Mountains and the Sea... all in one state!

We are starting to really like New Hampshire! This weekend we drove to the Seacoast (what NH-ites call the state's small shoreline sandwiched between Mass and Maine), which is only an hour and 15 minute drive from our house. On the way we stopped in Newmarket, NH, which is a very cute town but that wasn't why we stopped. For reasons unknown to science, three Mississippi Kites (a hawk that usually prefers climates like Mississippi's) have been hanging out in Newmarket all summer. In fact, two of them are breeding and have a nest with a chick in a big ol' maple tree on Main Street, Newmarket. When we drove by we knew exactly where the birds were because there were about 10 geeky birders hanging out on the sidewalk with huge spotting scopes pointed up at the tree. We were excited to get our first lifer since our trip to Arizona in March.

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Wallis Sands State Beach

We didn't.

We spent the morning at Wallis Sands State Beach, and Aiden got his first taste of swimming in the surf. He was a little apprehensive at first but once he got the hang of it he was racing into all the breaking waves with reckless abandon. We tried to coerce a nap on the beach towel, but it wasn't going to happen (overstimulation!) so we drove just down the street to Ordione State Park. There isn't a sandy beach here, but there's a neat science center with lots of ocean fish tanks, a huge playground, and miles of rocky tidepools to explore. I think Aiden liked it at least as much as the sandy beach.

Tidepools at Ordione State Park

On Sunday we decided to do mountains instead of the seashore, and hiked up Mount Kearsarge with Aiden. He actually hiked up himself (except for some really steep bits that we had to carry him over) and was pretty proud of himself at the top. There was absolutely no view except of the inside of a cloud, but we snacked on lowbush blueberries before heading back down. The berries were so good we stopped at Blue Moon Berry Farm in Warner (again, but hey, I didn't get to go last time) and picked 11 lbs of huge berries. We froze about 9 lbs so we can have fresh berry smoothies for breakfast all fall and winter.