occasions

www.jacquesflowers.com 1-800-622-5155 • 603-625-6153 712 Mast Road, Manchester, NH 03102 10 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

M

y dad had a steady job and a career path, but his heart was really in his workshop at home. There he built marionettes and rod puppets, made drinkable (usually) wine, had an electric potter’s wheel and kiln, and once even built a television set from parts sent by a company called Heathkit.

The thing I recall Dad putting the most elbow grease into creating was an 8-inch mirror for a reflector telescope that he built and then placed in our backyard on clear nights. I don’t know how many hours he spent grinding and polishing that mirror, but he must have been disappointed when none of my siblings nor I became astronomers.

Still, he imparted enough of his own fascination and awe that, at very least, I’ve always wanted to know more about the denizens of our night sky — the fixed stars, moving planets and other mysteries of our galaxy.

So when I found an old refractor telescope by the road some months ago, I picked it up and even ordered a new zoom eyepiece for it.

After all, I’ve got some grandkids to influence and a dilettante Dad to emulate.

But while I’ve now been able to show off the full moon and some closeup looks at high branches on a tall white pine, I’ve been drawing a blank as to what sights in the sky at night might impress the little ones.

Fortunately, I know a guy.

Dave McDonald is a director of the New Hampshire Astronomical Society, the senior educator at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center and teaches astronomy at Belmont High School. He’s also VP of the N.H. Total Solar Eclipse Task Force, which is preparing the state for the learning (and economic) opportunities of the rare total eclipse scheduled to track right across our state on April 8, 2024.

That’s not as far off as it sounds. Meanwhile, here are some of McDonald’s favorite summer skygazing suggestions: • July 13 will be a super moon. The moon will be its closest to Earth while full and will appear its largest and brightest for 2022.

• Late night July 28 and early morning July 29 will feature the Delta Aquariid meteor shower while the moon is close to its new

phase, creating dark skies for a good show.

• Summer’s premier meteor shower, the Perseids, will peak the late night of August 12 and early morning of August 13. Earth will pass through the debris trail of comet Swift-Tuttle.

A near-full moon will brighten the sky, but the Perseids are often so bright there should be plenty to see.

Since most of those spectacles are clear to the naked eye, I asked him, “Why should I bother with a telescope?”

“A telescope brings out the detail and enhances the color,” says McDonald. “No one forgets the first time they see Saturn through a telescope. The rings just pop. The star Albeiro — at the bottom of the Northern Cross or the head of Cygnus the swan — is actually a stunning blue-gold pair. A telescope reveals that the star in the middle of the handle of the Big Dipper is really three stars. And you can watch the moons of Jupiter change their positions from night to night.”

So what should we know about the eclipse?

“It is time to make reservations,” McDonald says. “Space is going fast. The ‘whole world’ will be descending upon Coös County where the eclipse will be total.” He stresses that Granite Staters shouldn’t be satisfied with the coverage that the southern part of the state will experience. “Trust me,” he says. “It is nothing like being at 100% totality — 99% totality is only 1% of the totality experience. Get up north!”

He recommends that school boards start working on setting the date as a non-school day so students and families can go up and enjoy this (for many) once-in-a-lifetime experience.

McDonald says New Hampshire offers many places with dark skies and beautiful settings for astrophotography up in the mountains, and once you get the “night-sky bug,” you can always find out what the stars are up to on his show, “The Sky This Month with Dave McDonald,” on YouTube and on Concord Community TV.

PHOTO BY LYNN CROW PHOTOGRAPHY

This way to Summer Fun!

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Contributors Robert Cook, who wrote the feature story “The M/S Mount Washington at 150 Years,” is an award-winning journalist who has worked at several newspapers, magazines and digital media companies in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine for nearly 30 years. He came to the Granite State in 1993 as a reporter for The Citizen and covered the cities and towns around Lake Winnipesaukee.

He also worked as a marketing consultant for Masthead Maine in Portland before joining McLean Communications as managing editor of custom publishing this year. He resides in southern Maine.

for July 2022

Alexandria Peary, who wrote “Navigator,” serves as New Hampshire Poet Laureate. She is the author of nine books, including the recent “Battle of Silicon Valley at Daybreak.”

Frequent contributor Brion O’Connor wrote the gravel bike feature story “Get Dirty.” Originally from New Hampshire, he now lives in Massachusetts.

“What Do You Know?” writer and N.H. history buff Marshall Hudson is a former land surveyor and farmer, so he knows a thing or two about out-of-the-way places.

Author Rebecca Rule is our regular “Ayuh” contributor. She has written a number of books for both children and adults. See more at rebeccarule.com.

Travel writer and journalist Bonnie Meroth wrote “Informer.”

Her work has appeared in a number of national magazines and newspapers.

Illustrator Brad Fitzpatrick has been giving his signature humorous touch to “Ayuh” for years. See more of his work at bradfitzpatrick.com.

Thank you, nurses!

Winners of the Excellence in Nursing Awards Back row, from left: Sandra J. McDonald, Jacob Fox, Darlene Morse, April Henry, Jennifer Miller, Monica Matulonis, Amy Matthews, Anna Ivy M. Park and Melissa Eastman; front row, from left: Laurie B. Kofstad, Caitlin Kretschmar, Christina Favero and Jennifer Orbeso

May is a special month for us at New Hampshire Magazine and McLean Communications. We celebrated the 13 winners of the fifth annual Excellence in Nursing Awards, and the Meals of Thanks program returned to deliver a total of 1,000 lunches to nurses at Elliot Hospital and the Catholic Medical Center. In partnership with the New Hampshire Nurses Association, the Excellence in 12 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Nursing Awards celebrate the very best in nursing — those who go above and beyond to comfort, heal and educate — and to bring to light how critical nursing is to achieving comprehensive health care. We were honored and moved to hear the winners’ stories at the reception held on May 19. Thanks to presenting sponsor Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and sponsors Dartmouth Health, Rivier

University and Truly Flavored Vodka. Meals of Thanks is also sponsored by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, which has supported the program since the beginning. Additionally, this would not be possible without the hard work of the staff and owners of New England’s Tap House Grille in Hooksett. We’d also like to thank Citronics, Connection (and the amazing Connection volunteers), Amoskeag Beverages and People’s United for helping us to make this possible.

New England’s Tap House Grille owner Dan Lagueux helping out at this year’s Meals of Thanks.

EXCELLENCE IN NURSING AWARDS PHOTO BY KAREN BACHELDER; MEALS OF THANKS PHOTO BY KENDAL J. BUSH

About | Behind the Scenes at New Hampshire Magazine

PIERCE@60: CELEBRATING OUR PAST - LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Franklin Pierce University is ever-evolving. As we embark on our 60th anniversary, we reflect on our history with an eye toward the future, providing an education that is both relevant and enduring for our Ravens.

Join the Pierce@60 celebration! Learn more about our signature events and sponsorship opportunities at franklinpierce.edu/pierce60.

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5/16/22 | July 1:522022 PM nhmagazine.com 13

emails, snail mail, facebook, tweets

Feedback

nhmagazine.com facebook.com/NHMagazine @nhmagazine

Send letters to Editor Rick Broussard, New Hampshire Magazine, 150 Dow St., Manchester, NH 03101 or email him at editor@nhmagazine.com.

Getting Funky With Politics

I enjoy reading New Hampshire Magazine and found interest in the article “N.H. Democrats Are in a Funk” [“Politics,” June 2022].

I say to the good people of New Hampshire, count your blessings regarding having Republican control in your state.

Here in Connecticut, having been governed by Democrats for far too long, our state’s getting worse by the day. Gov. Lamont just passed a few “tax-lowering budgets” that will remain to be seen in the upcoming months. He conjured up these budgets just in time for reelection as well. The Connecticut state employees are well compensated at a price the rest of us taxpayers will be paying for in years to come.

—Darlene Ostrosky, Connecticut

Sympathy for Poland

My wife Cynthia Bajdek is a subscriber to your magazine. As such, she and I are among your loyal readers. My wife and I moved from Massachusetts to New Hampshire in 2011.

The current issue’s Blips on page 44 [June 2022] features an interesting biographical work, “Volodymyr Zelensky: In His Own Words,” co-authored by Lisa Rogak and Daisy Gibbons.

In autumn 2021, the publication of my book, “When Victimization of Poland Was Never in Doubt: Fostering Knowledge of and Sympathy for Poland in the Early American Republic, 1811-1849, as Reported in the Niles’ Register,” became a reality.

I have attached a descriptive announcement designed by the publisher that is used for purposes of alerting its availability.

If you would be interested in reviewing the book, please let me know.

Thanks for your consideration.

Best regards, —Anthony J. Bajdek, Retired associate dean and senior lecturer in history, Northeastern University, Boston Editor’s note: We feel a bit underqualified to properly “review” your book, but we do present it here for any readers who might be interested in the long and important history of PolishAmerican relations.

14 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Dear Aaron Tolson

After reading your story [“Informer”] in New Hampshire Magazine’s May 2022 issue, I was inspired and ordered three “Tiny Tap Shoes” books from Amazon.

One book will go to my former neighbor’s adored grandchild. She’s 2, loves to dance, and looks like your daughters. The second book will go to a 5-year-old girl I met Easter Sunday at my church. Newly arrived “refugees” with her mom and young brother from Africa, she was so incredibly brave to join with other children for fun. Their mom speaks a little English. They don’t.

Ani Chong’s pictures?

Amazing! Your third book? The three just arrived last night and I will read it as soon as I stop typing. Thank you for all you have shared with the rest of us.

—Joyce Janosky, Hollis Editor’s note: We’ve passed your sweet letter along to the author. Thanks for sharing it with us too.

Jennifer Orbeso of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, in Lebanon, was one of 13 nurses featured and honored in our Excellence in Nursing story and event.

Amazing Honors All Around

It was an honor for Harvard Pilgrim Health Care to sponsor and participate in the 2022 Excellence in Nursing event. Congratulations to all the amazing nurses honored! It is so important to recognize those that care for others and their accomplishments.

Thank you, New Hampshire Magazine, for celebrating our N.H. nurses!

—Kate Skouteris VP, N.H. Market, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a Point32Health Company

The Quibbler Returns!

A little quibble, a question and a big quibble [Re: “What Do You Know?” June 2022] I do like those old logging photos!

Too bad there wasn’t one of the dam, pre-dynamite. I hadn’t stopped to think that they had to build some of these dams

every year! As I used to tell my students, the rivermen would light the fuse on the bundle of dynamite around the pole, stick the pole in the logs and run like hell! Then, hope they soon heard a bang, ’cause if no bang, someone was going to have to go out there again!

One teeny-tiny quibble, on which I may well be wrong: I’ve seen the word “drover” used a lot in driving herds of cattle and sheep but never for log drives — always “driver.” Why did you decide to use drover?

And a chemistry question — why are those two spikes left in the cribbing not rusted? They look as if they had been manufactured yesterday.

And a real quibble, from the little grammar guy in my pea brain: On page 27 of 603 Discovery, the caption at the bottom is written, “Finding Home: Portraits Memories and Art of Immigrants,” without a comma after Memories! In the other illustration on the same page, the title of the exhibit is clearly shown, with the comma!

The world won’t end, but doesn’t anyone check these things?

—Art Pease, Lebanon Editor’s note: We think you are referring to “603 Diversity,” which was bound into subscribers’ copies of the June issue. We will pass your concerns along to the team that proofs that special publication. Thanks for the constructive quibbles.

illustration by brad fitzpatrick

Spot four newts like the one here hidden on ads in this issue, tell us where you found them and you might win a great gift from a local artisan or company.

To enter our drawing for Spot the Newt, visit spotthenewt.com and fill out the online form.

Or, send answers plus your name and mailing address to: Spot the Newt c/o New Hampshire Magazine 150 Dow St., Manchester, NH 03101 You can also email them to newt@nhmagazine.com or fax them to (603) 624-1310.

The June “Spot the Newt” winner is Ann Garber of Hancock.

June issue newts were on pages 8, 23, 31 and 43.

NEED A GOOD REASON FOR SPOTTING THE NEWT? The June prize is a gift certificate for $50 to use online at nhmade.com or at the New Hampshire Made Store, 28 Deer St., Portsmouth. New Hampshire Made is our state’s official promoter of products and services created here in the Granite State, and the online store and downtown shop are packed with delightful gifts and specialty foods made with Granite State pride. nhmade.com

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 15

603 Navigator “Instead of the Champs-Élysées, we’d substitute Hampton Beach ... For Bavarian castles … this one actually could work as a literal translation, ‘Castle in the Clouds’ in Moultonborough.”

– Alexandria Peary

chwanstein Castle Beautiful view of Neiaus, G er many in southwest Bavar

Beautiful view, and closer to home, Castle in the Clouds in Moultonborough 16 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Our Town 20

Our New Hampshire European Vacation So I sent Rick Steves an email ...

BY ALEXANDRIA PEARY

COURTESY PHOTO

I

n normal times, I’d be in a compact rental car during the summer, driving past lavender fields or olive trees, my husband fiddling with the stereo while swerving too close to European drivers.

My husband, Mike, would be promising “just one more” Rick Steves podcast to our daughters crammed in with suitcases in the back seat. Instead of gazing at vistas of cypresses, for the past two summer travel seasons, I’ve looked at people’s green screens or bookshelves on Zoom. I missed Europe. I missed my family together in Europe. And I even missed Rick Steves.

In 2020, I sent Rick Steves an email, subject line: Invitation: Covid Summer Road Trip With New Hampshire Poet Laureate. For anyone unfamiliar with the pencil-yellow guidebooks ubiquitous on the streets of Europe, Rick Steves is a travel writing guru. It used to be you could spot an American tourist by cargo shirts, flip flops, and before that, fanny packs. Now, when you see tourists plugged into phones engaged in syncopated looking — up, then down, over here, over there — it’s a safe bet they’re Americans listening to a Rick Steves free, self-guided audio tour.

During the pandemic, Steves had touted the virtues of exploring one’s zip code as he found joy in learning how to slice onions in the company of his girlfriend and two labradoodles.

I knew I faced hurdles in persuading Steves to accept back in 2020, starting with the two-week quarantine to enter New Hampshire from his home base in Washington state, plus his age, 65, placing him at higher risk if exposed to Covid-19.

Not to mention that New Hampshire is not exactly within his business model; Steves’ multimillion-dollar travel empire is based on Europe, not a skinny, low-population state in the Northeast. His PR spokesper-

son politely declined my invitation, wishing me luck.

So I decided on the next best thing. I’d give New Hampshire the European treatment, Rick Steves-style. I’d pretend that my family and I were traveling through New Hampshire, following the advice of an imaginary guide book taken off a Rick Steves’ shelf, “Florence & Tuscany, Venice, Best of Eastern Europe, Athens & the Peloponnese, Naples & the Amalfi Coast, Rome, Budapest, Paris ... and New Hampshire.” (In the immortal words of Sesame Street, one of these things is not like the other ...)

New Hampshire would be similar to Europe but with far less waiting in lines.

We wouldn’t have to deal with crowds or be on the lookout for pickpockets. No searching for an uncomfortable hour for a city’s one public restroom or paying a bathroom matron to use one. The physically mature females among us wouldn’t be required to throw a disposable shawl over our tanktop-bare shoulders to enter a church.

Admittedly, the White Mountains can’t compete with the soprano chill heights of the Italian Dolomites seen from our rental car as we navigate narrow James Bond guardrail-free roads, nearly out of petrol at sunset, a cold mist settling in, our cell phone reception less than reliable, and by all accounts, that might be a good thing.

But we’d hear accents, indeed, European accents, as we ascend Mount Monadnock in western New Hampshire (supposedly the second-most climbed mountain in the world).

The sheer number of towns we’d visit with Northern European names — Londonderry, Rochester, Manchester, Exeter, Kensington, Dover, Stratton, Durham, Windham — would make us wonder if the people who colonized New

Hampshire weren’t also busy imagining a European elsewhere.

One plus about New Hampshire-asEurope is that we’d need substantially less sunscreen. As a redhead in Sicily in July, where the sun’s ambition is of crucial interest, normally I am painted in the white gunk. Summer 2017 in Italy, we packed seven large 16-ounce SPF 50 jugs in our suitcases, using five containers in six weeks.

I was deprived of a container in an unfortunate incident at airport security when I forgot to transfer it to our check-in luggage.

Into the trash can fell $100 worth of SPF 50 on the Italian market, where pharmacies sold toothpaste-size tubes of sunscreen for $24.

Another plus ... no cobblestones, which means no “walk of shame,” our family’s name for dragging our suitcases on cobblestones and packed sidewalks, irritating locals and covert tourists, free of suitcases for the day and pretending to be irritated locals.

You’d hear rollers rattling on the cobblestones and know that some unlucky group was about to face the scorn, unless blessed with an early flight. We had a fair share of walks of shame, Mike and I dragging two adult-size suitcases, the girls with their princess-decorated child-size suitcases.

Certain kinds of travel experiences would not be possible with Mr. Steves as an actual road trip companion, as much as I would relish watching my husband fawn over him with the reverence Mike usually saves for his lawn.

Our family relied on Mr. Steves for advice on museums and historical sites, yes, sitdown restaurants, no. As budget travelers, we could afford to travel in Europe for two months on our teachers’ salaries because we carried our lunch with freezer packs in lunch totes, cooked most meals in the kitchens of our Airbnb, and ate street food like nhmagazine.com | July 2022 17

603 NAVIGATOR / A NEW HAMPSHIRE EUROPEAN VACATION

People walking and shopping in historic Portsmouth

pizza, arancini, one-Euro sandwiches from the supermercato, and enough shawarma one summer in France and Germany to last a lifetime. In cities, we walked or used public transport everywhere, taking only four taxis in 20 weeks in Europe.

Traveling New Hampshire Rick Steves via hotels, we’d miss out on the tower of flame that ascended to our fifth-story apartment window in Rome when a certain organization set a luxury car on fire. Or finding ourselves swept up into the wild street enthusiasm in Paris as Algerians and Tunisians advanced in the World Cup, waving flags from street lamps and honking their cars. Or playing bocce near midnight with three generations of winemakers at our Airbnb in Tuscany.

Still, I can imagine the podcast we’d be listening to in our dented 14-year-old minivan. No need for a car rental if we stay stateside. I can hear Rick Steves’ standup in 18 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Here in New Hampshire, motorcycles instead of mopeds, soft serve instead of gelato.

Instead of the Champs-Élysées, we’d substitute Hampton Beach. Instead of the Roman Forum, there’s Portsmouth’s Strawbery Banke or the Canterbury Shaker Village. Instead of the Path of the Gods, Mt. Washington’s Cog Railway. For Bavarian castles ... this one actually could work as a literal translation, “Castle in the Clouds” in Moultonborough.

In Derry, we’d stand in line, socially distanced from the next customer at the eponymous post office named after the first American in space, Alan Shephard. It goes without saying, that, due to my appointment as state poet laureate, we’d tour the plethora of Robert Frost houses because the guy certainly moved around a lot — two in New Hampshire alone, in Derry and Franconia.

OK, maybe some places and experiences have no equal.

COURTESY PHOTOS

family walking The author and her sÉlysées Paris' famous Champ

front of socially distanced tables outside a bar in Portsmouth or Manchester. As we visit the ... and as we stroll along the ... we’ll look at and taste. We’d investigate the supposedly iconic cuisine of New Hampshire: poutine, boiled dinner, lobster rolls, apple cider cocktail and apple wine.

How about Stonyfield yogurt headquarters in Londonderry?

It might be a hard sell for a man who’s enjoyed so much Italian and French wine, but we’d visit the wineries and microbreweries that have popped up around the state in the past five years, though back in 2020 we would not have quaffed the latest product of microbreweries. Several breweries in New Hampshire had converted to manufacturing hand sanitizer.

We’d listen to imaginary podcasts in which Rick Steves interviews New Hampshire experts and aficionados, including a historian specializing in the Old Man of the Mountain, the craggy profile that crumbled in 2003 but is still featured on our license plates. A whole episode could be devoted to the state’s motto, “Live Free or Die,” and its side effects on residents’ disposition toward mask wearing.

The kids would have been no bother to Rick Steves. For three summers, their patience was almost too easily purchased with a promise of a gelato at the end of the day. A little cone of sugar and milk would rally them through hours of adult time in cathedrals with portraits of uptight-looking rich people or agonized saints.

We are admittedly selfish parents. The “D” word is forbidden in our house. My husband and I have brainwashed our kids into thinking that seven weeks of cathedrals and museums is much better than seven days of overpriced concessions, long lines and mouse mascots, for nearly the same cost.

It’s Summer 2022, a whole different world than when I wrote to Rick Steves in 2020.

During my first two years as a pandemic poet laureate, I have seen achingly beautiful places in New Hampshire, albeit on poetry business, sans family.

I’ve driven past a moody Lake Winnipesaukee to give a reading and workshop in Tamworth and through the Presidential Range at dawn to discuss a new writing festival with the president of White Mountains Community College. Last month, I was transported back to Naples as I ate eggplant parmigiana accompanied by a fine local wine in the backroom of Nonna’s Kitchen in Gorham after the 2022 North Country Writers’ Day in Berlin.

Traveling with my whole family — the girls now teenagers — would still be relatively laid-back because our summers of close-quarter travel prepared us well for our domestic lockdown, easily transferrable to a road trip in a minivan.

Instead of crawling over one another to reach the bathroom in our cramped London Airbnb, we’ve been sharing online time, knowing that too many people on Zoom or Netflix makes the signal weak. Instead of heading to our separate rooms to do homework or grade, we’re playing card games at the kitchen table and watching “The Office.”

Our togetherness is the souvenir I’ll keep from these covid years. NH Note: An earlier version of this story appeared in the Concord Monitor.

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603 NAVIGATOR / OUR TOWN

Wallis Sands State Beach in Rye

More Than Beaches But still, Rye’s past and present are tied to the sea

BY BARBARA RADCLIFFE ROGERS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY STILLMAN ROGERS

R

ye makes the most of its half of New Hampshire’s famously short coastline with a string of sandy beaches. They begin at its border with North Hampton, where the long crescent of Bass Beach is followed by the wide sands and high surf of Jenness State Beach.

Farther north, beyond Rye Harbor, is Wallis Sands, protected by stone jetties and

Fishing docks at Rye Harbor

20 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

with views of Star Island (which is also part of Rye). At the rock-bound northern end of town, Odiorne Point State Park has walking trails along the shore but no beaches.

Although it’s the long stretches of wave-washed sand that bring Rye the most attention — on a summer weekend you need to reserve a spot early in the 500-car parking lot at Wallis Sands — the town is a lot more

than beaches. But both its past and present are closely tied to the sea.

While exploring the coast in 1524, Giovanni da Verrazzano anchored off Odiorne Point.

In 1605, Champlain sailed into the harbor; in 1614, John Smith (of Pocahontas fame) recorded sailing past. It was a veritable social register of early explorers.

The first actual settlement was in 1623, only three years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. These first settlers, led by David Thompson, came to establish a base for fishing off the Isles of Shoals; their Pannaway Plantation was the first European settlement in what was to become New Hampshire. By 1630, they had all relocated to Strawbery Banke, now Portsmouth.

In 1660, John Odiorne bought land for a farm, which his descendants continued to hold until 1942, a total of 282 years. The third farmhouse built by this family in 1800 still stands on the west side of Route 1A, and behind it is a cemetery with Odiorne family tombstones dating from the early 1800s. By the mid-

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STRAWBERY BANKE MUSEUM

History Happened Here

Experience New England life in the historic Puddle Dock neighborhood.

Tour historic houses on original sites, meet engaging costumed roleplayers, watch traditional crafts demonstrations, and explore historical gardens and landscapes.

Open daily May 1-October 31, 10 AM-5 PM. Featured Exhibit 2022: Water Has a Memory: Preserving Strawbery Banke and Portsmouth from Sea Level Rise "A place to learn, a place to gather, a place to preserve."

STRAWBERYBANKE.ORG 14 Hancock Street, Portsmouth NH |603.433.1100

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 21

603 NAVIGATOR / OUR TOWN

The Seacoast Science Center at Odiorne Point State Park is one of this year’s Best of NH Editor’s Picks. Read more about it — and find more winners — starting on page 52.

1880s, wealthy families had begun to build summer “cottages” at Odiorne Point, one of which became the elegant Sagamore House, a hotel that attracted such notable figures as Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Rye’s summer colony wasn’t just at Odiorne Point. At the other end of town, the imposing mansions that still line the inland side of Ocean Boulevard are not as numerous as those at Little Boar’s Head just to the south but just as impressive.

Excursion shacks and lobster pound at Rye Harbor

22 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Almost hidden behind a pair of these is St. Andrews-by-the-Sea, one of the 10 seasonal chapels maintained by the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire. Completed in 1877, the stone church is one of two of these seasonal chapels that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (the other is Emmanuel Church in Dublin).

The stained-glass windows were designed

by John La Farge and the Tiffany studios.

Alongside Church Road, in front of the

church, is a traditional English lychgate, and the stone wall bordering the churchyard has a granite mounting block to assist ladies alighting from a carriage.

World War I and the Great Depression changed the social dynamic of the summer set, but it was World War II that left the most indelible marks on the summer estates. Their idyllic life at Odiorne Point ended abruptly in 1942, when the land was taken over by the U.S. Army to become Fort Dearborn. In December of 1941, the first battery of four guns was installed there to protect Portsmouth Harbor and the Naval Shipyard. The location provided a clear view and direct aim at any ship close enough to fire on the shipyard.

By January of 1942, all the properties were vacated and all but one torn down to make room for the gun emplacements. Route 1A was closed to traffic and barbed wire was strung along a “dead line” to prevent access from the marsh creeks. The casemates that enclosed the 16-inch M1 guns were covered with earth and planted with quick-growing vines for camouflage. You can see the mounds today at Odiorne Point State Park, some with full-grown trees on top.

Farther south along the coast, another relic of World War II remains, this one an observation tower built in 1943. One of 14 in a series

Pulpit Rock observation tower

of military defenses around Portsmouth, Pulpit Rock Tower is the only one to survive.

The 73-foot-high concrete structure has walls a foot thick and an observation platform at the top. A path leads to it from Neptune Drive, and it is occasionally open to visit; it is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Until the early 20th century, Rye Harbor was the province of fishermen and harvesters of English moss. But increasing numbers of summer visitors presented other opportunities, and today Rye Harbor is the starting point for whale-watching cruises with Granite State Whale Watch and several fishing charter operators headquartered in a row of colorful fishing shacks. Watch the boats come and go between the breakwaters from a bench or picnic table at Rye Harbor State Park.

The sea that has been so instrumental in shaping life in Rye gets its tribute at the Seacoast Science Center in Odiorne Point State Park. Dedicated to educating children and adults about the value — and vulnerability — of oceans and marine life, the center is more than touch tanks where kids can hold a starfish and pat a sea urchin. The tanks are staffed by naturalists who can show interesting characteristics such as the green eyes of a cat shark, surprise visitors with a spouting scallop, or carefully retrieve a perfect baby lobster barely three inches long.

Although the primary emphasis is on sealife in the Gulf of Maine just outside the windows, there’s an eye-grabbing display of colorful tropical fish and anemone to point

up the vulnerability of coral reefs.

Opened in June of this year is an entirely new exhibit hall called “Our Dynamic Gulf of Maine,” which is filled with interactive exhibits and teaching stations. These include “Captured in Currents,” about tropical animals that ride north on the Gulf Stream and “Coastal Invaders,” on green crabs and other invasive species. “The Lobster Trap” is all about lobsters, and “Stories of Urgency and Hope” is a video station with stories of challenges and solutions related to warming and rising seas. The center was awarded a Best of New Hampshire Editor’s Pick in 2022.

Inside the modern science center building is the only remaining summer home to survive the conversion to Fort Dearborn, the stone Sugden House. Like the other confiscated properties at Odiorne Point, the house was not returned to its owners after the war but to the state of New Hampshire. NH

Get There

NH State Parks / nhstateparks.org Granite State Whale Watch / (603) 964-5545 granitestatewhalewatch.com Seacoast Science Center / (603) 436-8043 seacoastsciencecenter.org

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 23

PHOTO BY DAVID MENDELSOHN

603 Informer

24 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Politics 26 What Do You Know? 28

New Hampshire’s Revolutionary Treasure An original copy of the Declaration of Independence is on display in Exeter

BY BONNIE MEROTH

E

xhausted from many days into nights of debate but excited about his mission, the courier stepped out into the Philadelphia heat of July 4, 1776. Clutching a document, finely carved by American advocates of freedom, he left the white-paneled rooms of the Statehouse and hurried down the familiar street to the corner print shop of John Dunlap. Church bells pealed the cry for independence as the delegate handed the paper to the 29-year-old printer who would work until dawn, committing himself to a labor of patriotic loyalty: issuing the first copies of the Declaration of Independence.

A number of those copies, known as the Dunlap Broadsides, left the print shop on the early morning of July 5. Quickly bundled, ink barely dry, they were dispatched to European capitals, the commanders of the Continental Army and to every assembly throughout the 13 colonies. Signed only by John Hancock, as president of the Second Continental Congress and Charles Thompson, as secretary, each broadside showed a final line: “PHILADELPHIA PRINTED BY JOHN DUNLAP.” Within two weeks, a copy arrived in Exeter, the Revolutionary War capital, where John Taylor Gilman read it to a gathered group. Two centuries later, in 1985, the Dunlap Broadside, as this printing is called, was found in the attic of the Ladd-Gilman house (known as Cincinnati Memorial Hall) in downtown Exeter. Today, the house is the American Independence Museum, owned by the Society of the Cincinnati of New Hampshire, a historical group whose members must have direct lineage to George Washington’s officers.

“This Dunlap Broadside is a very unique and special part of the history of our country. Only 150 to 200 replicates were printed

at the time. Fewer than 26 verified copies are in existence, and the fact that one of them resides here is something New Hampshire should celebrate,” says Sabina Ion, the content and marketing manager of the museum.

Broadsides are large single sheets of paper distinctly printed on one side with records of events, concerns and ideals quickly set in ink in the heat of the moment. Usually political, they were designed to be immediately posted or circulated. Typically, the current event was as quickly lost or forgotten. Dunlap’s broadsides of the Declaration were not forgotten and are considered extremely rare and priceless. Once rediscovered, the museum’s copy, which had luckily been protected by obscurity in the attic, was then preserved by experts.

It was first sent to the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Massachusetts. A representative of NEDCC commented that the entire broadside, totally in non-archival format, was all there, not brittle and in great condition with no typical loss of text along fold lines.

After its return from NEDCC, the 183/8-by-13½-inch document went to A Picture’s Worth, an Exeter frame shop, where the portentous project of technically framing the broadside began with a framing study for mounting, and ended with a 21-by-27-inch custom period frame of dark mahogany (it’s really almost black) with hand-rubbed gold leaf. “I was so honored to be chosen,” says Jenifer Segal, proprietor of the frame shop. “I had chills working on something so significant to this state and country. I held a document basically direct from our Founding Fathers.”

In 2014, D.R. Dimes, an 18th-century reproduction furniture maker, created the current tiger maple display wired to an elec-

tronic security unit. (The document is kept in a vault when not exhibited.)

Thomas Jefferson’s “fair copy” of his immortal Declaration of Independence, from which John Dunlap printed his broadsides, is lost, but in a rambling, yellow-clapboard history museum on a hill overlooking downtown Exeter, a Dunlap Broadside remains.

Once rolled, quickly stuffed into a saddle bag and carried by horse to New Hampshire, it is now safely preserved to tell of a time when fervent patriots sat in the heat of the Pennsylvania Statehouse in Philadelphia and arrived at the decision to declare independence. NH

The Dunlap Broadside is on display at the American Independence Museum in Exeter.

Get there

American Independence Museum 1 Governors Ln., Exeter / (603) 772-2622 independencemuseum.org Visit the museum online for a list of Revolutionary July events in historic downtown Exeter. nhmagazine.com | July 2022 25

603 INFORMER / POLITICS

Identity Crisis

A look in the political mirror raises some questions

BY JAMES PINDELL / ILLUSTRATION BY PETER NOONAN

P

olitical theorists say the last century was about ideology and that this one is about identity. This certainly sounds true for global affairs. Last century, the main discussion was about communism versus capitalism or socialism versus democracy.

This dynamic organized the world. The Cold War ended, and was followed by a backlash against globalization, causing many all over the world to try to make sense of what it means to be from a certain place.

In 2022, there are specific examples: Is Ukraine something wholly different than Russia? What is America all about and who are we as individual Americans, especially after the Covid lockdowns reoriented so much thinking?

Even on the state level, we live in an age when the definition of New Hampshire is the very thing being debated.

Before, this was mostly a proxy debate. Two sides debating, say, the state’s lack of a seat belt law could both find reasons to believe they were the ones better adhering to the state’s ethos. One side could argue not having a law is in the spirt of the Live Free or Die motto.

The other could argue the lack of a seat belt

26 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

law costs us national highway money and cuts against the entire point of the state’s tolls, lack of sales tax, highway liquor stores and cheap cigarettes aimed at gaining revenue from outside the state.

But, really, both sides were debating their own ideologies.

Now the state’s two political parties are obsessed with identity on a more visceral and personal level, but they are doing so in different campaigns.

Democrats have essentially fetishized diversity over other qualifications for elected office.

In the previous decade, Democrats could be forgiven for trying to just find candidates who looked and sounded the same as Jeanne Shaheen — their most successful politician in a generation. Indeed, 2010 was the last time Democrats nominated a straight white guy to Congress. He lost badly. But lately, the conversation has changed, and there is a reason why the discussion for any position begins with personal attributes like race, gender and sexuality before other qualities like judgment or experience and ability to win. Mind you, it could be the other way around.

In a recent conversation on Twitter, State

Rep. Matt Wilhelm, a Manchester Democrat, commented that a leading Republican state representative was pushing more anti-abortion measures ahead of what many believed would be an overturning of the landmark abortion law by the U.S. Supreme Court this summer.

As things go, it was a typical tweet.

But then State Sen. Becky Whitley, a Hopkinton Democrat, responded, “So we’re just supposed to trust male politicians as we watch state after state institute trigger laws preparing for what we all know is coming?” Wilhelm and Whitley are colleagues and both favor abortion rights, but doesn’t her identity-driven response suggest that anti-abortion Sarah Palin is somehow more to be trusted than Joe Biden simply because she is a woman?

Meanwhile, Republicans are continually at war internally about their own identity. The discussion has moved beyond questions of allegiance to Trump to suggestions that Republicans these days must display some version of a socially conversative libertarianism. Suddenly a Sununu — a name synonymous with New Hampshire Republicans — is being called a fake Republican.

Where all of this leaves everyone else in the state, who are mostly not engaged in these conversations at all, remains very unclear.

However, a state that was deeply Republican for a century before coming a swing state, then leaning Democratic and now fully run

by Republicans in Concord is definitely in the middle of a political identity crisis. NH

603 INFORMER / WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

Goodrich

Rock A terrifying place for a picnic

STORY AND PHOTOS

BY MARSHALL HUDSON

T

he ladder in front of us is terrifying.

Or is said to be. It is made of polepine logs and limbs scavenged from the nearby woods and hacked, de-barked, cobbled and spiked together by some ax-wielding pseudo carpenter. I don’t know how long it has stood here exposed to the elements and decaying. It looks precarious and rickety, so I grab ahold of it and shake it aggressively, testing its integrity and stability. It is slimy-wet and slippery. This crude ladder is about 20 feet tall and stands nearly vertical, with only a slight lean into the sheer rock face of Goodrich Rock.

Goodrich Rock is one of the largest glacial erratic boulders in New Hampshire and resides here on the east slope of Mt. Osceola in Waterville Valley. Our destination today is the very top of this immense boulder and this ladder is the only way up there.

While some hike in the White Mountains for the scenic beauty, or to enjoy trail camaraderie with friends, or just for the exercise, others do it for the challenge and sense of accomplishment. I’m in that category. Challenge hikers tend to be goal-driven outdoor enthusiasts who are often “doing a list,” and hiking a particular mountain or trail just because it appears on a goal list they are trying to accomplish. Common lists include summiting on all 48 of New Hampshire’s mountains over 4,000 feet, or bagging the “Highest 100,” seeing the “52 With a View,” or for the really committed, completing “The Grid.”

My hiking partner, Sage, and I are trying to knock out the Terrifying 25, a list of 25 hikes in the New Hampshire White Mountains that have been deemed “terrifying” by the creators of the list. The list includes hikes that have rockslides, scree scrambles, sheer drops, exposed faces, narrow ledges, boulder caves or some other challenging element that makes the intrepid hiker think twice before attempting the trail. Goodrich Rock earns its place on the terrifying list

28 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

The ladder up Goodrich Rock is made of pole-pine logs and limbs scavenged from the nearby woods.

because of this 20-foot-tall ladder of questionable integrity that must be ascended.

“Terrifying” is a subjective concept and there is no scientific way to measure how scary these hikes are, so what might be terrifyingly impossible for some could be a cakewalk for others. I once worked for an environmental engineering firm that did pollution testing of the tall smokestacks at factories and incinerators. My job included climbing these smokestacks to run tests and collect samples of the particulates and exhaust gases being emitted at the very top

of the stack. I learned to be sure-footed, and my fear of heights is subdued, so perhaps I’m not the best judge of how scary these 25 terrifying hikes really are.

Sage and I left the trailhead off of Tripoli Road and began hoofing it up the old Livermore Road, no longer a road, and then onto the Greeley Ponds Trail. For roughly the first mile, it was flat and easy going. The trail took us through a small meadow and across a footbridge over the West Branch of the Mad River before entering some pinewoods on a gently sloping gravel path.

Our hike took us through a rock scramble with a V-shaped cleft of a giant boulder split in two.

No terror here, and we wondered out loud when the “terrifying” would begin.

We came to a fork in the trail and took it, shifting off the Greeley Ponds Trail onto the Goodrich Rock Trail. No longer flat and easy, the next mile began to climb, steeply in places, and I’d call it “challenging” or “moderately difficult” but still not terrifying. We traversed through the Davis Boulders, an area of massive boulders larger than some homes. One impressive boulder is shaped like the bow and hull of a battleship. The trail then took us to a rock scramble where we passed through the cleft of a giant boulder split in two by some cosmic force. This V-shaped, narrow crevice with its tight turns might be terrifying for anyone claustrophobic, but we wriggled through it unbothered. At the two-mile mark we turned a corner and reached the infamous ladder and the moment of truth ...

I attempt it first and find it greasy-slippery but stable. Compared with climbing smokestacks this is a nonevent, and I feel a little disappointed that the hype doesn’t live up to the thrill. Near the top I pause to allow Sage to take my photo from the ground before he attempts scaling the ladder. Sage climbs up and joins me on top of the rock and I ask him if he is terrified. “No,” he says, “but I don’t need to ever do it again.”

The ladder is positioned on the upslope side of the boulder, so I step as close as I dare to the downslope side ... and peek over the edge. The drop is sheer, and it is a long way down. Fifty to 60 feet below me is a nest of fractured, jumbled granite boulders and a fall from here would ruin your day. There are no safety railings, and the sight is dizzying, so I back away from the edge, catlike. The view from the top of this rock is rewarding and includes Sandwich

Dome and the Waterville Valley ski slopes on Mt. Tecumseh.

The sun is shining, and the granite surface is warm, so Sage and I break into our rucksacks and enjoy a picnic lunch and a catnap on top of this giant scary boulder.

We now have earned one more checkmark for the “done” column in our quest to complete the Terrifying 25. There is no prize for achieving this goal other than bragging rights and a whimsical shoulder patch.

When we finish our lunch, we take one last look at the view, pack up, and prepare to head back down the ladder and make the two-mile trek back to the truck. Looking down the ladder now, it appears significantly scarier than it did from the ground looking up, but we descend without incident.

Would I describe today’s hike as terrifying?

No. I’d say it was a picnic. NH

Looking down the ladder

Enjoying the view and lunch at the top

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 29

603 INFORMER / TRANSCRIPT

Curtain Call PHOTO AND INTERVIEW BY DAVID MENDELSOHN

Gordon Clapp, a North Conway native son, owns a thick, single-spaced résumé of remarkable roles. A veteran of television, film and stage, he remains a humble and thoughtful man, walking among us without the Hollywood swagger that players of lesser talent and larger ego often affect. With glowing reviews and innumerable awards, an Emmy among them, Clapp still favors the footlights of a regional theater (and the musty smell of an old wardrobe trunk). His intimate portrayal of Robert Frost in “This Verse Business” keeps him traveling and audiences enthralled. Take a bow, Mr. Clapp ... and then another one ...

I was the second of four. I grew up in a “neighborhood” — a mix of well-off and middle-class New England stock. My parents were New Yorkers looking for a quieter venue in which to raise a family.

Conway. It was John Sayles’ first feature and it became a huge cult hit. It did far more for my career than “Running.”

I loved making people laugh. My father recognized my potential and dropped me off at the local summer theater when I was 12.

The biggest moment came when Gail O’Grady called me at 6:30 one morning to say that we had both been nominated for supporting actor Emmys for “NYPD Blue.”

At the end of the season, I begged my parents to let me cut to the chase and go to New York with the rest of the company. My dad talked me off the ledge, and 44 years later, I made my Broadway debut.

My gateway to a character is often [the] voice. A particular prop or piece of wardrobe can open a door. But I try to identify the character’s threshold of insanity, what makes him “mad”?

My real training was acting in as many plays as I could. I carry all of my experience from role to role. Every role is a learning experience. And every actor I work with is a teacher — good or bad.

I still want to get it right. There’s no such thing as a perfect round of golf. There’s always a shot that got away. I think the same shot haunts every actor.

Agents? I’ve had a few. Three in Toronto, four in New York, and three in Los Angeles. I’ve been let go by one. One retired. One stole money.

I’m not good at turning down work. Parts are rarer and often smaller for older actors. But if I don’t feel at home with the dialogue, I won’t want to meet that challenge. Good writing can lift mediocre acting — the opposite is rarely true.

The “I’ve made it!” moment has happened a few times: my first Equity contract at the Neptune Theatre in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

My first film role in “Running” with Michael Douglas.

Ironically, I had a role in a low-budget feature at the same time. It was titled “Return of the Secacus Seven,” and was filmed in North

Hollywood is a bit like Vegas. The only reason I went there was to hit the jackpot. I’m a Nordic soul. I missed the seasons. It’s hard to believe I was there for 25 years.

I would have to say that my favorite role is that of Robert Frost.

His voice and his manner come easily to me.

COURTESY PHOTO

Becoming Robert Frost in “This Verse Business”

Clapp says his one-man show on Robert Frost came out of “a 40-year itch to bring my favorite poet to the stage.” His “obsession” with Frost began in high school when assigned Frost’s dark poem “Out, Out —”. “When I went away to boarding school, I took Frost with me and he brought me home,” says Clapp. He read the three-volume biography of Frost

by Lawrence Thompson. (“It was riveting. Detailed but harsh.”) He listened to recordings of Frost’s talks. “That was a voice I knew,” he says. “I promised myself I would do something with it once I could feel comfortable as the older Frost. Eventually, a script “fell into my lap”,” he says, and he began work on it with playwright A.M. Dolan. Over the course of two years, they pulled together a “skeletal” performance of what would become “Robert Frost: This Verse Business.”

In 2010, Peterborough Players staged the first full production under the direction of Gus Kaikkonen. Then came bookings in regional theaters, colleges, town halls, church basements, pubs and living rooms. “We won Best Production at New York’s 2013 Solo Festival,” says Clapp. “There’s no fourth wall. I arrive on stage and greet the audience. I survey the faces in the first few rows and I find the two or three kindred spirits who will help me through the night. It never fails.”

CREDITS: Thanks to the following members of the Peterborough Players (on whose stage the photo on the previous page was taken): Beth Brown, advancement director; Tom Frey, artistic director; Bridget Beirne, marketing director; and Keith Stevens, managing director. GO ONLINE for the complete text of our fascinating interview with Gordon Clapp. nhmagazine.com | July 2022 31

GUIDE TO RETIREMENT LIVING

ASK THE

Experts We reached out to some retirement community administrators to learn about what they have to offer and to help soon-to-be retirees ask the right questions as they enter this next stage of life.

As New Hampshire Baby Boomers approach retirement age, one of the most important decisions they have to make is where and how they want to live when they are ready to transition from home to a retirement community.

Shannon Lynch

Dina Finos

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR THE MORRISON COMMUNITIES, THEMORRISONCOMMUNITIES.ORG

DIRECTOR OF ADMISSIONS TAYLOR COMMUNITY TAYLORCOMMUNITY.ORG

Tammy Stevens

Noeline Alberts

DIRECTOR OF ADMISSIONS TAYLOR COMMUNITY TAYLORCOMMUNITY.ORG

REGIONAL DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS BENCHMARK SENIOR LIVING BENCHMARKSENIORLIVING.COM

Summit by Morrison THEMORRISONCOMMUNITIES.ORG

Q A

Q A

Q A

What’s your No. 1 tip for the moving process?

Start downsizing before you are ready to move to make this process much easier. Try the “snowball effect:” start with a small, easy to manage project, such organizing a closet. As you go along you will gain momentum.

If you need help, consider enlisting a professional organizer or downsizer to help you sort through your possessions.

Their neutral stance and expertise will be extremely helpful when trying to decide what to keep, sell or donate.

Q A

What’s something unique about your community?

Summit by Morrison is located in the beautiful countryside of Northern New Hampshire, yet still close to

32

New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

VICE PRESIDENT SALES & MARKETING, SILVERSTONE LIVING SILVERSTONELIVING.ORG

Cathleen Toomey

VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING RIVERWOODS GROUP RIVERWOODSDURHAM.ORG

cultural opportunities, shopping, dining, and medical services. If you are looking for a smaller retirement community with a family-like environment with easy access to outdoor pursuits, such as hiking, fishing, kayaking, and skiing, we are an excellent fit.

Q A

What’s the most important thing about your community?

Summit by Morrison, one of two campuses that comprise The Morrison Communities, offers a wide variety of care. Residents can start in our Independent Living community and transition to higher levels of care, including assisted living, memory care, or long-term care at our skilled nursing facility — even complete a rehab stay if needed. Having multiple levels of care available allows for easier transitions as housing or healthcare needs change over time.

Judy A. Franseen

When should someone start their retirement research?

We recommend researching retirement communities long before you plan on retiring. Being proactive rather than reactive will allow you to be in charge of the decision-making process while still allowing for the input of family and friends — if you choose to have others involved.

You will also find that you will have more options by planning a head, including joining wait lists. Some wait lists may be years long; joining these early increases your chances of a timeframe that works for you.

What are some benefits to living in your community?

We have two campuses: Summit by Morrison and The Morrison Skilled Nursing Facility — home of Sartwell Place Assisted Living. Between the two, we offer a wide array of services, including independent living, assisted living, memory care, short- and long-term stays, respite care, and skilled rehab stays. We are also known for our dementia care and education. We have a 12-unit secure memory care community that also provides a memory care Day Program, and all staff at both campuses receive habilitation training. ­— Shannon Lynch, Executive Director

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GUIDE TO RETIREMENT LIVING

Taylor Community TAYLORCOMMUNITY.ORG

Q

What’s the most important thing to know about your community?

A

Taylor Community is the only premiere nonprofit Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) in the beautiful Lakes Region, with locations in both Laconia and Wolfeboro. We take great pride in ensuring that our residents not only have access to maintenancefree, worry-free living year-round, but also have a vibrant and supportive community to call home. While we recognize that establishing a plan for your future care is essential, we believe that it’s important that our residents remain in control of these big decisions. In turn, we are dedicated to working with you on finding what will best fit your personal wants and needs, so that you not only live in your dream residence but also in your ideal community. Living at Taylor means joining a community that is filled with like-minded people who are excited to get to know you and welcome you home.

No matter what part of the continuum a resident resides in, at Taylor we ensure that access to cultural experiences, resident life programming, resident-led groups, wellness opportunities, and incredible dining options is part of the everyday experience.

Q

Q

What’s something unique about your community?

A

Taylor is an incredibly friendly and welcoming place to be. One resident recently shared with us, ‘At Taylor, you may be new, but you’re never a stranger.’

We feel that this is one of the most important aspects of feeling like you are home. No matter what campus location you choose, you will find friends who are excited to welcome you into the community and staff who are always working to create an exceptional experience. We combine a down-to-earth atmosphere with outstanding quality and service. Plus, all our communities are in beautiful parts of the Lakes Region, so it really does come down to what place you feel will fit you best based on your individual lifestyle. And, if you’re eager to have a plan in place but not immediately ready to move, Taylor provides an option for that too.

— Tammy Stevens, Director of Admissions What key things should someone research when considering moving to a retirement community?

A

Making the move to a retirement community is a big decision, so I’d suggest starting the research process early to give appropriate time to decide what

move is right for you. While we recognize that the cost and the financial details are important to consider, it is equally important to think about what your life will be like while living in the community. Whether you are looking for a community that is active, vibrant, and engaging, relaxing or secure, it’s important to know what you’re personally seeking out of your dream retirement.

Thankfully, here at Taylor, we have campus locations in both Laconia and Wolfeboro, which provide options that will fit just about any lifestyle and personal preferences.

We recognize that all CCRC’s have their own unique feel and personality, so we always suggest coming to visit our campuses to see which location is the right fit for you.

Getting a chance to meet our friendly and welcoming residents and staff is a great way to get a feel first-hand of what your life would be like in our community.

Q

What kind of cultural and enrichment opportunities do you offer?

A

Taylor Community is far more than a place to live, it’s a place to pursue your passions, hobbies, and cultivate what makes you — YOU. When looking into the perfect place to retire, it’s important to find a community that allows you to thrive doing what you have always loved to do. Whether you find meaning and joy through physical fitness opportunities, trips to exciting new places, live music events, clubs focused on common interests, informational lectures, social gatherings to see friends, or even time reading alone in the library — we provide avenues for you to enjoy your favorite things in life. Plus, our current expansion in Wolfeboro including our new state-of-the-art Recreation and Aquatic Center, pub, and finely appointed library, will provide residents with even more opportunities to take part in programming, lectures, socials, fitness classes, and more. You can find a place to reside anywhere, but you can’t find a community as active and as active and vibrant as ours — that’s what makes Taylor so special.

— Dina Finos, Director of Admissions

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 33

ASK THE EXPERTS :

Benchmark Senior Living Q A

QA

Q

QA

BENCHMARKSENIORLIVING.COM

What is the most important thing about your community?

Benchmark’s six assisted living and Mind & Memory Care communities in Bedford, Concord, Nashua, Rye and Salem transform lives through human connection.

Our associates are hired for heart and trained for skill. We focus heavily on our associates’ wellness and overall satisfaction because those who love their work provide compassionate, personalized care in their pursuit of excellence.

We see this every day in the quality experiences and loving interactions that occur in our communities!

What should someone look for in a retirement community?

People who are searching for a senior living community should look at three key things. First, they should look at staff longevity and company satisfaction. Is there constant turnover that could affect care? Are there company surveys or other data that exist to gauge how happy associates are? Second, people should look at how engaged residents are in the community. Are most residents actively engaged in events and interacting with associates and their fellow residents? Finally, searchers should look at what programs the community offers on a daily basis and how

A

Silverstone Living SILVERSTONELIVING.ORG

Q A

Tell us the most important thing about your communities.

Choices. Silverstone Living offers three very distinctive living options for seniors 62 and better.

We are 501c3, not-for-profit organizations and have been financially stable for over 127 years.

Hunt Community is the premier Life Plan Community in the State of New Hampshire. Founded in 1895, it is located on 16 landscaped acres near downtown Nashua.

Close to shopping, dining, and entertainment, the campus features renovated common space and many newly renovated apartment homes to suit varying lifestyles.

The Huntington at Nashua is a gorgeous, suburban Life Plan Community for active, independent adults, with modern apartments and bright, open-concept cottage homes on 55 acres of rolling, tree-lined ridges.

At Home By Hunt is a revolutionary Continuing Care at Home program for NH residents who want to remain in their own homes for the rest of their lives. At Home By Hunt provides a wellness driven, long-term care program for active adults who wish to establish a plan for their later years, with access to a total continuum of care that keeps them in the home they love.

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GUIDE TO RETIREMENT LIVING

New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

their programming is determined. Does the community’s offerings match resident interests and are they designed to foster quality interactions amongst community members?

What’s your No. 1 tip for the moving process?

Having a plan in place is critical! Most people are downsizing from a home or apartment they’ve been in for a long time. It’s important that they feel at home from day one. A good community will connect them with experts who can provide downsizing assistance. They will also put a plan in place, so new residents feel welcomed by the things they love and are surrounded by friends. At Benchmark communities, we offer a Something in Common program that identifies each resident’s interests and connects them with others who share those values.

What’s something unique about your community?

While our communities offer many great amenities like chef-prepared meals served indoors and out, many hotel-like common areas and concierge services, it’s the people who make them special. We hear daily how positive, welcoming and different the energy in our communities is.

Many of our staff have been with us for years, even decades.

Our associates and residents are like family to one another and are invested in each other’s well-being. Our associates have tremendous love and expertise in caring for older adults, and it genuinely shows. ­— Noeline Alberts, Regional Director of Operations

Q

What kind of cultural and enrichment opportunities do you offer?

You name it and we are willing to give it a try. We offer HED talks (think TED talks) on a weekly basis with interesting topics to learn about from the filming of The Wizard of Oz to the Ottoman Empire. Stimulate your brain in our Philosopher’s Zone or the Rough Writer’s group. Join us for our robust exercise classes — Zengevity is a favorite for residents! Work out in the Fitness Center, go for a swim, join the hiking group, or participate in the plethora of options we have in our communities.

A

QA

What’s your No. 1 tip for the moving process?

Ask yourself what’s most important and then put yourself in a situation and mindset that allows for that. In many ways, rightsizing is like downsizing because you’re typically reducing your space or material possessions until you’re left with the most important elements in your life. The mindset behind rightsizing is more positive, however. It gives you the freedom to choose the right time and the right amount of changes.

For retirees, rightsizing can be a more positive way to make life changes, such as deciding to move into a retirement community that offers you simplicity and convenience. This can be less about the size of your home and more about the value you get from where you live. ­— Judy A. Franseen, Vice President Sales & Marketing

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RiverWoods Group RIVERWOODSGROUP.ORG

C

ongratulations. If you are reading this, you may be considering a Life Plan Community (CCRC) for yourself or a loved one.

Q

Q

What are some of the key benefits of choosing a Life Plan Community?

At RiverWoods, our residents often comment they wish they’d made the move sooner because life really is better in community. In addition to the services and amenities offered at every level, residents benefit from increased social opportunities.

Research shows the importance of good relationships time and time again. RiverWoods Group is the largest family of CCRCs in northern New England, with locations in Exeter, Manchester and Durham.

A

What’s the most important thing to know about your communities?

A

RiverWoods are not-for-profit Life Plan Communities (CCRCs), which means we are an insurance product. You move while you are still independent and able to live safely on your own (age 62 or better). As an independent resident, you enjoy meals, housekeeping services, social and fitness opportunities, complimentary transportation, planned outings and even home maintenance. As a resident, if your health needs ever change, you have access to enhanced levels of health care like assisted living, memory support or nursing care. These are provided in the same community for a fraction of the market rate, and you are cared for by people who know you. Taking the time to learn about CCRCs is an important step before you finalize your plans for a possible retirement move.

Q

How can I better understand the financial strength of a system of communities, like RiverWoods?

First, ask to speak with the Director of Finance or Chief Financial Officer and inquire about these key factors to help evaluate financial standing.

1. What is the occupancy rate?

2. Does the community post their financials on their website?

3. Is the community investing in their infrastructure for the future?

4. Is there resident representation on the board?

5. What is the contract type offered?

A Life Plan community means you choose to stay in control of your future health care needs and make a smart financial decision while living the life you love.

We invite you to schedule a tour, today.

A

— Cathleen Toomey, Vice President of Marketing The RiverWoods Group, with locations in Exeter, Manchester and Durham

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 35

36 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

PHOTO BY TAKO BURITO PHOTOGRAPHY

Le av e t h e r o a d s b eh in d a n dn s ex pa n d yo u r cyc li n g h o r iz o

By Brion O’Connor

like the same old thing,” says Pare, 49. “I found gravel during Covid. I was one of the lucky ones, and bought my gravel bike when the sky was falling during the spring of 2020. During that crazy year, when I really didn’t want to ride next to strangers on crowded mountain bike trails, the gravel bike opened whole new areas of New Hampshire I had never been to.”

Mountain bikes and gravel rigs address another grim truth of cycling: Road riding isn’t getting any safer. In the decade between 2009 and 2018, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports cycling fatalities across the country rose steadily from 628 to 857. In 2020, bicyclist fatalities jumped to 938 (a 9.2% increase over 2019) and almost 39,000 cyclists were injured, reports the NHTSA. In the New Hampshire Injury Lawyer Blog, Peter Thompson & Associates wrote: “There were 113 bicycle accidents in 2020, and as of July 2021, New Hampshire reported 77 bike accidents. Moreover, New Hampshire motor vehicle accidents are on the rise.”

Those statistics are a constant concern for road enthusiasts, especially since “near misses” and countless incidents of harassment aren’t included. Though the majority of cycling fatalities take place in “urban

Ethan Lemieux (above), a nurse from Silver Lake, and his wife, Laura (pictured at right), belong to the merry band of trailbuilders at the Ride NoCo club that make sure mountain bikers have plenty of outstanding trails to ride in the Mount Washington Valley.

38 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

PHOTOS COURTESY RIDE NOCO

W

hen the pandemic hit in March of 2020, many of us found ourselves reliving some of our earliest memories. We were told what we could do, where we could go, and who we could be with, often for our own good.

With gathering spots like gyms and fitness centers shut down, thousands rushed outside. Many rushed to their local bike shops.

The ensuing sensations weren’t a revelation as much as a rekindling of a love affair that we first experienced in grade school.

Bicycles meant independence, the ability to roam freely. To create adventures.

“Riding off-road brings me back to my childhood. It’s what we did,” says Justin Pare, a manufacturing engineering manager in the aerospace industry. “We would gather together while our parents still slept and hit the trails on weekends.”

Pare, a Goffstown native, is a longtime mountain biker and serves on the leadership team of the central New Hampshire chapter of the New England Mountain Bike Association (nemba.org). During the pandemic, however, he added a new steed to his stable — a gravel bike.

“I still love the adrenalin rush of mountain biking, yet at times the trails can feel

tain bike un mo e th , s 80 19 e th in e nc ge er em s Since it all bicycle. t-i do e th of rd da an st ld go e th has been ension, these Equipped with front and rear susp particularly r no te el sv be t no y ma gs ri ed gg ru d roots an s ck ro le nd ha n ca ey th t bu , dy spee . and other obstacles on the trails

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 39

areas” (according to the NHTSA), the reality is this: New Hampshire, like most New England states, has a road network that is largely made up of glorified cowpaths that were eventually paved over. Roads are narrow and often winding, with little shoulder space. Many are in disrepair. Now add eight-passenger SUVs and other large vehicles, plus an epidemic of distracted drivers, and the risk of collision feels ever-present (despite New Hampshire’s well-intentioned hands-free phone laws).

The solution for many was to opt for dirt trails and gravel roads. That’s led to a renewed popularity in mountain bikes and cycling’s newest iteration, the gravel bike.

The mountain bike, since its emergence in the 1980s, has been the gold standard of the do-it-all bicycle, a rig that can go anywhere over almost any terrain. With the addition of front and rear suspension, these rugged bikes may not be svelte nor particularly speedy, but they’re capable of handling rocks and roots and other obstacles on the trails.

Ethan Lemieux, a 40-year-old nurse from Silver Lake who serves on the board of Ride NoCo (ridenoco.org), a mountain bike club based in North Conway, says he’s a “mountain biker through and through.”

A native of Rhode Island, Lemieux started cycling off-road early, which fostered a sense of freedom.

“I’m old enough to not have had heliThe Kearsarge Klassic, which began in 2012, is not timed, nor is it a race.

Organizers say that any prepared rider on a gravel bike can finish the event. grvl.net/kearsarge-klassic

40 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Gravel riding is popular with women too. Here’s some of the “no-drop” crew at the Kearsarge Klassic start line.

copter parents, so my mountain bike was a means to travel and explore,” he says. “We had power-line trails just down the road from our house, where I would spend hours almost every day riding far from home.

I could travel all over town on the trails leaving the power lines. These rocky mazes of trails built by 4-wheelers and dirt bikes fueled my need for adventure.”

Gravel bikes, meanwhile, may be the original back-to-the-future design. Considered the sport’s latest evolutionary trend, gravel bikes look remarkably similar to the stout rigs employed by members of the Army’s segregated 25th Infantry — the Buffalo

Soldiers — as they pedaled almost 2,000 miles from Missoula, Montana, to St. Louis, Missouri, more than 120 years ago.

Glen’s Marianne Borowski, the driving force behind the Cross New Hampshire Adventure Bike Trail (xnhat.org), agrees the recent emergence of gravel bike design is misleading, since she’s been pedaling one for two decades.

“My partner, Tom Matchak, is a frame builder,” says Borowski. “He has built bikes since the early 2000s that had the capability to fit wider tires. He called them ‘all-road’ bikes, for biking on a variety of surfaces that we get up here in New Hampshire

PHOTOS BY DUSTIN MARSHALL PHOTOGRAPHY

The after-party — like this one at the Kearsarge Klassic — is a popular rider amenity, providing food, drink and merriment. This year’s event is on August 6.

and what we have seen all over the United States — good pavement, bad pavement, cracked pavement, dirt, cinder, gravel, sand,” she explains.

“The comfort of the ride was improved by the wider tires and lower air pressure required by these tires, the added stability and the ability to cruise through the variety of surfaces,” she adds. “Up here, the dirt roads and the rail trails are fun. A mountain bike works but is overkill on the mixed surface roadways and rail trails and sluggish on the pavement. These all-road bikes were light and responsive, yet sure-footed.”

Today’s gravel bikes are engineering marvels, with lightweight frames and more relaxed geometry for improved positioning, disc brakes and expansive gearing that help make even the steepest climbs manageable.

The tires are considerably wider (typically running between 35 and 42 millimeters wide, compared to 23-28 millimeters for a dedicated road bike) with a rippled tread to provide better traction but can carry enough air pressure to reduce rolling

resistance on asphalt or smooth dirt.

“Mountain biking is about adrenaline and gravity. Pushing your limits on climbs and the technical descents is challenging and fun,” says Dee Cleary of Auburn, who has been pedaling for close to four decades.

“Gravel riding is a true adventure but on a more local scale than cycle touring. It’s fun to seek out class 6 roads, Jeep tracks and ATV trails to try to do a big loop. Sometimes you never know where you’ll end up.”

Of course, any adventure brings the potential for misadventure, and riding off-road requires a certain level of dexterity when it comes to bike maintenance and repair. Since stranded riders can’t simply flag down passing motorists or call for a vehicle assist, self-reliance is key. The basics include being able to repair a flat tire, broken chain or faulty brakes. Spare tubes (even if you’re running tubeless tires), a pump and/or CO2 cartridges and a tool wallet are essential.

Bring plenty of water or energy drinks and food, such as fresh fruit or energy bars.

A GPS, and knowing how to use it, is a nhmagazine.com | July 2022 41

big plus. Because, at its core, gravel riding is about taking the road less traveled.

“I got into gravel riding maybe five or six years ago,” says Matthew Sheldon, a carpenter who operates Brown Dog Bike Tours (browndogtours.com), which hosts rides in the southwestern and western portions of the state. “I’ve always done a fair amount of road riding as a way to keep my fitness level up. But with cell phones and the hate bikers get from drivers, it’s definitely gotten less and less safe,” he says.

“I live in a place with more dirt roads than paved, and the old track bike that I use as my road bike is definitely not suited for the dirt,” adds Sheldon. “There’s so much to be said about gravel riding. For one you can go out and crush smooth dirt roads to up your fitness level, but there are barely any cars out there. And the dirt roads usually slow them down when there are.”

But that, he says, is just the tip of the gravel-riding iceberg. Given their extraordinary versatility, gravel bikes open up a tremendous variety of terrain to riders.

Even areas known as mountain bike hot spots like Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown and Green Woodlands Foundation in Dorchester have trails that can be ridden aboard a gravel bike. In the hands of a capable rider, the gravel bike’s larger wheels and beefier tires can tame almost all but the most technical routes.

“For me, gravel bikes brought back that feeling of freedom, adventure and exploration that started it all,” says Sheldon. “These bikes feel like they can go anywhere, and it brought me back to being a little kid. I get to head out and really explore my town, take random roads without a clue of where they go, and if I happen to pass a trailhead or old closed road, I can just take it. It’s awesome.”

The state’s labyrinth of rail trails offers more than 300 miles of converted routes that permit stress-free, if a tad predictable, cycling. After all, train routes were built relatively straight and flat, with little elevation change to ensure efficient travel. The New Hampshire Rail Trails Coalition (nhrtc.org) and the national Rails to Trails Conservancy (railstotrails.org) are good clearinghouses of information on these routes, many of which intersect state parks, and the New Hampshire State Parks office offers dozens of detailed rail trail maps (nhstateparks.org).

Favorites routes include the 18-mile Presidential Range Rail Trail in Coös County, the Northern Rail Trail that covers almost 60 miles across Merrimack and Grafton counties, the 30-mile Cheshire Rail Trail in the state’s southwestern corner, and the 28-mile Rockingham Recreational Rail Trail that runs from Manchester east toward Epping. Often, you can combine routes for a longer ride, such as the Derry Rail Trail, the Windham Rail Trail and the Salem Bike-

Matthew Sheldon at the Arrowhead Recreation Center in Claremont

42 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Ped Corridor. Eventually, New Hampshire is expected to host a major portion of the New England Rail-Trail Spine Network, an ambitious project of the Rails to Trails Conservancy that will connect all six New England states and New York.

There are also options that combine a number of different routes to provide a true mixed-terrain experience. One of the best is the Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail.

The 83-mile route traverses nine northern communities from Vermont to Bethel, Maine, linking the Ammonoosuc Rail Trail and the Presidential Rail Trail to recreation pathways like the Littleton Riverwalk and Bethel Pathway.

“If I introduced the Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail 12 years ago, or maybe even seven years ago, I wouldn’t have gotten the enthusiasm and really positive responses from cyclists who have ridden it,” says Borowski, a retired chemist. “This whole gravel movement has opened the possibilities of enjoying dirt roads and mixed-terrain cycling. The busy roads, traffic and distracted drivers are likely causing many cyclists to try the quieter-but-rougher backroads and trails.”

Looking to get started? Perhaps the best place to learn about bikes and routes is your local bike shop. In fact, most riders build relationships with favorite shops. Pare is partial to S&W Sports in Concord, while Cleary is a faithful patron of DG Cycle Sports in Epping and Sheldon is a fan of The Wheelhouse in Claremont.

“Any good shop owner or worker is there because they love the sport,” says Sheldon.

“They can probably help you find a good deal on a bike even if it’s not coming from the shop, as well as good places to ride or people to ride with.”

The New England Mountain Bike Association (nemba.org) has seven chapters in New Hampshire, including central New Hampshire, the Seacoast, Franconia and Brattleboro-Keene. There are also “independent” local clubs, such as the Coös Cycling Club (cooscyclingclub.org), the Wolfeboro Singletrack Alliance (wolfeborosingletrack.org), the Central New Hampshire Bicycling Coalition (cnhbc.org), the Monadnock Cycling Club (monadnockcyclingclub. com) and the Upper Valley Mountain Bike Association (uvmba.org). Don’t be bashful.

“The more, the merrier” is a common theme among these organizations, and riding with others is a fast and easy way to improve your own skill set.

“NEMBA is a great group to belong to,”

A GPS, and knowing how to use it, is a bi g pl us . Be ca us e, at its core, this kind of riding is about taking the road less traveled.

PHOTOS COURTESY MATTHEW SHELDON

A hardtail mountain bike marks a lovely dismount spot atop a waterfall on the Monadnock to Metacomet Trail.

says Cleary. “They hold regular rides that members can join and are very welcoming to newcomers. There’s always an appointed lead and sweep, so nobody is ever left behind.

If there are slower or faster riders, they sometimes split up so everyone has a good experience.”

You can also find many of these organizations on Facebook, as well as other groups, such as the New Hampshire Rail Trails Challenge, NH Gravel, and Northeast Gravel Rides, that can introduce you to like-minded riders.

“Organized group rides are a great way to learn the area,” says Sheldon. “Trail systems can be confusing and usually aren’t well marked, so it’s great to have a guide. It takes that one aspect out of the thought process so you can focus on the riding.

Each Thursday, Brown Dog Bike Tours organizes a free gravel group ride out of Outlaw Brewing Company in Winchester.

“Anyone is welcome,” says Sheldon. “We always have a route planned that can be adjusted to whoever shows up, but it will include

some great dirt roads, some fun class 6 roads and some good climbing. We try to keep the pace comfortable for the group and do about 20 to 30 miles on average. Then we finish it up with some great food and drinks at the brewery.”

Want more company? Larger, organized events are rolling block parties that can introduce riders to new routes in a supported, inclusive atmosphere. Arlon Chaffee of GRVL Cycling puts on rides like the Raid Rockingham (one of the original New England gravel grinders) in June and Kearsarge Klassic in August that draw hundreds of gravel enthusiasts.

“If you can ride a bike, you can ride a gravel bike. Start on a rail trail or a well-managed dirt road you know,” says Chaffee, another Goffstown native. “Look for flatter terrain, then add elevation and distance. The biggest tip is to be careful on descents, keep within your abilities while building confidence.”

To build your confidence level, Chaffee

suggests an organized gravel ride that offers a shorter distance — 25 to 35 miles — and to bring along some of your friends. “It’s easier when you support each other,” he says.

Likewise, Sheldon’s Brown Dog Bike Tours offers a number of larger events, including the Dirty Roads tour in June, the epic 100mile Rabid Dog ride in July, the Round the Mountain loop in August and the Brown Dog gravel grinder (with 35- and 60-mile options) in October.

“My advice to anyone looking to get into the sport is to just do it. Get out there and try it all.

Expect a bit of crashing here and there, but it’s all part of the adventure,” says Sheldon.

“The most important thing is to remember that you are always in control of the speed,” he adds. “I have two young girls who love to ride, and I always tell them, ‘If something looks scary, just slow down or even stop and pick your line.’ It might be hard, but the only way to get better is by doing it.” NH nhmagazine.com | July 2022 43

44 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

The M/S MOUNT WASHINGTON at

PHOTO COURTESY M/S MOUNT WASHINGTON

m•n

Celebrating the grand dame of Winnipesaukee, through good times and bad

By Robert Cook nhmagazine.com | July 2022 45

The incredible beauty of Lake Winnipesaukee, named for the Native American word meaning “smile of the great spirit,” is another reason for the Mount Washington’s staying power.

T

he M/S Mount Washington’s horn blasted through the air as Captain Paul Smith and his crew piloted her away from its Weirs Beach dock and embarked on its annual “Shakedown Cruise.”

The ship’s diesel engines operated with mechanical poise as they powered up the vessel the way they have for decades.

It was just a few days before Mother’s Day weekend when New Hampshire’s most famous boat was scheduled to take out its first full complement of guests for the Mother’s Day Brunch cruise on that Sunday.

After weeks of preparation, the decks were adorned with red, white and blue bunting, the windows and the wheelhouse radiated the natural light and warmth delivered by a picture-perfect spring day that blessed the man-made sheen onboard.

“After being separated and siloed, it was great to be together again,” says Jared Maraio, director of sales and marketing for Mount Washington Cruises.

46 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Accompanying Smith on the inaugural cruise were fellow captains Jim Morash, Robert Duffey and Robert Amann.

The crowd that had gathered on the Weirs Beach docks cheered and applauded as the M/S Mount Washington and her invited guests headed out. Every shakedown cruise is special because it marks the beginning of another summer and fall tourism season. The 2022 cruise was accompanied by more excitement and fanfare than usual.

This summer, the M/S Mount Washington marks its 150th anniversary of delighting passengers with idyllic cruises around Lake Winnipesaukee and its 72 islands.

The official anniversary celebration cruise will be held on August 12, the day the current Mount Washington vessel was launched, and each of her four decks will feature live music, hors d’oeuvres, signature drinks, champagne, photo ops, limited-edition souvenirs and pride in this great accomplishment.

“There will be a number of people who have been with us for many years and we want them to be able to share stories. I

think it will be something that will be very special,” Maraio says.

Since the M/S Mount Washington was relaunched in the mid-1940s, she has entertained tourists and residents alike with dinner dance cruises, wedding receptions, graduation parties, high school proms and corporate events.

Maintaining those traditions is a big part of the Mount Washington’s success. A day before the Mother’s Day Brunch cruise, Maraio said the ship cruised into Wolfeboro to pick up the Kingswood High School Class of 2022 for their prom. He said it marked the first official visit of the season to the Lake Winnipesaukee town, and the students and community members cheered as the Mount Washington made its way into port.

“We’re woven into the cultural fabric of these communities in a number of ways,” Maraio notes.

“The 150th anniversary not only marks a milestone for a historic ship, it’s also a chance to celebrate a return to the traditional Lake Winnipesaukee summer season,” Morash says. “The ship has endured for generations, in good times and bad, and we’re excited

PHOTOS COURTESY M/S MOUNT WASHINGTON

Lake Winnipesaukee is surrounded by three mountain ranges and is 504 feet above sea level.

The lake is approximately 25 miles long, 15 miles wide and covers 72 square miles.

This summer, the M/S Mount Washington marks its 150th anniversary of delighting passengers with idyllic cruises around Lake Winnipesaukee and its 72 islands.

The M/S Mount Washington has five ports of call: Weirs Beach, where it is headquartered, Meredith, Center Harbor, Alton Bay and Wolfeboro.

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 47

The current M/S Mount Washington that cruises Lake Winnipesaukee is actually the second ship to bear the name.

Above: The crew on the dock in 1909 At right: The original ship was a wooden side-wheeler built in 1872.

48 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

to its signature vessel, the cruise ship company’s fleet added the Winnipesaukee Spirit in 2021 to provide another great party boat option in a sleek, modern pleasure craft.

She joins the M/V Sophie C, the oldest floating post office in the U.S., and the M/V Doris E, which takes passengers on shorter scenic cruises to the islands near the Weirs and Meredith.

Secret of Success When asked why the M/S Mount Washington has stood the test of time and enjoys such great success, Maraio points to the generations of people who have supported her.

Although this is a seasonal business, Maraio says they have loyal employees who return year after year. In some cases, they have employees who have worked onboard ship for as many as 30 years.

Maraio is one of them.

He recalls how he used to spend summers on the lake at his grandmother’s house in Meredith when he first worked on the ship in 2002. He left for a time to gain more experience in his profession before returning to the Mount Washington in 2019. Even when he was gone, Maraio believes his connection “never really went away.”

This year, Maraio is marking his 20th anniversary with the ship.

Its not only Maraio who has a lengthy history with the ship. Just recently, Kevin Pettengill was promoted to captain, following in his father’s footsteps. Members of the Pettingill family have worked on the ship for many years. The Morash and Welch families have also worked for the ship as captains and

crew members. Ryan Welch, a deck hand, is working toward his goal of becoming a captain, a post that his father, Harry, and grandfather have previously held.

Maraio explains that ever since the Mount Washington conducted its first voyage on Lake Winnipesaukee, scores of local residents have tirelessly worked to preserve the vessel and its rich history.

The Mount Washington also symbolizes New Hampshire’s penchant for perseverance, resilience and community connection, Maraio says.

Besides the recent pandemic, the ship has also endured two world wars, the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, a devastating fire and economic turmoil, Maraio points out.

“The Mount Washington was launched

PHOTOS COURTESY M/S MOUNT WASHINGTON

to see her again be a place where people come to gather, unwind and enjoy our beautiful lake.”

From the time the Mount Washington sets sail on its Mother’s Day cruise in May through Columbus Day weekend, she maintains a constant presence on Lake Winnipesaukee for boaters and beachgoers alike.

When she cruises with the White Mountains to the north as her backdrop, there are few other images that are quite as magical and enduring. Generations of New Hampshire residents and visitors have enjoyed everything she has to offer.

The 230-foot grand dame of Winnipesaukee accommodates up to 1,000 passengers.

The ship has a banquet capacity of up to 500 guests and 1,000 for receptions. She also sports three dance floors, full bar service and a gift shop.

The M/S Mount Washington also has six captains, including Morash, who serves as the cruise ship company’s general manager and chief operating officer.

The M/S Mount Washington also serves as a bridge that connects today’s visitors and residents to the rich history of this summer resort. Lake Winnipesaukee and the Mount Washington — the two are forever linked to cherished memories of this special place. It continues to serve as one of the Granite State’s most iconic ambassadors after previous symbols like the Old Man of the Mountain passed into history nearly 20 years ago.

What makes this anniversary even sweeter is how the company, which is headquartered at Weirs Beach in Laconia, has not only weathered the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s actually bigger and better than ever. In addition

prior to telephones and before there were roads that connected the communities around Winnipesaukee,” Maraio says. The ship serves that purpose now by creating emotional connections for the people it brings together.

The incredible beauty of Lake Winnipesaukee, named for the Native American word meaning “smile of the great spirit,” is another reason for the Mount Washington’s staying power. New Hampshire’s largest lake was formed by a glacier and is springfed. The lake is surrounded by three mountain ranges and is 504 feet above sea level. It’s approximately 25 miles long, 15 miles wide and covers 72 square miles.

The M/S Mount Washington has five ports of call: Weirs Beach, where it is head-

quartered, Meredith, Center Harbor, Alton Bay and Wolfeboro. It visits those ports with a regular daily schedule. Area residents and visitors never grow weary of seeing their favorite vessel cruise by.

A Storied Past What many people probably don’t realize is the current M/S Mount Washington that cruises Lake Winnipesaukee is actually the second ship to bear the name.

The S.S. Mount Washington was first introduced to the Big Lake in 1872. According to Mount Washington Cruises, the original ship was a wooden side-wheeler, 178 feet in length with a beam of 49 feet. Known as the “Old Mount,” the vessel was built and

launched in 1872 by the Boston & Maine Railroad to transport travelers and cargo from one side of the lake to the other.

The S.S. Mount Washington was not alone. During the late 1800s, several steamships operated on Lake Winnipesaukee.

But the original Mount Washington was the largest and fastest vessel. By the end of the century, she was transporting 60,000 passengers a year.

During the early 20th century, automobiles became more dominant than rail transportation, and the S.S. Mount Washington became a tourist attraction. She was purchased by Leander Lavallee, who was also her captain. She continued to serve as many as 60,000 passengers a year on leisurely cruises. The B&M Railroad also continued nhmagazine.com | July 2022 49

to transport visitors and vacationers to Weirs Beach, which included a large railroad station, dance hall and grand Victorianstyle hotel.

Fire and Rebirth Weirs Beach and the first S.S. Mount Washington fell victim to two devastating fires that threatened to take down the bustling tourism industry. The first blaze occurred in 1924 and destroyed Hotel Weirs, a grand hotel. The second fire in 1939 claimed the S.S. Mount Washington.

The ship was berthed in shallow water in December after completing another successful tourism season when a fire broke out inside the railway station. The flames quickly spread to the S.S. Mount Washington that was docked nearby.

“Attempts were made to set her free, but lake water levels were low and she was stuck helplessly in the mud. The ship was completely destroyed, as was the entire railroad station and boardwalk,” according to Mount Washington Cruises.

Lavallee was devastated by the loss of his beloved boat. He had been prepared to sell it

and retire when the fire occurred. He quickly decided to bring in a new and bigger boat to replace the S.S. Mount Washington. Lavallee worked with business leaders and members of the Weirs and Laconia communities to raise the necessary funds.

But finding a new ship would prove to be a daunting challenge. Lavallee could not build a new ship because steel was in short supply because of WWII and the need for munitions.

Lavallee located a new vessel on Lake Champlain in Vermont. He purchased the 203-foot Chateaguay in April 1940 for $20,000 and had the boat transported to Lake Winnipesaukee.

He hired a crew from Boston General Ship & Engine Works to dismantle the Chateaguay hull, cut it into 20 sections, and ship it by flatbed railroad car from Shelburne, Vermont, to Lakeport, New Hampshire. They then carefully reassembled the pieces, constructed a new steel superstructure, and outfitted the ship with two 750 hp steam engines, boilers included. The S.S. Mount Washington II was launched Aug. 12, 1940, with a length of 205 feet, a beam of 32 feet and a draft of 7 feet.

A new vessel was also accompanied by

Byron Hedblom is pictured at the site where the Mount Washington was lengthened by another 25 feet in 1982. The Hedblom family owned the Mount Washington from 1940 to 1972. When the Mount Washington was expanded in the winter 1982 to 1983, Hedblom came back to the company to help manage the project.

50 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

new ownership. The total cost to retrofit the new ship exceeded $125,000. Lavallee sold his business to the Boston General Ship & Engine Works and its owner, Carl Hedblom, in 1941. The Hedblom family owned and operated the company for the next three decades. They later added the M/V Sophie C and the M/V Doris E to their fleet.

The S.S. Mount Washington II also changed designations twice. When her steam engines were replaced with diesel engines in 1946, she was rechristened as the M/V Mount Washington. In 1982, the ship was cut down the center so an extra 25 feet could be added to her length. This caused the ship to be reclassified by maritime standards to the M/S Mount Washington.

A Bright Future Today, the future prospects of Mount Washington Cruises are brighter than ever, thanks to the commitment and dedication from the ownership and staff to preserve the experience for future generations.

Maraio says the cruise ship company operates with “one foot in the history and one foot in meeting the needs of our customers today.”

Some of the big changes that visitors will notice include a revamped menu that includes New Hampshire-made products from local vendors. Maraio says 14 of the 17 beers served onboard are New Hampshire-made. They will also sell chocolates and ice cream made by nearby Kellerhaus and White Mountain Vodka from Tamworth Distilling.

New seating has also been installed on the top deck for added comfort and convenience. Maraio says the Mount Washington is also continuing practices adopted during the pandemic, which speaks of the company’s ability to pivot and adapt.

In 2020, Maraio says state Covid-19 guidelines put a stop to the ship’s usual buffet-style dinners, which they are happily bringing back this season. Instead, as the pandemic demanded a swift and dramatic pivot, members of the crew were trained as waitstaff within a matter of weeks. Whatever the crew was required to do to make it so, they did.

“Sometimes you have to be forced to change,” says Maraio. “But change isn’t always a bad thing. It can be a healthy thing.” NH

PHOTOS COURTESY M/S MOUNT WASHINGTON

The S.S. Mount Washington was first introduced to the Big Lake in 1872.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the passenger vessel was transporting 60,000 passengers a year.

Get Out on the Water

Besides the majestic M/S Mount Washington cruises on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire offers many other lake and ocean excursions. Here are some of the best.

By River and Sea

COURTESY PHOTOS

Gundalow Company > For those who would welcome the chance to experience New Hampshire’s only working gundalow in action, the Gundalow Company located at Strawbery Banke is waiting.

Thanks to scores of volunteers, the Gundalow Company brought this piece of Granite State maritime history back to life with the construction of a new gundalow in 2012. These vessels were used primarily to transport lumber, stone and other building materials up and down the Piscataqua River to Great Bay communities like Newmarket, Dover, Durham and Exeter during the 1800s.

Today, passengers can enjoy afternoon sails, evening cruises and special concert cruises with beer and wine for sale onboard.

60 Marcy St., Portsmouth / (603) 433-9505 gundalow.org

Isles of Shoals Steamship Company > The M/V Thomas Laighton has taken passengers to and from Star Island off the coast of New Hampshire for decades to enjoy a few leisurely hours of strolling the island that poet Celia Thaxter called home or visiting the Oceanic Hotel, which hosts private retreats. The trip is accompanied by music, beer, wine and spirits served aboard the ship.

315 Market St., Portsmouth / (603)-431-5500 islesofshoals.com

Portsmouth Harbor Cruises > Located just a stone’s throw from the iconic Portsmouth tugboats, board the Heritage for guided tours of the harbor and nearby New Castle that reveal the immense beauty and history of the Seacoast’s premier harbor.

64 Ceres St., Portsmouth / (800) 776-0915 portsmouthharbor.com Granite State Whale Watch and Island Cruises > To get up close and personal with some whales or to the Isles of Shoals, the “Uncle Oscar” is at your service. The 49-foot vessel in Rye Harbor offers the shortest trips to Star Island as well as the unmatched thrill of seeing some whales well offshore.

Rye Harbor, Rye / (603) 964-5545 granitestatewhalewatch.com

By Lake Motor Around on the Millie B > The New Hampshire Boat Museum in Wolfeboro on the southern shores of Lake Winnipesaukee not only wants visitors to explore the history of wooden watercraft but to ride in the Millie B, a 28-foot, mahogany, triple-cockpit “woodie” replica 1928 Hacker-Craft. The hourlong cruise around Wolfeboro Bay also includes free admission to the museum, and those who have never cruised the lake in a vintage wooden boat will truly enjoy it.

The Town Docks, 42 S. Main St., Wolfeboro (603) 569-4554 / nhbm.org

Sunapee Cruises > There are few boating excursions more lovely and peaceful than those aboard the Lake Queen and the M/V MT. Sunapee II on Sunapee Lake. Guests can enjoy a dinner cruise aboard the Lake Queen or scenic cruises aboard the M/V MT. Sunapee II that include guided tours narrated by the captain. These tours feature three operating lighthouses and views of Mount Kearsarge, Mount Sunapee, and even Mount Ascutney in neighboring Vermont on clear days.

Sunapee Cruises’ newest boat, the Lake Queen, will also offer guests dinner cruises. The 70-foot vessel was recently transported from Missouri and retrofitted in Sunapee. The two-deck former riverboat can accommodate more than 100 guests. When the Lake Queen’s arrival was delayed by seven weeks due to a transportation issue in Pennsylvania, Gov. Chris Sununu stepped in and expedited the process to bring her to her new home. The Lake Queen was christened and launched on May 1.

1 Lake Ave., Sunapee / (603) 938-6465 sunapeecruises.com

Tiki Hut Boats of NH > If you want to combine your love for Jimmy Buffett and Kenny Chesney with the water, the Big Kahuna of Tiki Hut Boats of NH at Weirs Beach is ready to set sail. Entering its fourth season on the Big Lake, the company offers passengers the option to enjoy 90-minute cruises or private-party, two-hour trips aboard its floating tiki bar built on top of a pontoon boat. Fins up!

263 Lakeside Ave., Weirs Beach, Laconia (603) 960-4991 / tikihutboatsofnh.com Experience Squam > Nature lovers who appreciate the tranquility and calm of Squam Lake would be wise to literally Experience Squam. Private parties can book the company’s 23-foot Sea Ray Bow-Rider for a variety of excursions that include Golden Pond tours where they can see the locations used in the 1981 film “On Golden Pond” with Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn.

Experience Squam also offers fishing trips to catch that unforgettable bass or salmon, sunset and moonlight cruises, and trips that include a barbecue and campfire on one of Squam Lake’s islands.

859 U.S. Route 3, Holderness / (603) 968-3990 experiencesquam.com nhmagazine.com | July 2022 51

arts & entertainment

fun & adventure 52 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

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14,359

food & drink

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shops & services

this & that

See if your favorites made the Best list.

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 53

courtesy photo

E D I T O R ’S P I C K S

Exile Burrito

54 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

FOOD & DRINK

Burrito Oasis

“Living in Berlin,” notes veteran-turned-restaurateur Adam Hammil, “can feel like you’re living in exile.” The former Coast Guard chef embraced the perception of Berlin — that it’s the “forgotten stepchild of New Hampshire,” he says — by naming his restaurant Exile Burrito. The fusion menu includes burgers, sandwiches and “ugly fries” doused in queso, sautéed onions and their Exile sauce (you can add beef to the mix as well), but the highlight is the design-your-own-burrito section. It’s got the usual suspects — carne asada, grilled chicken, carnitas — plus some more unexpected choices, such as cauliflower rice, Mexican quinoa and the option to substitute rice and beans with tater tots (the same goes for the fries). So next time you’re exploring the Great North Woods, make sure to fuel up in Berlin. exileburrito.com

Cozy Comfort Food

For anyone who likes to go out to dinner without feeling like they’re leaving the comfort of their own home, The Office Lounge in Rye is the spot for you. Sip champagne, wine and cocktails that will tickle your fancy, and indulge in menu items ranging from chicken and waffles to haddock sliders and a rainbow sushi roll. Finish off your evening with a comfort classic like cookies and milk or a brownie sundae. Bonus tip? Visit them on Tuesday nights from 7 to 9 p.m. for “triviaoke” (aka trivia meets karaoke). theofficeloungenh.com

Transport to the Caribbean

The Karibbean restaurant in Lebanon is far from Haiti and Jamaica, but you wouldn’t know it by tasting the food. You really can’t go wrong here, but a standout is the jerk pork served with Haitian-style rice and beans (diri kole). There’s also jerk chicken, stewed oxtail, fish steamed with butter, onion, garlic, coconut milk and okra, Caribbean pumpkin soup and more great dishes to try. Or maybe just stop in for your morning caffeine dose with their authentic Haitian coffee. karibbeancooking.com

BAKERY OVERALL Multilocation Regional

Frederick’s Pastries

Polly’s Pancake Parlor

BAKERY Concord Area

BREAKFAST PLACE OVERALL Multilocation Local

Amherst pastry.net

Sugar Hill pollyspancakeparlor.com

Bread & Chocolate

Tucker’s

BAKERY Dartmouth/Lake Sunapee Region

BREAKFAST PLACE Concord Area

Concord Facebook

Blue Loon Bakery New London blueloonbakery.com

BAKERY Great North Woods Region

Polish Princess Bakery Lancaster polishprincessbakery.com BAKERY Lakes Region

Yum Yum Shop Wolfeboro yumyumshop.com

Merrimack tuckersnh.com

The Post

Concord postrestaurantnh.com BREAKFAST PLACE Dartmouth/Lake Sunapee Region

Lou’s Restaurant & Bakery Hanover lousrestaurant.com

BREAKFAST PLACE Great North Woods Region

Full Send Bar and Grill Pittsburg fullsendbarandgrill.com

BAKERY Manchester Area

BREAKFAST PLACE Lakes Region

Amherst theblackforestcafe.com

Farmington farmerskitchen-nh.com

Black Forest Café

The Farmer’s Kitchen

BAKERY Monadnock Region

BREAKFAST PLACE Manchester Area

Milford culturenh.com

Bedford purplefinchcafe.com

Culture

BAKERY Nashua Area

Buckley’s Bakery & Café Merrimack buckleysbakerycafe.com BAKERY Overall

Bearded Baking Co. Manchester beardedbaking.com BAKERY Salem Area

Klemm’s Bakery Windham klemmsbakery.com BAKERY Seacoast Region

Harvey’s Bakery and Coffee Shop Dover harveysbakery.com

BAKERY White Mountains Region

Red Wagon Bakery Canaan redwagonbakery.com COURTESY PHOTOS

BREAKFAST PLACE OVERALL

The Purple Finch Café BREAKFAST PLACE Manchester Area Multilocation Regional

The Friendly Toast Portsmouth thefriendlytoast.com

BREAKFAST PLACE Monadnock Region

The Riverhouse Café Milford damngoodgrub.com

BREAKFAST PLACE Monadnock Region Multilocation Local

Red Arrow 24 Hr Diner Manchester redarrowdiner.com

BREAKFAST PLACE Nashua Area

Suzie’s Dinner Hudson suziesdiner.com

BREAKFAST PLACE Salem Area

Maddie’s

Salem maddiesnh.com

BARBECUE

BREAKFAST PLACE Salem Area Multilocation Local

Manchester ribshack.net

Salem maryannsdiner.com

KC’s Rib Shack

MaryAnn’s Diner

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 55

BREWERY White Mountains Region

North Hampton theairfieldcafe.com

North Woodstock woodstockinnbrewery.com

The Airfield Café

BREAKFAST PLACE Seacoast Region Multilocation Regional

The Friendly Toast Portsmouth thefriendlytoast.com

BREAKFAST PLACE White Mountains Region

Red Wagon Bakery Canaan redwagonbakery.com BREWERY OVERALL

603 Brewery

Londonderry 603brewery.com

Woodstock Inn Brewery BREWPUB

Backyard Brewery

Manchester Backyardbrewerynh.com BRUNCH

The Old Salt Hampton oldsaltnh.com BURGER OVERALL

Tuckaway Tavern & Butchery Raymond thetuckaway.com

BURGER OVERALL Multilocation Local

BREWERY Concord Area (tie)

Lexie’s Restaurants

Concord lithermans.beer

BURGER Concord Area

BREWERY Concord Area (tie)

Concord thebarleyhouse.com

Lithermans Limited Brewery

Concord Craft Brewing Co.

Concord concordcraftbrewing.com BREWERY Dartmouth/Lake Sunapee Region

Flying Goose Brew Pub & Grille New London flyinggoose.com

BREWERY Great North Woods Region

Copper Pig Brewery Lancaster copperpigbrewery.com BREWERY Lakes Region

Kettlehead Brewing Co. Tilton kettleheadbrewing.com BREWERY Manchester Area

Pipe Dream Brewing

Londonderry pipedreambrewingnh.com BREWERY Monadnock Region

Modestman Brewing Keene modestmanbrewing.com BREWERY Nashua Area

Spyglass Brewing Co. Nashua spyglassbrewing.com BREWERY Salem Area

Kelsen Brewing Company

Derry kelsenbrewing.com BREWERY Seacoast Region

Stoneface Brewing Co. Newington stonefacebrewing.com

Portsmouth peaceloveburgers.com

The Barley House BURGER Concord Area Multilocation Local

T-BONES Great American Eatery Bedford t-bones.com

BURGER Dartmouth/Lake Sunapee Region

Little Brothers Burgers New London littlebrothersburgers.com BURGER Great North Woods Region

the burg.

Pittsburg Facebook

BURGER Lakes Region

Surfside Burger Bar Meredith surfsideburgerbar.com

BURGER Lakes Region Multilocation Local

T-BONES Great American Eatery Bedford t-bones.com

BURGER Manchester Area

New England’s Tap House Grille Hooksett taphousenh.com

BURGER Manchester Area Multilocation Local

T-BONES Great American Eatery Bedford t-bones.com

BURGER Monadnock Region

Papa Joe’s Humble Kitchen

Milford papajoeshumblekitchen.com

56 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Comfort for All

Originally from Atlanta, mother-daughter team Courtney and Romonia Daniel thought Dover could use a bit of Southern comfort. Specifically, in the form of baked goods. And so, A Southern Girl Bakery was born. Romonia told us back in October (see the story online at nhmagazine.com) that she learned to love baking in her grandmother’s kitchen, and Courtney adds that their goal is “bringing those memories from the South, and just trying to recreate it per se, here in New England.” And, yes, no doubt the menu is full of decadent, delicious treats, from cupcakes (including booze-infused ones) and coconut pie to cobbler and double-layer cakes, but those with special dietary needs aren’t left out. They also offer a number of different baked goods that are gluten-free, “everything-free” (no nuts, dairy, eggs, tree nuts, coconut or sesame), sugar-free and vegan. sgirlbakery.com

Breakfast Sandwich

It’s always a happy day when Basic Ingredients in Bristol opens for the season.

For 30 years they’ve delighted Newfound Lake residents and summer visitors with baked goods (fresh bread, pies, scones, muffins, cookies and ridiculously good sticky buns) and to-go meals (paella, mac and cheese, chicken parm, tofu spinach lasagna and more), but this year we need to call out their biscuit breakfast sandwich. You could just get biscuits, but why would you skip piling on bacon, egg and cheese? Reading this in the colder months? Visit their Facebook page to see where the food truck is hanging out. basicingredientsnh.com

COURTESY PHOTOS

FOOD & DRINK

BREAKFAST PLACE Seacoast Region

It’s about as local as spirits can get at New England Sweetwater Farm & Distillery in Winchester. On the farm side of things, they grow cider apples, grapes, blueberries and juniper berries on their 50-acre property.

Then there are the smallbatch spirits, including the excellent Ashuelot vodka, which is made with locally grown apples from Pine Hill Orchards and Apex Orchards, and potatoes from Simerowski Farms. Stop in at the tasting room from Friday to Sunday to try their vodka, single-malt or bourbon whiskey, gin, varieties of rum or moonshine. newenglandsweetwater.com

Wine Discovery

Feeling like you’re in a wine rut? At Vine 32 Wine + Graze Bar in Bedford, you’re encouraged to try new things — and to take matters into your own hands. The 32 in the name refers to the rotating selection of 32 wines, which come in as little as 1-ounce pours, giving you the opportunity to taste without committing to the price and amount of a full pour or bottle. Plus, you’re invited to explore via their self-serve system. It works like this: You purchase a card, put your glass under the spout, insert the card, choose a 1-, 4- or 6-ounce pour, push the button, remove the card and enjoy. vinethirtytwo.com

BURGER Nashua Area

Buckley’s Great Steaks Merrimack buckleysgreatsteaks.com

BURGER Nashua Area Multilocation Local

T-BONES Great American Eatery Bedford t-bones.com BURGER Salem Area

Granfanallys Pizza Pub Salem granfanallys.com

BURGER Salem Area Multilocation Local

T-BONES Great American Eatery Bedford t-bones.com

COCKTAILS

The Copper Door Bedford copperdoor.com

COFFEE SHOP OVERALL

Blue Harbor Coffee Co. Hampton blueharborcoffee.com

COFFEE SHOP OVERALL Multilocation Local

A&E Coffee & Tea

Amherst, Goffstown and Manchester aeroastery.com COFFEE ROASTER Multilocation Local

A&E Coffee & Tea

BURGER

Amherst, Goffstown and Manchester aeroastery.com

Hop + Grind

COFFEE SHOP Concord Area

Seacoast Region Durham hopandgrind.com BURGER Seacoast Region Multilocation Regional

Wild Willy’s

Rochester wildwillysburgers.com BURGER White Mountains Region

The Brothers’ Cortado Concord brotherscortado.com

COFFEE SHOP Dartmouth/Lake Sunapee Region

Lucky’s Coffee Garage Lebanon luckyscoffeegarage.com

Black Mountain Burger Co.

COFFEE SHOP Great North Woods Region

BURRITO

Lancaster Facebook

Lincoln blackmtnburger.com

Burrito Me

Laconia burritome.com BURRITO Multilocation Local

California Burritos

Nashua californiaburritosnh.com CAKES

Bearded Baking Co. Manchester beardedbaking.com

CAKES Multilocation Regional

The Granite Grind

COFFEE SHOP Lakes Region

Wayfarer Coffee Roasters

Laconia wayfarerroasters.com COFFEE SHOP Manchester Area

Hometown Coffee Roasters

Manchester hometownroasters.com

Frederick’s Pastries

COFFEE SHOP Monadnock Region

CHICKEN FINGERS

Milford unioncoffee.co

Amherst pastry.net

The Puritan Backroom Manchester puritanbackroom.com

CHINESE RESTAURANT

Lilac Blossom

Nashua lilacblossomrestaurant.com CHOCOLATIER

Van Otis

Manchester vanotis.com CLAM CHOWDER

Petey’s Summertime Seafood Rye peteys.com

Union Coffee Company

COFFEE SHOP Nashua Area

Riverwalk Café & Music Bar

Nashua riverwalknashua.com COFFEE SHOP Salem Area

The Grind Rail Trail Café Derry thegrindnh.com

COFFEE SHOP Seacoast Region

Adelle’s Coffeehouse Dover adellescoffeehouse.com

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 57

FOOD & DRINK

Farm-to-Spirit

Metropolitan Coffee House

North Conway metcoffeehouse.com

DINER Salem Area

The Bacon Barn

Londonderry baconbarndiner.com

CRAB CAKES

DINER Salem Area Multilocation Local

Surf Seafood

MaryAnn’s Diner

Nashua surfseafood.com

Salem maryannsdiner.com

CRAB CAKES Multilocation Local

DINER Seacoast Region

The Common Man Concord thecman.com CUPCAKES

Queen City Cupcakes Manchester qccupcakes.com

DELICATESSEN

Biederman’s Deli Plymouth biedermansdeli.com DINER OVERALL

Tilt’n Diner

Tilton thecman.com DINER Concord Area

Northwood Diner Northwood Facebook

DINER Concord Area Multilocation Local

Roundabout Diner and Lounge Portsmouth roundaboutdiner.com

DINER White Mountains Region

Littleton Diner Littleton littletondiner.com DISTILLERY

Tamworth Distilling & Mercantile Tamworth tamworthdistilling.com DOUGHNUTS

Klemm’s Bakery Windham klemmsbakery.com

FAMILY-FRIENDLY DINING

The Puritan Backroom Manchester puritanbackroom.com

Red Arrow 24 Hr Diner

FAMILY-FRIENDLY DINING Multilocation Local

DINER Dartmouth/Lake Sunapee Region

Bedford t-bones.com

West Lebanon 4acesdiner.com

The Copper Door

Manchester redarrowdiner.com

Four Aces Diner

T-BONES Great American Eatery

FAVORITE RESTAURANT OVERALL

DINER Lakes Region

Bedford copperdoor.com

Meredith georgesdiner.com

Revival

George’s Diner

Concord revivalkitchennh.com

Manchester thecman.com

The Common Man

DINER Manchester Area Multilocation Local

Red Arrow 24 Hr Diner Manchester redarrowdiner.com DINER Monadnock Region

Peterborough Diner Peterborough peterboroughdiner.com DINER Monadnock Region Multilocation Local

Red Arrow 24 Hr Diner Manchester redarrowdiner.com

Artisan Cheese

If only you could live on cheese alone. We suspect Bell & Goose Cheese Co. owner Anna Cantelmo agrees with that sentiment as she has spent more than a decade pursuing the craft of artisan cheesemaking. Her creamery is located at Heron Pond Farm in South Hampton, where her husband Andre and his business partner Greg have been growing berries and vegetables for the past 20 years. Anna’s cheeses — both fresh and aged — are made from cow’s milk sourced from a nearby dairy farm, and you can find her camembert, hot pepper Havarti, mustard seed butter cheese, Bulgarian-style feta and much more year-round at the Heron Pond farmstand. Additionally, check the website for the farmers market schedule. bellandgoose.com

FAVORITE RESTAURANT Concord Area Multilocation Local

Concord thecman.com

FAVORITE RESTAURANT Dartmouth/Lake Sunapee Region

The Refinery Ancover refinerynh.com

FAVORITE RESTAURANT Great North Woods Region

the burg.

Pittsburg Facebook

FAVORITE RESTAURANT Lakes Region

Patrick’s Pub & Eatery Gilford patrickspub.com

DINER Nashua Area

FAVORITE RESTAURANT Lakes Region Multilocation Local

Amherst joeysdiner.com

Alstead, Plymouth thecman.com

Joey’s Diner

Making crackers isn’t usually the kind of thing that inspires greatness, but don’t tell that to Kevin Dremel. He founded his company, Jack’s Crackers (named for his cat), on the idea that nothing is so small or common that it can’t be raised to greatness. Dremel says, as far as he knows, his small craft bakery in Keene is the only one in the state dedicated to baking small-batch, handmade crackers — all-natural and GMO/preservative-free. And with flavors ranging from lemon-pistachio to buttermilk-bacon, there’s proof that even the humble cracker can still be powerfully delicious. jackscrackers.com

FAVORITE RESTAURANT Concord Area

DINER Manchester Area

Airport Diner

Wise Crackers

The Common Man

58 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

COURTESY PHOTOS

FOOD & DRINK

COFFEE SHOP White Mountains Region

Tuckaway Tavern & Butchery Raymond thetuckaway.com

FAVORITE RESTAURANT Monadnock Region

Pickity Place

Mason pickityplace.com FAVORITE RESTAURANT Nashua Area

Surf Seafood

Nashua surfseafood.com FAVORITE RESTAURANT Nashua Area Multilocation Local

Hayward’s Ice Cream Nashua haywardsicecream.com ICE CREAM Concord Area

Arnie’s Place

Concord arniesplace.com ICE CREAM Dartmouth/Lake Sunapee Region

ICE CREAM Great North Woods Region

Salem tamalfi.com

Pittsburg partridgecabins.com/about-us/ moose-alley-cones

The Common Man Windham thecman.com

FAVORITE RESTAURANT Seacoast Region

Surf Seafood

Nashua surfseafood.com FAVORITE RESTAURANT White Mountains Region

Woodstock Inn Station and Brewery North Woodstock woodstockinnbrewery.com

Sunapee icecreamkidbeck.com

Moose Alley Cones

ICE CREAM Lakes Region

Jordan’s Ice Creamery Gilford Facebook

ICE CREAM Manchester Area

The Puritan Backroom Manchester puritanbackroom.com ICE CREAM Monadnock Region

Sundae Drive Brookline Facebook

FAVORITE RESTAURANT White Mountains Region Multilocation Local

ICE CREAM Monadnock Region Multilocation Local

Lincoln thecman.com

Jaffrey kimballfarm.com

The Common Man

Turning ordinary desserts into culinary adventures and traditional cocktails into crafty creations, Morécello is a multifunctional liquor that you’ll want to add to your own collection of spirits. Frank Marino of Black Cove Beverages in Meredith created the blackberry after-dinner drink from a generations-old secret family recipe that dates back to his ancestors in Sicily. It is akin to limoncello but far tastier, far healthier, and without the acidity.

It is traditionally enjoyed ice-cold in small servings to promote hearty conversation. Its syrup-like consistency makes it perfect for blackberry snowcones or even as a maple syrup substitute for your Sunday morning stack of pancakes. blackcovebeverages.com

ICE CREAM Overall Multilocation

FAVORITE RESTAURANT Salem Area

FAVORITE RESTAURANT Salem Area Multilocation Local

Sweet Cello

Derry / moosplace.com

Sanctuary Dairy Farm Ice Cream

Trattoria Almafi

When it comes to cotton candy, there really is no ceiling in terms of flavors. Sillie Puffs in Manchester has 64 cotton candy flavors and counting. It’s not just the type of flavors one would find at their favorite ice cream stand, like apple pie, cheesecake, gingerbread or strawberry banana. There are options to add some whimsy to your favorite summertime cocktails, like bacon cotton candy with a shot of bourbon or piña colada cotton candy on a piña colada. The sky’s the limit. Sillie Puffs are also sold at several locations throughout New Hampshire and cater special events including weddings, birthday parties. silliepuffs.com

Moo’s Place Homemade Ice Cream

The Common Man Merrimack thecman.com

Gourmet Cotton Candy

ICE CREAM OVERALL

FINE DINING RESTAURANT

Hanover Street Chophouse

Manchester hanoverstreetchophouse.com

Kimball Farm ICE CREAM Nashua Area

King Kone

Merrimack kingkonenh.com

FOOD TRUCK

ICE CREAM Salem Area

Merrimack area upinyourgrill.com

Salem jaygees.com

Up in Your Grill

Jay Gee’s Ice Cream

GOURMET TO GO

ICE CREAM Seacoast Region

Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop

Manchester angelaspastaandcheese.com GREEK RESTAURANT

Amphora

Derry amphoranh.com GLUTEN-FREE OPTIONS

Troy’s Fresh Kitchen and Juice Bar Londonderry troysfreshkitchen.com

GLUTEN-FREE OPTIONS Multilocation Regional

110 Grill

Manchester 110grill.com

Lago’s Ice Cream Rye lagosicecream.com

ICE CREAM White Mountains Region

Bishops Homemade Ice Cream Littleton Facebook

INDIAN RESTAURANT

Taste of India

Dover tasteofindiadover.com IRISH PUB

The Peddler’s Daughter Nashua thepeddlersdaughter.com

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 59

FOOD & DRINK

FAVORITE RESTAURANT Manchester Area

Villaggio Ristorante Manchester villaggionh.com

ITALIAN RESTAURANT (TIE)

PIZZERIA OVERALL

La Festa Brick & Brew Pizza

JAPANESE RESTAURANT (TIE)

PIZZERIA Concord Area

YouYou

Nashua youyoubistro.com JAPANESE RESTAURANT (TIE)

Masa Japanese Steak House Manchester masanh.com

Dover lafestabrickandbrew.com

Constantly Pizza Concord constantlypizza.net

PIZZERIA Concord Area Multilocation Regional

Sal’s Pizza

Multiple Locations sals.com

JAPANESE RESTAURANT (TIE)

PIZZERIA Dartmouth/Lake Sunapee Region

Concord moritomonh.com

Warner charliemacspizzeria.com

Moritomo

LOBSTER ROLL

Tuckaway Tavern & Butchery Raymond thetuckaway.com

LOBSTER ROLL Multilocation Local

The Beach Plum North Hampton thebeachplum.net

Charlie Mac’s Pizzeria

PIZZERIA Dartmouth/Lake Sunapee Region Multilocation Local

Ziggy’s Pizza Sunapee ziggys.pizza PIZZERIA Gourmet

900 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria

LOCALLY SOURCED MENU

Manchester 900degrees.com

Milford greenleafmilford.com

PIZZERIA Great North Woods Region the burg.

Greenleaf

MAC AND CHEESE (TIE)

Tuckaway Tavern & Butchery Raymond thetuckaway.com

MAC AND CHEESE (TIE)

Mr. Mac’s Macaroni and Cheese Manchester mr-macs.com

MEDITERRANEAN RESTAURANT

Jocelyn’s Mediterranean Restaurant & Martini Lounge Salem jocelynsrestaurantnh.com

MEXICAN RESTAURANT

Cielito Mexican Restaurant

Bristol cielitomexicanrestaurant.com MEXICAN RESTAURANT Multilocation Local

La Carreta

Nashua, Manchester, Portsmouth, Derry and Londonderry lacarretamex.com

Pittsburg Facebook

PIZZERIA Lakes Region

Tilton House of Pizza Tilton tiltonhouseofpizza.com PIZZERIA Lakes Region Multilocation Regional

Sal’s Pizza

Multiple Locations sals.com PIZZERIA Manchester Area

Alley Cat Pizzeria

Manchester alleycatpizzerianh.com PIZZERIA Manchester Area Multilocation Regional

Sal’s Pizza

Multiple Locations sals.com PIZZERIA Monadnock Region

Zizza Pizza

Milford zizzapizza.com

NEW RESTAURANT

PIZZERIA Nashua Area

Derry destinationindianh.com

Nashua oakcraftpizza.com

Destination India

This recognition is long overdue — about 22 years or so — but we’re finally in on the not-at-all-well-kept secret that is Don Quijote on Union Street in Manchester.

Owner Sandra Almonte’s menu has developed over the two-plus decades since she first opened the doors, growing from primarily Dominican flavors to incorporating more influences as other Latino immigrants settled in the state. It’s hard to choose any one item on the menu, but a few excellence places to start include mofongo (smashed green plantain stuffed with mojo sauce and chicarron), pernil (citrus marinated roasted pork) and beef or chicken empanadas. donquijoteunion.com

Manchester thecrownonhanover.com

Fratello’s Italian Grille Manchester and Laconia fratellos.com

Community Staple

OUTDOOR DINING

The Crown Tavern

OakCraft Pizza

60 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Outstanding Lunch

Happily, the Pressed Café is continuing to expand, with New Hampshire locations now in Bedford, Salem, Spit Brook Road in Nashua and the drive-thru on Cotton Road in Nashua.

Make sure to check out the day’s special, but if you decide to dive deeper into the menu, you might find it tough to make a decision. The paninis are delicious, and other offerings include breakfast all day, açai bowls, smoothies, vegan items, soups, salads, their signature power bowls, toasts (avocado, smoked salmon, labneh, hummus or Nutella and peanut butter) and much more. For liquid-only meals, try a smoothie or something from the raw juice and tonics menu. pressedcafe.com

COURTESY PHOTOS

FOOD & DRINK

ITALIAN RESTAURANT (TIE)

Kendall Pond Pizza Hudson kendallpondpizza.com PIZZERIA Nashua Area Multilocation Regional

Sal’s Pizza

Multiple Locations sals.com PIZZERIA Salem Area

Granfanallys Pizza Pub

Prodigious Baking

Cupcakes, cookies, cakes, krispie treats, stuffed waffles, waffle pops and ... cruffins (a croissant and muffin hybrid)? Don’t mind if we do. Trina Bird creates her prodigious carb-y Bird Food Baking Co. masterpieces out of her residential kitchen in Goffstown, where you can pick up your own orders, or you can stop by local spots like Apotheca Flowers, Loon Chocolate and The Bookery to sample fresh coffee and treats like a blueberry cake or whoopie pie doughnut. birdfoodbaking.com

Londonderry wrapcitysandwiches.com SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

Surf Seafood

Nashua surfseafood.com SPORTS BAR

Billy’s Sports Bar & Grille Manchester Facebook

PIZZERIA Salem Area Multilocation Regional

Buckley’s Great Steaks

Multiple Locations sals.com

This North Conway local favorite is anything but a hole-in-the-wall. Delaney’s Hole in the Wall has become a tradition in the valley for visitors and regulars for over 20 years. The behind-the-scenes team is made up of a bunch of creative bandits who round up the finest and freshest local ingredients to provide you with a delicious meal. Virtually everything on their menu is made from scratch, and if there is a certain ingredient you want added or left out, no problem, they can do it. Their sassy, inventive recipes will have you “saddling on up” and become part of the family too. delaneys.com

Wrap City Sandwich Company

Salem granfanallys.com

Sal’s Pizza

Sports Tavern Tradition

SANDWICH SHOP Multilocation Local

PIZZERIA Seacoast Region

The Community Oven

STEAKHOUSE

Merrimack buckleysgreatsteaks.com TACOS

B’s Tacos & More Manchester nhtacotruck.com

Epping thecommunityoven.com

TACOS Multilocation Local

PIZZERIA Seacoast Region Multilocation Regional

Nashua, Manchester, Portsmouth, Derry and Londonderry lacarretamex.com

The Flatbread Company North Conway flatbreadcompany.com

PIZZERIA White Mountains Region

Tartaglia’s Pizza

Campton tartagliaspizza-nh.com PIZZERIA White Mountains Region Multilocation Regional

The Flatbread Company North Conway flatbreadcompany.com

RESTAURANT WITH BEST BEER LIST

New England’s Tap House Grille Hooksett taphousenh.com

RESTAURANT WITH BEST BEER LIST Multilocation Local

Thirsty Moose Taphouse Manchester thirstymoosetaphouse.com RESTAURANT WITH BEST WINE LIST

The Bedford Village Inn Bedford bedfordvillageinn.com

La Carreta

THAI RESTAURANT

Sara Thai

Dover sarathaidover.com VEGETARIAN

Green Elephant Vegetarian Bistro & Bar Portsmouth greenelephantnh.com

WINERY OR VINEYARD

Zorvino Vineyards Sandown zorvino.com

WINERY OR VINEYARD Multilocation Local

LaBelle Winery

Amherst labellewinerynh.com WINGS

the burg.

Pittsburg Facebook

WINGS Multilocation local

Wing-itz

Portsmouth wing-itz.com

SANDWICH SHOP

Biederman’s Deli Plymouth biedermans.com

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 61

FOOD & DRINK

PIZZERIA Nashua Area Multilocation Local

E D I T O R ’S P I C K S

Déjà Vu Furniture and More 62 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

If you are in the market for a genuine antique, an inviting rooster, a moose, a 12-foot face of Elvis, a cigar store Indian or another piece of retro Americana, Déjà Vu Furniture and More in Londonderry will probably have it — lots of it. Simply put, the store’s Facebook page sums it up perfectly: “We are hotel liquidators and we sell new and used furniture, antiques and lots of interesting and odd pieces you won’t find anywhere else.”

Just visiting Déjà Vu and exploring its diverse collection of wares will bring back waves of memories for baby boomers and captivate millennials. dejavufurniture.com

ANTIQUE OR VINTAGE SHOP

Antiques on Elm

Manchester Manchester antiquesonelmmanchester.com celebrationsmenu.com AUTOMOTIVE GROUP

Eye & Nail Art Works

Body art like tattoos, hair styles and piercing are being created more and more to express various emotions, symbols and statements. At Elite Nails in Manchester, art is displayed on their customers’ fingernails and eyelids. The shop’s staff are very well schooled at creating just about any design on someone’s nails. They offer a huge range of glitter mixes and other nail art accessories, and the glitters can be used with acrylic, UV hard gel, gel polish and regular nail polish.

Facebook and Instagram

CATERER

Celebrations Distinctive Catering COMIC BOOK STORE

Grappone Automotive Group

Double Midnight Comics

BARBERSHOP

The Wingate Salon & Spa

Concord / grappone.com

Homegrown Barber Co. Londonderry homegrownbarber.com BEER STORE

Greg & Jane’s Beer & Wine

Epping / gregandjanes.com BICYCLE SHOP

S&W Sports

Concord / swsports.net BICYCLE SHOP Multilocation Local

Trek Bicycle

Nashua goodalesbikeshop.com BUTCHER SHOP

Tuckaway Tavern and Butchery Raymond thetuckaway.com

Manchester / dmcomics.com DAY SPA

Stratham wingatespa.com FARMSTAND

Lull Farm

Hollis livefreeandfarm.com FLORIST

Ford Flower Co. Salem fordflower.com

GARDEN CENTER

Wentworth Greenhouses & Garden Center Rollinsford wentworthgreenhouses.com HAIR SALON

Salon Bogar

Londonderry salonbogar.com

Feel-good Soap

At Plymouth Soap Works, luxury and affordability go hand in hand. The mission is to produce inexpensive, eco-friendly products that feel expensive. The idea is to make responsible purchasing (there is no plastic involved) accessible to everyone in the community without sacrificing quality, hopefully helping to do their part to eliminate single-use plastics and further democratizing the eco-friendly market.

Plus, you know, the soap is really nice! They make hand, hair, body, face, home soaps and more, available individually in the store, online or via their surprise soap box subscriptions. plymouthsoapworks.com

COURTESY PHOTOS

Edible Art

With nearly 15 years of combined experience, and countless hours spent getting to know their customers personally, PALETTE co-founders Jen Desrosiers and Stef Heitz understand that food has the potential to be the heartbeat of every occasion. When you open a PALETTE graze box, you are met with beautiful, fresh, and mindfully sourced fruits and veggies arranged in a work of art that tastes as good as it looks. The boxes are convenient, portable and come in a variety of sizes, and they’re built with dimensional, textural layers that make them a joy to discover. palettegrazeboards.com nhmagazine.com | July 2022 63

SHOPS & SERVICES

Retro and Antique Furniture

PET SUPPLIES STORE

Woof Meow

INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE

PET TRAINING

Windham / willownh.com

Gibson’s Bookstore Concord gibsonsbookstore.com INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE Multilocation Local

Toadstool Bookshops

Nashua, Keene and Peterborough / toadbooks.com INDEPENDENTLY OWNED FITNESS CENTER

Collective Studios

Londonderry thecollective-studios.com INDOOR CYCLING

Vibeco Cycle

Salem / vibecocycle.com JEWELER

Jewelry Creations

Dover jewelrycreationsinc.com KID’S CLOTHING SHOP

Puddlejumpers Children’s Shop

Exeter puddlejumpersnh.com MEN’S CLOTHING SHOP

George’s Apparel Manchester georgesapparel.com

Derry / woofmeownh.com

No Monkey Business Dog Training Concord nomonkeybusinessdogtraining.com SECONDHAND CLOTHING SHOP

M&C Clothing and Gifts Amherst m-c-clothing-and-goods. myshopify.com SKI SHOP

Ken Jones Ski Mart Manchester kenjonesskimart.com

SPECIALTY FOOD STORE

Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop

Dover nogginfactorytoys.com WINE SHOP

WineNot Boutique Nashua winenotboutique.com WOMEN’S CLOTHING SHOP

Alapage

Humble Warrior Yoga

Dover / k9kaos.com

Lori Morgan is a furniture painter, custom canvas creator and the owner of the Derry-based shop Tom & Chickpea. Named after her love of chickpeas and her late husband, Tom (whom she finds comfort in honoring through her art), the shop is home to her one-of-a-kind, hand-painted furniture that has a boho style and nature-inspired flair. If you are looking for a reimagined Victorian bar cabinet, brightly colored jewelry armoire or custom painting to complete your living room, stop in to see Lori and her many beautiful items. tomandchickpea.com

The Noggin Factory

PET GROOMER

K9 Kaos

Fresh and Fun Furniture

TOY STORE

Bedford alapageboutique.com

Dover / k9kaos.com

Planning a birthday party and not sure where to start? Looking to have a Pinterest-worthy celebration of your dreams?

Emily Huxtable of Seacoast Picnic Co. in Portsmouth has you covered. Her picnic packages are all about luxury and memories, and each can be executed anywhere from your home to the beach.

Create your own perfect picnic experience with personal details like handwritten notes, flowers or a boho tent, and let Emily do the rest. The best part? She will set it up and take it down for you too. seacoastpicnic.com

Manchester angelaspastaandcheese.com

K9 Kaos

PET BOARDING

Picture-perfect Picnics

YOGA STUDIO

Manchester humblewarriorpoweryoga.com

SEACOAST PICNICS: ALEXIS THE GREEK PHOTOGRAPHY

SHOPS & SERVICES

HOME DÉCOR SHOP

Willow by B Designs

Old-fashioned Fun

64 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Consignment Boutique

Founded in 2009 on Littleton’s Main Street, Emma & Co., affectionately known as Emma C.’s, provides many of the leading fashion brands at reasonable prices to fulfill their mission: “We believe that every woman should be able to shop designer brands they love without the high-end price.” Some of the brands they carry include Gucci, Prada, Versace, Burberry, Coach and J. Crew. emmaconsignments.com

COURTESY PHOTOS

As technology in the form of cell phones, hand-held devices and virtual gaming continues to grow, entertaining, family-oriented board games and puzzles are also enjoying a renaissance.

Diversions, which has stores on Congress Street in Portsmouth and in Somersworth, has emerged as a must for people who love to pursue this entertainment. Father-daughter team Ted and Laura Keith were already on this trend back in 2012 when they opened the store with the goal of helping people put down their phones for at least a little bit, allowing them to reconnect over an old-fashioned puzzle or game. diversionsgames.com

CELEBRATE WITH THE SPIRIT OF

INDEPENDENCE DRINK RESPONSIBLY. Hornitos® Tequila, 40% alc./vol., and Tequila Seltzer, Made with Plata Tequila, Natural Flavors and Seltzer Water, 5% alc./vol., ©2022 Sauza Tequila Import Company, Chicago, IL

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 65

E D I T O R ’S P I C K S

Northeastern Ballet Theatre 66 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

PHOTO BY MISTY EYES PHOTOGRAPHY

For ballet lovers who would welcome seeing an intimate and dynamic performance of “Swan Lake” this summer, the Northeastern Ballet Theatre of Wolfeboro and Dover will rival any ballet troupe anywhere. The troupe is made up of dancers who study and train at the school from a very young age. Each summer, the ballet company showcases its skill and artistry with live performances. Catch them in August at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord and at the Kingswood Arts Center in Wolfeboro. northeasternballet.org

ART GALLERY

“The Exchange” NHPR

INDEPENDENT MOVIE THEATER

NH Public Radio

Nashua nashuaarts.org

Art Gallery

It seems there are fewer places left that can be described as true hidden gems, but for New Hampshire art enthusiasts who crave an easy path into the creative soul of the Granite State, the Two Villages Art Society gallery in Hopkinton has a great deal to offer. The gallery showcases the work of New Hampshire painters, sculptors, artisans and photographers year-round. This summer, the gallery will have two exhibitions: “Pixels, Wood, Clay” in August and early September and “Out of the Woods” from mid-September to early October. twovillagesart.org

NH RADIO TALK SHOW

ArtHub

Red River Theatres Concord redrivertheatres.org

LARGE MUSIC VENUE

Bank of NH Pavilion Gilford banknhpavilion.com

METEOROLOGIST

Hayley LaPoint Manchester wmur.com MUSEUM

Concord nhpr.org

RADIO STATION

Concord nhpr.org

SMALL MUSIC VENUE

Tupelo Music Hall Windham tupelomusichall.com

THEATER/PERFORMING ARTS VENUE

The Palace Theater Manchester palacetheatre.org

TV NEWS ANCHOR

Currier Museum of Art

Erin Fehlau WMUR

NH RADIO MORNING SHOW

Ray Brewer WMUR

Manchester currier.org

Greg and the Morning Buzz Manchester wheb.iheart.com

Manchester wmur.com

TV NEWS REPORTER

Manchester wmur.com

TV SPORTS ANCHOR

Jamie Staton WMUR Manchester wmur.com

COURTESY PHOTOS

African Drumming and Dance

This summer, catch the Akwaaba Ensemble’s West African drumming and dance to experience the rich and subtle rhythmic patterns and styles specific to various tribes.

The ensemble is led by master percussionist and teacher Theophilus Nii Martey, who began studying traditional African music during his childhood in Ghana. The Akwaaba Ensemble uses the Akan language word for “welcome” for their name. Visit their website to learn more about their upcoming performances. akwaabaensemble.com

Community Gathering Space

Tucked along a corner of Route 85 in Exeter is an intimate gathering space for language and song. The Word Barn was created to promote the sharing and cultivation of the arts in an open and welcoming setting, and contribute to an already-existing and thriving arts community. Whether you are enjoying a concert inside the barn or sitting back in the meadow for a summer camp theater performance, the multifaceted venue provides unique and quality events, ranging from live music to comedy to wildlife education, that keep performers and patrons alike coming back for more, time and time again. thewordbarn.com nhmagazine.com | July 2022 67

ARTS & CULTURE

Summer Ballet

ARTS & CULTURE

Inn and Craft Brewery

New Hampshire is blessed with a plethora of craft breweries that also offer great food. But not many can claim that they also provide exquisite lodging in the White Mountains.

The Woodstock Inn Brewery in North Woodstock is a craft-beer lover’s dream, a casual outdoor dining venue, a mecca for live music, and a memorable space for wedding receptions and other events. This longtime favorite stop for New Hampshire residents and visitors has everything one envisions for a White Mountains destination — great beer and fabulous fare loaded with rustic charm. woodstockinnbrewery.com

Serious Jazz, Blues and Cuisine

Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club in Portsmouth weaves together a landmark turn-of-thecentury building with a Moulin Rouge-style cabaret venue to create a dinner-club experience that music lovers of all varieties will enjoy. The venue itself is beautiful, plus it features leading-edge acoustical design and state-of-the-art production and sound and lighting technologies. Then there’s the Southern-inspired menu created by Executive Chef Nathan Varney, an impressive cocktail and wine list, and, most important, a range of performances by jazz and blues artists and Grammy-award winning musicians alike, from Christian McBride to Mavis Staples. With a multitude of rooms designed within the overall space (and a contemporary art museum on the first floor) — all the conditions are in place for that special connection between artist and audience to truly come alive. jimmysoncongress.com

Natural beauty and music come together at the Lynda Cohen Performing Arts Series. This special lineup features four summer concerts (July 9 and 23, August 6 and 20) on the grounds of AMC’s Highland Center. Originating from her love for music and the mountains, Lynda Cohen imagined a series where people could come together among the mountains of Crawford Notch to enjoy one of her lifelong passions, music. Concerts are free, but registration is required via Eventbrite. Bring your own dinner or purchase in advance by phone (first-come-first-served basis). Pack your chairs, grab a blanket, and settle in for music under the stars. eventbrite.com

68 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Magical Maestro

Andrew Pinard works his magic in strange ways. While he casts a spell on the audiences for his popular magical performances under his Absolutely Magic brand or as a reenactor of historical magic, he sometimes has to conjure up new operations for an old theater space (like the Claremont Opera House, which he directs). He once even turned a clothing store into a hatbox (well, a Hatbox Theatre in Concord — hatboxnh.com). Also, Pinard is an authority on magic, both on stage and behind the scenes as a national deputy of the Society of American Magicians for over a decade, and as the editor of the magic history journal The Yankee Magic Collector. absomagic.com

COURTESY PHOTOS

Outdoor Concerts

PHOTO BY DAVID MENDELSOHN

The Gawler Family Band will take the stage on August 6.

GET

GEAR

YOUR

nhmagazine.com/shop nhmagazine.com | July 2022 69

E D I T O R ’S P I C K S

American Classic Arcade Museum 70 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

FUN & ADVENTURE

Where Old Machines Enjoy New Life

Anyone who grew up playing pinball games in the 1970s and pre-internet video games, like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, in the 1980s probably wonders where all those games have gone. Look no further than the American Classic Arcade Museum in Laconia.

Founder Gary Vincent has lovingly collected and restored 250 games that anyone can play. At the museum, located on the third floor of Funspot in the Weirs, Vincent says people can use Funspot game tokens to relive childhood and teen memories or discover what the world of gaming was like between the dawn of Pong and pinball games that sported themes from “Star Trek,” famous rock bands and classic TV shows. Some of Vincent’s personal favorites are Alpine Ski, Crazy Climber and Omega Race. Chances are you will rediscover a vintage video game or pinball game that will bring you back to a time before the world went online. classicarcademuseum.org

Comicopia

A comic book store seems pretty niche, but the birth of Double Midnight Comics in Manchester 20 years ago (this year) just happened to coincide with the rise of the humble comic book to become one of the most significant contributors to America’s pop-culture wealth. Their shops in Manchester and Concord sell comics, games and such, but the galvanizing effect of purposefully drawing the state’s fan community together has boosted our creative economy in ways large and small. Collaborations that have grown out of Double Midnight Comics include the New Hampshire Film Festival (back in session this year after a Covid hiatus) and Granite State Comicon, not to mention the countless partnerships and business plans spawned over a session of Magic the Gathering or Pokemon or after an in-depth discussion about the relative strengths of the Marvel-universe metals vibranium and adamantium. dmcomics.com

Epicurean Virtual Golf

Portsmouth’s Tour is much more than a haven for virtual golfers who enjoy their favorite craft beer and teeing off into a digital golf course vista. It is also a fine-dining restaurant and eclectic sports bar that combines the fun of a round of golf with a menu that includes everything from brick oven pizza and a full array of specialty burgers to entrées like grilled Scottish salmon, baked cod and beef filet medallions. Tour is located in the former Tuscan Kitchen restaurant on Lafayette Road and opened last winter. Reservations are required to book one of the five virtual golf bays. Reservations are not needed for the adjacent dining room. tourportsmouth.com

Mel’s Funway Park BED AND BREAKFAST

The Inn at Valley Farms

Walpole / innatvalleyfarms.com CAMPGROUND

Wakeda Campground Hampton Falls wakedacampground.com

FAMILY-FRIENDLY RESORT

The Inn at East Hill Farm Troy / east-hill-farm.com NH SPORTS TEAM

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Manchester milb.com/new-hampshire RESORT/HOTEL SPA

Omni Mount Washington Resort

Bretton Woods omnihotels.com/hotels/bretton-woods-mount-washington SKI RESORT

Loon Mountain

Lincoln / loonmtn.com SUMMER OUTDOOR ATTRACTION OVERALL

SUMMER OUTDOOR ATTRACTION Lakes Region

Squam Lakes Natural Science Center

Holderness / nhnature.org SUMMER OUTDOOR ATTRACTION Manchester Area

Mel’s Funway Park Litchfield melsfunwaypark.com

SUMMER OUTDOOR ATTRACTION Monadnock Region

The Inn at East Hill Farm Troy / east-hill-farm.com SUMMER OUTDOOR ATTRACTION Seacoast Region

Hampton Beach

Hampton / hamptonbeach.org SUMMER OUTDOOR ATTRACTION White Mountains Region

Santa’s Village

Jefferson / santasvillage.com

Canobie Lake Park Salem / canobie.com

SUMMER OUTDOOR ATTRACTION Dartmouth/Lake Sunapee Region

John Hay Estate at The Fells COURTESY PHOTOS

Newbury / thefells.org SUMMER OUTDOOR ATTRACTION Great North Woods

Bear Rock Adventures Pittsburg bearrockadventures.com

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 71

FUN && ADVENTURE ADVENTURE FUN

Unique Boating Experience

When many people think about how they would like to spend a day out on the water, the Piscataqua docked at Portsmouth’s Prescott Park may not be the first option that comes to mind. But upon further review, this historic replica gundalow provides one of the most unique, enjoyable and educational ways to enjoy Portsmouth Harbor and the Piscataqua River. The 11/2-hour day cruises allow passengers to learn about the history of the Seacoast and includes sights such as the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard across the river in Kittery, Fort Constitution and Portsmouth Harbor Light in nearby New Castle, and the beautiful Portsmouth waterfront. The gundalow is a large-scale barge with one main sail that was extensively used to haul timber, granite blocks and other supplies from Portsmouth to several ports in the Great Bay Estuary communities of Dover, Durham, Exeter and South Berwick, Maine, via the Salmon Falls River.

The Piscataqua gundalow was constructed at Strawbery Banke by a legion of volunteers using the same materials and techniques employed by shipwrights more than three centuries ago. The Gundalow Company also offers evening sails that include live music and educational cruises for students and teachers. gundalow.org

Families who have always wanted to experience a trail ride on horseback in the Lakes Region cannot miss with High Meadows Farms in Wolfeboro.

Riders of all levels, from toddlers to well-seasoned, are welcome to experience horseback riding. Owner and lead trainer Sue Ballantine and her staff pride themselves on giving every one of their visitors the outing they seek.

Some of the most important members of their team are the four-legged steeds: Tinkerbell, Marshmallow, Harry Potter, Jelly Bean, Tarzan, et al. Trail rides are offered in summer and winter. The summer location provides spectacular views of the White Mountains and rolling grass pastures from the middle of June through Columbus Day weekend. The winter barn contains endless trails into the woods, past small streams, over bridges, and through acres of beautiful scenery. All trails are wide and well maintained and can be accessed throughout most of the year. Reservations are required. They also hold a horse show on the first Sunday in August that features all of Ballantine’s students. This event is open and free to the public. highmeadowsfarms.com 72 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

COURTESY PHOTOS

Quintessential Horseback Riding

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 73

FUN & ADVENTURE

Marine Education

This year, the Seacoast Science Center is celebrating 30 years of educating Granite Staters about the Blue Ocean, and we want to celebrate alongside them. The heart of the Seacoast Science Center beats to spark curiosity, enhance understanding, and inspire the conservation of our Blue Planet, all of which are infused into their events, educational programs and workshops. Get up close and personal with the fascinating creatures that live just outside their doors in any of their exhibits, spend a day doing your own Odiorne State Park Adventure, or go on a guided wildlife kayak tour of Little Harbor and its estuarine waters. seacoastsciencecenter.org

Garden Glamping

Glamping lovers and adventure seekers need to know about Alpine Garden Camping Village & Winery in Bartlett. Their collection of pods, cabins and a treehouse has everything you need, including full bathrooms, queen-size beds, combined AC and heat units, a fire pit, a standing charcoal grill, linens and sheets, and mini bar stocked with their own wine and cider. The location is minutes away from an abundance of shopping, restaurants and miles of hiking, and their property is adjacent to other local attractions like Crawford Notch and Story Land. alpinegardenglamping.com

Long before the first European settlers came to New Hampshire, the Granite State was home to several indigenous Native American tribes.

One of the best ways to learn about New Hampshire’s Native American heritage and culture is to attend the Laconia Indian Historical Association Pow Wows in Sanbornton. Learners Weekend on July 30 and 31 features free admission and gives visitors the opportunity to visit with Native American New Hampshire residents and appreciate the intricate craft of bead making, dancing and drums. The state’s largest pow wow takes place on Labor Day weekend. Beginning on September 2, Sanbornton becomes the center of the New Hampshire Native American universe. Drums, dancers, flutists, storytelling, artisans, craftsmen, sweet treats and more will be featured at this three-day event. Reservations are required to book any available sites. lihaofnh.net 74 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

COURTESY PHOTOS

Native American Celebration

Vintage Hotel Experience

With its Greek Revival architecture and commanding position on Main Street Littleton, the Thayer’s Inn just oozes authentic downtown hotel grandeur.

Indeed, the hotel maintains a long history of hosting notable dignitaries, ranging from Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Franklin Pierce, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush to celebrities like P.T. Barnum, arctic explorer Cdr. Robert E. Peary, movie star Bette Davis and author Michael Blake (“Dances with Wolves”).

With a reputation for clean rooms and comforting hospitality in all the ways that matter, the hotel owners happily admit that “slanted doors and crooked floors add character to the building and is testament to its heritage and post-and-beam construction.” thayersinn.com

yonezawa family, distillers since 1917

Akashi city - Hyogo product of japan

Imported by Marussia Beverages USA | Cedar Knolls, NJ | Please Drink Responsibly

Kids’ Cooking Classes

At the Culinary Playground in Derry, food is fun. And tasty. Since 2008, they’ve been teaching kids and grownups that cooking isn’t daunting, really taking that mission to heart with some tougher-than-average sounding classes. Here, kids can try their hands at making — from scratch — things like ravioli, pierogi, and even the notoriously fussy French macarons. Cooking projects are broken down into easily digestible steps, taught by instructors skilled in explaining them to kids on their level without talking down to them. There are options for kids ages 6 and older, the dinner club for those over 8 (your kid will come home with dinner and dessert for four), teen bootcamp and more, plus classes for adults. culinary-playground.com

©2022 THE BOSTON BEER COMPANY, BOSTON, MA.

SAVOR THE FLAVOR RESPONSIBLY®

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 75

E D I T O R ’S P I C K S

76 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Viva Laconia

After local bin-bangers Recycled Percussion took the global stage as finalists on “America’s Got Talent,” the next stop on the road to fame was a yearslong residency in Las Vegas. When they finally returned to New Hampshire, they brought a bit of Vegas back with them and settled in the Lakes Region, gifting sleepy Laconia with two attractions that seem to have been teleported straight from the Vegas Strip to the banks of Lake Winnipesaukee. Their Chaos & Kindness store (in Lakeport) is packed with an ever-changing array of themed fashion, band merch and fun, making it a natural hangout for locals and a draw for tourists. But it was when they opened The CAKE Theatre in an old abandoned church building in downtown Laconia that the Vegas connection became undeniable. This small theater space is packed with enough lighting, electronics, special effects, confetti cannons and lasers to distract even a high-roller on a winning streak. The CAKE continues to sell out pulse-pounding performances

by Recycled Percussion and also hosts other acts and events in this state-ofthe-art venue. thecaketheatre.com

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Getting out of the house was once a primary motivation for anyone seeking something fun or exciting to do, but with high-speed internet and the spread of fiber-optic cable, the best way out of the house for many is via a keyboard and a screen. Manchester Moves wants to change that by “connecting the Queen City to the rest of the state via trails and greenways while empowering people to live an active lifestyle.” Along with undertaking infrastructure projects, raising funds for trail expansions, and restoring underutilized parks and spaces, Manchester Moves also works to make city streets and avenues more people-friendly, all with the goal of keeping folks healthy and active in the Granite State. manchestermoves.org

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Experience all the best of the Granite State. To subscribe or advertise, call 603-624-1442. nhmagazine.com nhhomemagazine.com bridenh.com nhbr.com reaL nH Wedding

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THIS & THAT People’s Pub Revival

When the Press Room in Portsmouth closed for repairs a year ago, there was a tangible chill in the air. Some locals could not imagine the city without this historic hangout and hub of townie pride. Even talk of improvements came with trepidation over the fear of what favorite flaw or quirk might be eliminated in a well-intended remodeling plan. But the Press Room has reopened with a new bar and stage and yet the great music, local vibe and friendly feel are still there, proving that this iconic bar in our iconic seaside city has plenty to offer another generation of hipsters, locals and savvy tourists. pressroomnh.com

National Treasure Times Two

The Currier Museum in Manchester is the jewel in the crown of the Queen City’s cultural scene with world-class exhibits and a treasure trove of art in its own collection, but the idea of collecting architectural treasures may not have been in the original vision. Now, with the acquisition of a second Frank Lloyd Wright “Usonian Automatic” house in the same neighborhood as the one they have maintained for years, the Currier has the equivalent of a Usonian one-two punch for lovers of Wright’s pragmatic modernity. currier.org

Dog walkers are a special breed. We get attached to our canine pals, but a leash takes “attachment” to a whole new level and limits the places you can pause. The influx of “pandemic puppies” that helped us through Covid isolation are now getting more of us out of the house, but where to go? Golden Dog Adventure Company, originally a professional dog-walking business in Barrington, wants to meet the need for more safe and inclusive spaces for dogs (and their people) to share experiences. Golden Dog currently offers members a delightful variety of resources, walks, socials, and even a “sensory scavenger hunt” and they plan to expand statewide. nhdogwalkingclub.com 78 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

The Usonian Automatic House

COURTESY PHOTOS

Dynamic Dog Walking

nhmagazine.com | July 2022 79

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603 Living “My whole soul feels like a yawning hole that only this bird can fill.”

COURTESY PHOTO

— Sy Montgomery

86 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Health 100 Seniority 102 Ayuh 104

The Books of Summer The best summer reads for 2022 by New Hampshire authors

T

his season, you have no excuse for being without something good to read — whether you’re indoors or on a socially distanced plot of beach somewhere. You can discover the wondrous world of one of nature’s fiercest creatures, the hawk, with Sy Montgomery, follow Ken Sheldon down the rabbit hole of a WWI-era true crime story, distract yourself by trying to untangle the (fictional) mystery in “Whirlybird Island” by Ernest Hebert, get literary with a volume of poetry by Rebecca Kaiser Gibson and much more. There’s something for every reader, and plenty of opportunity to discover your next favorite author. The ideal place to buy books is at your local bookseller, and while there’s a short list of excellent options on page 89, make sure to read this story online at nhmagazine.com for even more suggestions.

“The Hawk’s Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty” Review by Lisa Rogak

“Inches from my face, I hold a living dinosaur.”

In the first line of her new book, Hancock-based, New York Times bestselling writer Sy Montgomery’s “The Hawk’s Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty” cuts right to the chase.

Falconry is a world of violence, of hawks toward their prey and occasionally toward their human companions. Indeed, vivid descriptions of crunching bones, a gushing

wound from a misplaced talon, and sliced ears — all human — pepper the book, which chronicles Montgomery’s experiences working with a 4-year-old female Harris’s hawk named Jazz. I’ve flown hawks before with an experienced falconer, but truth be told, if I had read her book beforehand, I may have bowed out.

Even Montgomery’s own husband, novelist Howard Mansfield, tells his wife that training a hawk is “like handling a loaded gun.”

Montgomery is unruffled. “It’s her wildness I want,” she admits.

In many of her previous books — including “The Soul of an Octopus” and “The Good Good Pig” — Montgomery approaches the main character with the expectation of winning over a new friend. Though they may be gentle or fierce, and occasionally wary, eventually the critter warms up to her.

This is something a hawk will never do; like a narcissistic spouse or partner, it’s always all about them. So when falconer Nancy Cowan took Montgomery under her wing to train her in everything hawk, she spelled it out at the very beginning: “If you want love out of this, you’re too needy.”

She was OK with that. In fact, she was stunned by her hawk obsession, one-sided as it may be, writing, “My whole soul feels like a yawning hole that only this bird can fill.”

Perhaps her most salient discovery comes nhmagazine.com | July 2022 87

603 LIVING / RECOMMENDED SUMMER READS

Book Reviewlets

by Crystal Kent

“Point of Graves” by J. Dennis Robinson

88 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

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New Hampshire’s birches are known for their flexibility and strength, and in Rebecca Kaiser Gibson’s poems, they become the metaphor for her journey from young girl to woman. Like the trees, Gibson withstands and overcomes storms, changes and various seasons as she views the options open to her, gender roles and other constraints. Her journey takes her through times of silence and repression, passion and articulation, action and boldness. The poems themselves change in form, from the impressionistic writings of childhood to the lyric poems of memory and experience as her emotional, social and spiritual self evolves. “Girl as Birch,” Bauhan Publishing, $17 R G

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“Girl as Birch” by Rebecca Kaiser Gibson

EB

ECCA KAISER

“Deep Water” by Ken Sheldon

Ken Sheldon spent two years delving into thousands of pages of FBI documents, trial transcripts, newspaper accounts and eyewitness reports as he probed the long-ago murder of William K. Dean.

The brutal killing occurred just as World War I was winding down. Dean’s body was found hogtied and dumped into a cistern on his farm. His wife, who was in the early stages of dementia, was the initial suspect, but her friends pointed to a former tenant, believed to be a German spy.

Others believed that Dean’s friend, a politically prominent banker and former judge, was involved.

The homicide split the town of Jaffrey in two, and Sheldon discovers that the effects are still felt to this day. The gripping tale reveals how wartime hysteria, political maneuvering and misleading reports N KEN SHELDO nearly tore a small town apart. “Deep Water” Down East Books, $19.95

COURTESY IMAGES

“The Hawk’s Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty,” Atria Books, $20

Harbortown Press, $14.99

IB

when she is forced to reconcile her lengthy tenure as a vegetarian with the cutthroat eat-or-be-eaten life of a hawk. Montgomery raises chickens, and has to fight down some preconceived notions — as well as bile — when she shows up at Cowan’s house one day to find her sitting at her kitchen table calmly sawing the heads off frozen baby chicks, a vital tool in training a young hawk.

“They love the heart,” says Cowan. “And the heads. The whole thing about falconry is getting to hunt. Not to hunt is to deny what they are.”

Montgomery is torn, thinking of the chicks who nestle up to her back at home.

But the desire to connect with that unpredictable and ancient wildness wins out over entrenched principle, frozen chick head be damned. Once outside, she offers up a fluffy, icy morsel to a hawk named Fire and admits to feeling something akin to a mother’s satisfaction when she flies to her glove and lustily digs in.

“What is happening to me?” she wonders.

But it’s nothing more than this: In pursuing communion with a creature that harkens back millions of years, she was forced to adapt her own actions and belief system, and in the process she stumbled upon an endemic trouble in today’s society — digging in to defend your own cause while blind to the needs and desires of others.

Montgomery could have easily refused to sacrifice her morals and would have still gotten a good book out of it.

But the animal world isn’t black and white. And neither is ours.

In that, “The Hawk’s Way” presents an important lesson we could all learn.

Locals will recognize the name “Point of Graves” as a real-life Portsmouth cemetery. One can feel the power of the past in this ancient burial ground with its tilted, skull-embossed stones and windswept riverside location. In his first novel, J. Dennis Robinson, a respected historian, expertly blends history, mystery and authentic Portsmouth locations to create a fascinating tale. Reporter Clair Caswell recruits her former lover, museum caretaker Levi Woodbury, when a mysterious death occurs in New Hampshire’s oldest seaport. What is the connection between the dead man, his missing “manifesto,” and the possibility that an ancient cemetery lies beneath the site of the city’s next high-rise parking garage? “Point of Graves”

“The Spiral Shell” by Sandell Morse

In April of 1940, France fell to Nazi Germany and the lives of its Jewish citizens were never the same. Under the Axis regime, those Jews who did not escape or go into hiding were arrested or deported. Sandell Morse spent a three-year writing residency in Auvillar, France, and discovered incredible acts of bravery and rebellion by several Jewish families and individuals. These people took terrible risks to save the lives of innocent refugees and children orphaned by the Holocaust.

“The Spiral Shell” is their story but also the story of Morse’s own journey of self-awareness as she uncovers truths about her own life and Jewish heritage.

Standing up to oppression and genocide resonates today S A

as much as it did 80 years ago. “The Sprial Shell, Schaffner Press, 24.95; $16.99

ND

Support Your Local Bookseller RiverRun Bookstore

32 Daniel St., Portsmouth / (603) 431-2100 riverrunbookstore.com

Gibson’s Bookstore

45 South Main St., Concord / (603) 224-0562 gibsonsbookstore.com

Toadstool Bookshop

375 Amherst St., Nashua / (603) 673-1734 12 Emerald St., Keene / (603) 352-8815 12 Depot Square, Peterborough (603)-924-3543 / toadbooks.com

Bookery

844 Elm St., Manchester / (603) 836-6600 bookerymht.com See this story online for more great local bookstores.

ELL MORSE

“Whirlybird Island”

by Ernest Hebert

As a teenager, Junie Blaise is traumatized by the death of his father in a supposed hunting accident. The incident occurs while his dad is out with three fellow Korean War veterans during their annual reunion. Now in his 60s, the widowed Blaise lives an agoraphobic existence in a log cabin on Grace Pond in New Hampshire. Although much time has passed, he finds himself haunted by what really went on in the woods the day his father died. Blaise connects with Trinity Landrieu, a 20-something computer hacker and investigator, and the two begin unraveling a series of killings connected to America’s “forgotten war.” Along the way, they discover a disturbing incident that triggered the present ER NES violence and learn that some wars never really end. “Whirlybird Island,” T T BER HE

Plaidswede Publishing, $19.95

More Good Reads by New Hampshire Writers

“This Understated Land” Collected poems by Sidney Hall Jr. hobblebush.com

“Slate”

Fiction by Ernesto Burden nhbooksellers.com

“Tiger Lovin’ Blues”

Essays, poems and works edited by Dan Szczesny nhmagazine.com | July 2022 89

Sun & Sand Oasis...

HAMPTON BEACHHNH Please visit www.hamptonbeach.org for 2022 calendar updates

The Hampton Beach Village District Welcomes You Back this Summer!

• Nightly Live Bands and Entertainment • Spectacular Fireworks, start Mid June, Weds. & Holidays • Monday Night Movies on the Beach, July 11 - Aug. 29 • Country Music Fest, July 5, 6, 7 • 76th Miss Hampton Beach Contest, July 30 & 31 • Hampton Beach Talent Competition, August 26, 27, 28 • Boston Circus Guild Cirque du Hampton, Sept. 3 • Boston Circus Guild Fire Show on the Beach, Sept. 17

FREE Events are paid for by the Businesses and Residents of Hampton Beach Village District

HHHHH

SUPER STAR BEACH earns top honors for clean water

5 STAR RATING: Rated in the top 5 beaches in US and in the top 10 values for resorts in America for water quality and safety by the National Resources Defense Council.

Hampton Beach is rated 1 of 4 beaches in water cleanliness of all beaches in U.S.A.! as awarded by The Surfrider Foundation & Sierra Club’s “The Cleanest Beach Award”.

For a FREE Hampton Beach Vacation Guide and to View our Beach Cam, Visit www.hamptonbeach.org 104

nhmagazine.com | July 2019

Bienvenue Hampton

Calendar OUR FAVORITE EVENTS FOR JULY Ch oi ce

July 16

Ed ito r’ s

American Independence Festival > If you didn’t get all the patriotism out of your system on the Fourth of July, then try this later homage to America. Activities at this 31-year-old event include battle reenactments, lawn games, live music and enough kids’ activities to keep the little ones entertained all day. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., American Independence Museum, 1 Governors Ln., Exeter. (603) 772-2622; independencemuseum.org July 30

23rd Annual Chocolate Fest > Enjoy an evening of chocolate temptations in Town Square accompanied by a free outdoor concert as the sun sets. Pack a picnic or just bring a bottle of your favorite red or white libation, and enjoy an indulgent evening in the square, on a blanket, or with your toes in the sand. 6-9 p.m. Town Square, Waterville Valley. (800) 993-3149; waterville.com July 30

July 1-29

New Hampshire Music Festival > Celebrating 70 years of classical music, the New Hampshire Music Festival features world-class performances of symphonic, choral and chamber music at venues in Plymouth and Wolfeboro. Highlights of the four-week festival include Polivnick’s “Carmina Burana” and “American Creations and a Tchaikovsky Masterpiece.” Dates, times and locations vary. (603) 238-9007; nhmf.org

Fairs & Festivals July 7-10

Hillsboro Summer Festival > From live music and a parade to a fairway full of carnival rides, this festival is packed with activities. This year, there will also be a beer tent, fireworks, a 5K road race, car and truck show and more. For a free spectacle, stick around till dusk on Friday night. $10 a carload. Times vary. Grimes Field, 29 Preston St., Hillsboro. (603) 464-0377; hillsborosummerfest.com July 9

Keep NH Brewing Festival > For a beer fest that’s all New Hampshire, all the time, look no further than this annual fête. The event features more than 50 Granite State breweries and over 130 craft beers on tap, making it the largest single collection of N.H. breweries found at any event in 2022. $20-$65. 12 to 4 p.m., Kiwanis Waterfront Park, 15 Loudon Rd., Concord. (334) 6032337; nhbrewers.org

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July 15

14th Annual Concert & Silent Auction > This benefit concert featuring 33 ⅓ live’s Killer Queen Experience and auction raises critical funding to support uninsured children, adolescents and adults with direct access to comprehensive emergency, clinical and medical

services, case management, substance use treatment, and community-based counseling support. $40-$55.

6 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry. (603) 437-5100 tupelomusichall.com > New Hampshire Magazine is a proud sponsor of this event.

July 15-17

Ribfest & Food Truck Festival > This amazing festival will feature great food, music, kids’ activities and beer.

While you enjoy pulled pork, other delicious barbecue and games, your kids can take part in bounce houses, obstacle courses and more. Proceeds from the event will support the Merrimack Rotary Club. The new organizers are hoping to attract about 20,000 visitors, so don’t forget to snag your ticket before they are gone. $5$27.50. Times vary. Anheuser-Busch Brewery, 221 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack. greatamericanribfest.com July 16-17

32nd Annual Craft Fair at the Bay > Celebrate summer by attending this crafty event. The Lake Winnipesaukee waterfront will come alive with color, flavor and music. Over 75 artisans from around New England will display and sell their handmade arts and crafts.

Delicious specialty foods will also be available to sample.

Free. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Alton Bay Community House & Grounds, 24 Mt. Major Hwy., Alton Bay. (603) 332-2616; castleberryfairs.com

Hebron Fair > This fair boasts that it’s the place to be for the last Saturday in July. Festivities include more than 100 craftspeople, pony rides, children’s games, white elephants, delicious foods, baked goods, plants and a silent auction. It’s held on the picturesque Hebron Common at the north end of Newfound Lake and will happen rain or shine. Free. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Hebron Common, 16 Church Ln., Hebron. (603) 409-7143; hebronchurchfair.org

Sports & Recreation July 8-9

The Prouty > If you enjoy outdoor recreation of just about any kind, then you’ll find something to suit your tastes at this annual mega-fundraiser for the Dartmouth Cancer Center. Cyclists can opt for 20- to 100-mile rides or the 200-mile, two-day Prouty Ultimate; walkers can choose anything from a 3K stroll through Hanover to a 10K walk in the woods; rowers can hit the Connecticut River for 5-20 miles; and golfers can enjoy a four-person scramble at the Hanover Country Club. Don’t like any of those? They also need volunteers. Prices, times and locations around Hanover vary. (603) 646-5500; theprouty.org July 9

Hikers Club: Bald Knob via Turtleback Mt. Trail Hike > Led by an experienced volunteer hiker, this week’s Castle in the Clouds hike is along Turtleback Mountain Trail to Bald Knob. The moderate level hike is about 6 miles and has an elevation climb of approximately 750 feet. Free. 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Castle in the Clouds, Rte. 171 455 Old Mountain Rd., Moultonborough.

(603) 476-5900; castleintheclouds.org July 10

Loon Mountain Race > This Granite State race is the race to end all races. It is 6.02 miles, 10.62 kilometers, has an elevation gain of 3,125 feet and an average slope of 14%. It has a reputation as one of the country’s toughest mountain races, in large part due to the kilometer ascent of North Peak known as Upper Walking Boss. “The Boss,” as it’s known, is around a kilometer nhmagazine.com | July 2022 91

603 LIVING / CALENDAR

Ed ito r’ s

Ch oi ce

event help keep the pocket gardens of New London beautiful and to support scholarship projects. $8. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., New London Town Green, Main St., New London. newlondongardenclub.org

Arts & Music July 5-August 26

2022 Bank of New Hampshire Children’s Summer Series > Are you a Disney fan? This Summer Children’s Series boasts a variety of well-known and loved stories that include music, dancing, audience participation and more. Even better, your kids have the opportunity to meet the characters at the end of every show.

This year’s lineup includes “Beauty and the Beast,” “Cinderella,” “Wizard of Oz,” “Peter Pan,” “Rapunzel” and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” $10. Shows at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., The Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester. (603) 668-5588; palacetheatre.org July 7-28

New England Hot Sauce Fest > This festival is for hot sauce and non-hot sauce lovers alike.

Partake in activities ranging from hot pepper and wing competitions to bouncy houses to sampling from over 25 hot sauce vendors and multiple craft vendors. There will be ’80s-themed music playing throughout the day, and your four-legged family members are welcome to join in on the fun too.

Proceeds will support the Blue Ocean Society and Seacoast Science Center. $10-$15. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Smuttynose Brewing Company, 105 Towle Farm Rd., Hampton. newenglandhotsaucefest.com

Atlantic Grill Music by the Sea Concerts > This summerlong concert series brings some of New England’s hottest bands to the Seacoast on Thursday nights. Enjoy great tunes from bands like Jumbo Circus Peanuts or Joshua Tree and the seaside setting while supporting the Center and their ocean education mission. Bring a blanket or chair, pack a picnic or purchase dinner and beverages onsite. Concertgoers can also enjoy the Center and its exhibits, free with concert admission. $15-$20. 6 to 8:30 p.m., 570 Ocean Blvd., Rye. (603) 436-2235; seacoastsciencecenter.org

> New Hampshire Magazine is a proud sponsor of this event.

July 20-31

of grassy slope with angles that exceed a 40% grade.

Voted as one of the five classic vertical trail races in the U.S., this race is no joke. If you are feeling daring this summer, be sure to check this one out. $50. 7:30 a.m., Loon Mountain Resort, 60 Loon Mountain Rd., Lincoln. loonmountainrace.com July 17

Ribfest 5 Miler > This course starts at the AnheuserBusch Brewery and heads north up Daniel Webster Highway, makes a slight right onto D.W. Drive before turning right on Island Drive, then turns back onto D.W. Drive before turning left on Pondview Drive, and finally heading south on Daniel Webster Highway for the journey back to the brewery. Your registration also includes free entry into the Great American Ribfest, where all 21 and over participants can redeem complimentary beer tickets. $30-$45. 9 a.m., Anheuser-Busch Brewery, 221 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack. millenniumrunning.com July 17

Ambetter 301 > If you haven’t taken the plunge to attend a NASCAR race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, here is your chance. The NASCAR Cup Series will make its traditional mid-summer visit to “The Magic Mile” for a night of fun that you won’t want to miss. $10-$49+. 3 to 6 p.m., New Hampshire Motor Speedway, 1122 NH-106, Loudon. (603) 783-4931; nhms.com July 31

13th Annual Sunrise Ascent on Mount Washington > Get your hiking shoes and cameras ready, this is an event that you won’t want to miss. Before sunrise, teams ascend the Mount Washington Auto Road to reach the 6,288-foot summit. Each team includes an adaptive athlete and “mules” who will help an athlete needing assistance or accompany an independent athlete as he or she climbs the 7.6 miles to the summit. This inspirational outing benefits the Adaptive Sports Partners of the North Country. Donations accepted. 5 a.m., Auto Road, Gorham. (603) 823-5232; adaptivesportspartners.org 92 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

Miscellaneous July 20

Heroes and Homecomings: Norman Rockwell and World War II > America’s most beloved illustrator created dozens of images related to the Second World War. What happens when an artist known for his use of humor tackles the serious subject of war? This program explores how Norman Rockwell’s work departs from earlier artistic interpretations of American conflicts and considers how and why he chose specific wartime themes to present to the millions of readers of the Saturday Evening Post. Free. 7:30 p.m., Holderness Historical Society, Curry Place, 846 Route 3, Holderness.

(603) 968-7487; nhhumanities.org July 29

Designing With and Blending Tea Garden Herbs with John Forti > Why shop for tea at your local supermarket when you can grow your own herb garden in your backyard and create your own concoctions?

John Forti will teach you how to create your own tea creations, and there will be a tea luncheon to follow the workshop. Feel free to hang around and stroll through the formal Parterre Garden, the Garish Garden, the Dark Woods and more while pausing to admire the Japanese teahouse, a gazebo, the 200-foot waterworks called the Wiggle Waggle and, of course, plant species from all over the world. There is a $10 suggested donation.

10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Bedrock Gardens, 45 High Rd.,Lee. (603) 659-2993; bedrockgardens.org July 30

The New London Antique Show and Sale > The New London Garden Club will hold its annual antique show and sale on the New London town green. The Garden Club’s Café will be serving sandwiches, soups, salads and pies, and the Flower Tent will be full of creative bouquets. The club has joined with Goosefare Antiques and Promotions of Saco, Maine, to bring over 50 quality dealers to the show. The proceeds of the

“The King and I” > This 1952 Tony Award-winner for Best Musical, a classic by Rodgers and Hammerstein, is based on “Anna and the King of Siam,” a 1944 novel by Margaret Landon. Anna is a widowed British schoolteacher brought to Siam to tutor the King’s many children. When she arrives, though she enjoys an instant connection to the students, she struggles with cultural differences and with the headstrong King. Through her kindness and persistence, Anna eventually connects with the King, helping to fuel mutual feelings of social understanding and cultural acceptance and openness. $25-$36. Times vary, Interlakes Theatre, 1 Laker Ln., Meredith. (603) 707-6035; interlakestheatre.com July 22

Vernon Family Farm Live Music Series: Jake Davis & The Whiskey Stones > This favorite family farm is known as a one-stop shop for shopping local, but their outdoor music series is one for the books too. Head over to the farm for live music from Jake Davis & The Whiskey Stones, a band that blends old-time, bluegrass, jazz country and soulful Americana music. Grab your friends and family, and head over for a night of community, fried chicken and music at a space that nurtures the human desire to connect and love. $12-$35. 4 to 7:30 p.m., Vernon Family Farm, 301 Piscassic Rd., Newfields.

(603) 340-4321; vernonfamilyfarm.com > New Hampshire Magazine is a proud sponsor of this event.

July 29

Billy Prine & the Prine Time Band > Billy Prine is a natural-born storyteller just like his late, great brother, John Prine. During these concerts celebrating John’s life in song, Billy will tell stories about or surrounding some of John’s most beloved songs before leading his band through his version of John’s timeless masterpieces.

As an example, fans will get to hear the first time John played his classic song “Paradise” for their father as the family sat around the kitchen table. You won’t want to miss this. $39-$49. 7:30 p.m., The Flying Monkey Movie House & Performance Center, 39 S. Main St., Plymouth.

(603) 536-2551; flyingmonkeynh.com

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603 LIVING / HEALTH

A

Seeking Better Shut-eye?

Melatonin, along with good sleep habits, might help

BY KAREN A. JAMROG / ILLUSTRATION BY GLORIA DILLANIN 100

New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

fter all we’ve been through the past couple of years, you’d think we’d be exhausted. Sleep struggles have significantly worsened during the pandemic, however, a phenomenon some medical experts refer to as “coronasomnia.”

If you’re among the 60% of people who, since the start of the pandemic, have found that Mr. Sandman plays hard to get, you might wonder if you should try one of the over-the-counter melatonin supplements advertised as sleep aids. Melatonin comes in a range of doses and forms, from capsules and gummies to transdermal patches.

Melatonin supplements boost the body’s store of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate the body’s circadian rhythm, or internal clock, and sleep. “As we get into evening and night when it gets dark, our natural melatonin increases and that helps us to fall asleep. During daytime, melatonin declines and that helps us to stay awake,” explains Safana Mushtaq, M.D., a primary care physician at St. Joseph Family Medicine and Specialty Services in Milford.

Research indicates that melatonin supplements can provide relief from certain sleep-related conditions. It is especially likely to help people who are wired as night owls to fall asleep earlier, for example, and there is evidence that it can alleviate jet-lag symptoms.

But because melatonin is considered a dietary supplement, it is not closely regulated by the FDA, which makes it difficult for the average consumer to be confident of the effectiveness and contents of melatonin supplements, including the concentration in melatonin products, Mushtaq says.

Some individuals should avoid taking melatonin, such as pregnant and breastfeeding women and people with depression.

Otherwise, melatonin supplements are generally considered safe for short-term use, although they can interact with medications and can cause side effects such as nausea, irritability, dizziness, anxiety, depression, nightmares or vivid dreams and daytime sleepiness to the extent that driving or operating a machine can be difficult or dangerous, Mushtaq says.

Many doctors stress that melatonin should not be considered a silver bullet that will eliminate sleep struggles. If you experience insomnia or other sleep difficulties, talk to your doctor so that your sleep quality and lifestyle habits can be evaluated as an initial step that helps pinpoint the root cause

Spiff up your sleep hygiene

Sleep is essential to health. To promote restorative sleep, stick to lifestyle habits that support what’s known as “sleep hygiene.”

Examples of sleep hygiene include avoiding TV, cell phones, tablets and similar electronic devices for at least two hours prior to bedtime; limiting caffeine intake to morning hours; and not drinking alcohol after dinner. Bedroom temperature should be kept at around 60 to 67 degrees, and if you are in the habit of taking naps, you should restrict them to 20 minutes or less in a location that is different from the bed you sleep in at night.

To further support quality sleep, eat healthful foods, get the recommended amount of exercise, and maintain a similar sleep schedule day to day — including weekends.

For more sleep-hygiene tips, visit the National Sleep Foundation at sleepfoundation.org. of the problem. Some people, for example, might learn that a medication they take interferes with sleep, or that they have a disorder such as sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome, which typically call for their own form of treatment.

Additionally, while the stress and uncertainty of the pandemic have undoubtedly contributed to the surge in sleep woes, an increase in electronic screen time is also often to blame. Light exposure is a huge enemy of quality sleep, and one of the top

WE

culprits of sleep troubles in an age when most people gaze at a screen of one sort or another throughout the day and into the evening. Because fading daylight triggers the release of naturally occurring melatonin, light exposure from a laptop, phone, TV or similar device stifles melatonin secretion toward the end of the day and leaves us feeling awake and unprepared for sleep.

“We need to set ourselves up to transition to sleep,” says Mark J. Integlia, M.D., a pediatric gastroenterologist and medical

pediatric specialty director at Elliot Health System. Activities within two hours of bedtime should help us “wind down,” he says. Caffeine intake should be limited and should cease by 4 p.m. — preferably by mid-morning because caffeine remains in the bloodstream for hours. “We are a way overcaffeinated society,” Integlia says.

“Going to Starbucks at 3, 4 or 5 o’clock in the afternoon is not setting yourself up for sleep.” Alcohol should also be restricted and not consumed, many experts say, beyond dinnertime, or at least within three to four hours of bedtime.

Healthful eating and exercise also promote quality rest. “Exercise is wonderful to help us get to a place where our bodies are going to be looking for that rest and looking for that sleep,” Integlia says.

Given the general disrespect for sleep that pervades society these days, getting quality rest isn’t easy. “There is a war on sleep,” Integlia says. “Most people do not value sleep.

You hear comments like, ‘You can sleep when you die.’ But sleep is critical not only for our body but also our mind.” NH

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603 LIVING / SENIORITY

Getting Back in the Game For many, like Charlie Sherman, early retirement has led to unretiring

BY LYNNE SNIERSON / ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN R. GOODWIN

J

ust like seven-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Tom Brady, many of those who recently retired are finding that relief has turned to regret, so they’re boomeranging back to work.

During what is known as “The Great Resignation,” when millions of workers quit their jobs due to the onset of the Covid pandemic, there was a rush among the senior set to call it quits on a career. Economists with the investment firm Goldman Sachs estimate that two-thirds of those who stopped working over the last two years were 55-plus, and a high percentage of them put in their papers for an early retirement they previously hadn’t planned.

Now, with vaccines widely available and the pandemic shifting into an endemic, there is far less concern among this vulnerable population about getting seriously sick.

So these days, the trend for baby boomers is “The Great Reversal.”

By this spring, the proportion of retirees returning to the workforce had climbed to 3%, which is the highest percentage

102 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

since back in March 2020, according to federal labor statistics.

But why?

It’s because their dreams of a wonderful retirement didn’t materialize into reality.

The reasons vary, though usually it’s because of a shortfall in finances, the lack of intellectual stimulation, the loss of co-worker camaraderie, the loss of daily structure, the loss of identity, the loss of a sense of purpose or simply boredom. For most, it’s a combination of those factors.

“Once I retired, I said, ‘It’s time. I’m ready for retirement. This should be good.’ But after only a few months, I was going out of my mind. Then I said, ‘This is brutal,’” says award-winning radio and television news anchor and reporter Charlie Sherman, who is one of the best-known broadcasters in New Hampshire and New England. “I went back to work out of sheer boredom.”

Sherman worked at a radio station on the Seacoast before transitioning into television, where he spent 14 years as a sportscaster at WMUR-TV and another three years as

the main news anchor at WNDS-TV. For the next seven years, he hosted the popular morning talk and news program, “The Charlie Sherman Show,” on WGIR-AM radio, and then he was the weekend news anchor on the dominant radio station in the Boston media market, WBZ-AM. When Covid hit and the vaccines had yet to be made available, working in Boston was no longer an option.

“I was commuting up from Florida to do the WBZ gig, so flying back and forth during the pandemic was not a good idea,” says Sherman, who maintains residences in New Hampshire and Florida. “So I reluctantly retired for good. Or so I thought.

Having worked at something since my paper route at age 11, I was suddenly without employment. I was bored stiff. Fast-forward to last year. With all my shots and the pandemic finally winding down a bit, I knew I had to do something.”

But like so many seniors, Sherman, who also spent several years as the executive director of the New Horizons homeless

UNRETIRING TIPS

Maybe you retired but find you’re dissatisfied, or it isn’t financially feasible, and now you want to go back to work. Here are a few tips how to make that U-turn, or if you should.

1. Decide if you still have the drive, determination, and physical and mental abilities to succeed in the job.

2. Determine if full-time, part-time or working as an independent contractor is best.

3. Understand the impact on your taxes and how this will affect your Social Security, pensions and other benefits.

4. Evaluate if your competencies and skills, especially regarding technology, are up to date. If not, know what it will take and how much time you’ll need to ramp up.

5. Don’t market yourself to employers as a regretful retiree. Instead, key on your qualifications, experience and passion for the job.

6. Expand your network and build relationships.

7. Know your deal-breakers.

8. Most important, be certain this is what you really want.

shelter, soup kitchen and food pantry in Manchester, found that even though he has the experience, the résumé and the talent, things would be decidedly different this time around.

“I love the TV business, but no one is looking to hire an overweight, balding senior citizen. I inquired about a part-time radio gig, but pretty much everything is satellite or voice-tracking,” he says.

A survey done by resumebuilder.com finds that 40% of those 55-plus who want to work again have considered switching careers or jobs, either by choice or by necessity. The availability of part-time work, remote work and flexible hours in the current labor market make those attractive and viable options.

“I told my wife, Michelle, that I’ve got to find something to do, something that I don’t look at like a job. There are two golf courses in the community where we live, so I walked down to the clubhouse, which is one mile from my house. I went into the pro shop and said, ‘I’m looking for a job,’” Sherman says. “I turned down the offer of a full-time job, then they called the next day and offered me part-time work as a starter

and ranger. My only question was, ‘How soon can I start?’”

Sherman, who was a vice president at Indian Head Bank before transitioning into broadcasting, says he gets paid $10 per hour and all the free golf he wants.

“The money wasn’t going to make me rich, and I don’t play a lot of golf, but it was something to do. I accepted, and the job is a lot of fun. I’m like the official greeter of the golf course. I meet a lot of interesting people and have interesting conversations. I’m outdoors in the sunshine, and even though I’m not much of a hacker, I am working in the sports field,” he says.

Of all the incentives to go back to work, perhaps none is more important than staying connected to others and staying in the game of life.

“It gets me out of the house, and it gives me a purpose,” says Sherman, who is now embarking on his fifth career. “That was the worst part of it,” he adds. “I began to feel like I had no purpose, especially after being so active and working all my life. Before I took this job down here, I started to question what my relevancy was. Now I’m having so much fun.” NH

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603 LIVING

Small Miracles

I

’m not handy. Luckily, my husband is.

When he put new guts in an old lamp (a large ceramic owl) for our daughter, she was amazed. That lamp, from a local antique shop, sat for months in the dark. Now its owl eyes are alight. Oh, joy.

Sometimes even the handiest of handy-persons overextends, resulting in what some call an “Oh-shoot.” (Others describe it more colorfully.) Like the time Hub nailed his hand to the crossbeam with the power nailer. Or when replacing fascia on the eaves, he threaded a corner board through the rungs of the ladder, effectively nailing the ladder to the house. Or the time Hub and his brother, Nub, installed a pump at camp to pump water from the pond.

“You installed it backwards,” I reminded the brothers on a trip down memory lane.

“No,” Hub said, “we didn’t install it backwards, we wired it backwards.”

Nub poured buckets of water into the pump to prime it. But the prime never took.

As fast as Nub poured the water in, that’s how fast (unbeknownst to Hub and Nub) it gushed out the other end. Oh-shoot.

“Hub,” I asked, “What’s a particularly ignominious oh-shoot?”

“If you’re changing your car’s oil,” he said,

“make sure you know the difference between the oil plug and the transmission fluid plug.”

“Oh,” I said. “Have you ever mixed them up?”

“Yas.” For years, a local named Callum was a go-to guy for non-handy folks with camps, cottages, villas and mansions on The Big Lake. When he retired, he passed some of his customers on to Laura’s handy husband Steve.

He sent three different letters out. One (to the nicest customers) said, “Here’s Steve’s number.

He’ll take care of you.” One said: “Thanks for your business. Here’s your keys. Good luck.”

And the last said: “I think just as highly of you as you have of me all these years.”

Which reminds me of Lucy, housekeeper and handy-person for Doc Johnson, an oldschool Yankee. When Lucy decided, after 48 years, to hang up her broom and hammer, she didn’t hold back: “Doc Johnson, I’ve been taking care of this big house of yours for 48 years and you never once told me I was doing a good job.”

Doc shot back: “Never said you wa’n’t.”

Once, Laura and Steve needed to leave the state for a family function. But how could they abandon their clients in their 30-odd camps, cottages, villas and mansions? Callum helpfully advised: “Just put a message on

your answering machine saying, ‘We’re gone for a few days. If it’s an emergency, call Callum.”

So they did.

After a couple of days away, they called Callum to see how things were going.

They got his answering machine. “Hi, this is Callum. I’m out of town for a couple weeks. If you need something, call Steve.”

An elegant solution.

Laura said Steve was philosophical about the whole handyman gig. Summer people would call in a frenzy because, say, the hot water in the washer didn’t hot up. He’d go over. Move the hot water hose from the cold water hookup to the proper one. Problem solved. Every day was a new challenge: clogged drain, leaky faucet, ceiling fan not fanning, door swelled shut, tree on the roof, weed-whacker won’t whack, smoke puffing out of the fireplace, rodents.

When he came home after addressing yet another dire emergency, if Laura asked how it went, Steve would say, “OK.” Or “Fine.” Or “No biggie.”

“We’re they pleased?”

“Oh, yuh,” he’d say. “Another day.

Another miracle.” NH

BY REBECCA RULE / ILLUSTRATION BY BRAD FITZPATRICK 104 New Hampshire Magazine | July 2022

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