Portsmouth, NH lies only about 1:15 minutes from downtown Boston, and provides a nice day retreat from the busy city life, to a relaxing and friendly north country coastal town. Portsmouth is a small and quaint town/city that has an overwhelming amount of excellent restaurants and bars that makes it very hard to choose which place. Luckily its close enough that you can come back frequently.

When you walk around the streets of Portsmouth, you get the feeling of a very relaxed and friendly community with a rich and diverse artistic side. The downtown area is kept very clean and the shops are all very unique. With the exception of a Banana Republic and and a few others, you won’t find any retail or restaurant chains in these parts. The city strives to maintain a unique and eclectic group of stores whose contents can only be found on Market Street and the surround streets in the downtown area. There is a pleasant mix of both shops and restaurants among the storefronts providing ample choice for whatever cuisine or item you might be in the mood for.

My first stop on this occasion (i’ve been there quite a few) was to the local coffee shop/ hangout spot, the Daily Grind. With an ever flowing line of customers you can be quite sure you are getting the best cup of joe or fresh brewed tea in the area. They also have a wide selection of delicious and fresh-baked pastry items for you enjoy on the go. The Daily Grind is located in the center of the downtown area.

After walking around a bit and exlporing the shops it was time for a light lunch.  For this I choose to get a sandwich at The Works Bakery Cafe, where they have freshly made bread and sandwiches, and a very friendly staff.  Most of all very reasonable prices.  After some more exploring and shopping, we decided to head to Dover, where we were meeting some friends for drinks at Brick House and dinner at Thai Cuisine Restaurant.

The Brick House is a neat bar with comfy couches, great beer selection, and pool tables.  There are two floors and it seemed they always have live music of some kind or another, even bands on the national platform occasionaly.  Thai Cuisine Restaurant, on the other hand, was very nice and moderately authentic feeling, but the overall, the experience was just ok.  The food was good, don’t get me wrong, just lacked a little something to give it the “Great” tag.

All in all, I love day trips to Portsmouth, as there is such an array of restaurants and shopping that every visit can be different.  Let m e know what your favorite restaurants are in the greater Portsmouth area.

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1. Perfect Fall Weekend in New England
2. Rockland, Maine for Couples

Hello All,

I just wanted to drop a message to let you know that Modern Day Thoreau is still alive and well, and hopefully this spring, summer and fall I will be able to post a large variety of new trails and equipment reviews for you.

Sincerely

The Editor

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The Fall in New England is b y far one of the most special and beautiful places to be.  The leaves changing colors, the crisp morning air, and of course the build up to Halloween.  This weekend, the 9th and 10th of October, was a particularly beautiful time that embodied these very characteristics.  Since the weather was going to be perfect for enjoying the outdoors and all it offers, I planned a day hike on Saturday with some friends at the Wompatuck State Park, on the south shore of Boston followed by a cookout back at the house.  On sunday, Erin and I went to the Newburyport Fall Festival, in Newburyport, MA about 50 minutes north of the city.

Wompatuck State Park

The hike at Wompatuck was a perfect start to the weekend.  We got there around 3pm, when the lighting in the Fall is perfect and went for about 3.5 miles and about 2 hours.  We discovered and old abandoned “factory” that we later found out was part of the munitions depot used in WWII in the Battle of the Atlantic.  The park is very large, so we were alone in the wilderness for the entire trip, which is always nice when your with friends.  Wompatuck is located off of route 3A about 30 minutes south of Boston and has over 260 campsites, 12miles of paved bike trails and many more miles of hiking trails.  You can see our track below:

Newburyport Fall Festival

On Sunday Erin and I went to the Newburyport Fall Festival for so good old family fun.  Newburyport, if you don’t already know, is located about 50 minutes north of Boston on 95.  Its a small coastal town there boasts a very eclectic and artsy crowd.  There are plenty of restaurants in all different types of food, that you will surely find something delicious.  The center square of downtown is always lively any time of year, but during the festival there are tons of vendors selling everything from food, to jewelry, to artwork.  After walking around for a few hours and shopping all the vendors and shops, we stopped by Loretta.  They have delicious sunday brunch/lunch in a small intimate atmosphere.  They had the door open giving a nice fall breeze through the place.  After strolling along the Merrimack river for a little while after eating, we decided to hit the road and head back to Boston.

Conclusion

I must admit, I don’t know if I’ve had a more perfect New England fall weekend before, as the weather was perfect, and all our activities worked out as we planned (as well as getting a great amount of exercise walking and hiking).  You can check out more photos on my Photo Gallery page as well as my Flickr page.

Feel free to comment on YOUR favorite Fall activities!

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1. World’s End Trail – Hingham, MA
2. Ponkapoag Pond Walking Trail
3. Blue Hills Reservation

So after a rather long summer hiatus from hiking of any kind, due to various life events, Erin and I decided to go for a like 4 mile hike during the beautiful Labor Day weekend here in New England.  The temperatures have been a farcry from what they were a few days ago, so it was perfect weather for nice day hike.

World’s End Trail is part of the Trustees of Reservations trail system, so if you are a member it is free and if not its only $5, certainly not much to preserve such a beautiful piece of land on the South Shore of Boston.  The trail is located on the border of Hingham and Nantasket about 25miles south of Boston.  If your coming from the north just take 93 south to exit 12 and follow the signs for Quincy Center and then take a left turn  on route 3A and that will bring you too the reservation.

In terms of equipment and things to bring, you don’t really need much else other than water and a camera for this hike as the whole loop is only 4.5miles and is easily done in under 1.5 hours. The trails are well groomed and allow bikers and hikers/walkers alike.  If you prefer to spend a little more time, there are an abundance of areas why you could have a picnic at, many of which are off the main trail for a little privacy.  Perfect for a bottle of whine, a french baguette, and some brie (just remember the wine opener of that could be a mood killer).

There are several variations to the trail that you could do, all of which are different lengths for your hiking tastes.  Be sure to stop along the way and take pictures as the views of Nantasket, Hingham, Weymouth and of course Boston are amazing.  Below is the GPS track for our trip and some pictures below that.  Feel free to comment any other tips for this gem on the south shore.  Also here is a link to the Trail Map.

worlds end at EveryTrail

Plan your trips with EveryTrail iPhone Travel Guides

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3. Perfect Fall Weekend in New England

My first drawing on my new iPad.

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Zermatt_Pano, originally uploaded by Modern Day Thoreau.

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I decided to put together a collection of identity designs from vineyards throughout New England. This will be a 6 part series that includes NY state as well,  so be sure to say tuned and subscribe to my RSS feed so you know when they each are posted. Also feel free to add a link to one not included that you know of  in the comments.

Massachusetts & RI

Links:

Turtle Creek Winery | Pioneer Valley Vineyard | Newport Vineyards | Sakonnet Vineyards | Nashoba Winery | Les Trois Emme | Alfalfafa Farm Winery | Coastal Vineyards | Running Brook Vineyard | Nantucket Vineyard | Neponset Winery | Chester Hill Winery | Hardwick Winery

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2. Photo of the Week: 8-28-09
3. Ponkapoag Pond Walking Trail

This is a pic from Duval Street in Key West.  The sunset was resting perfectly between the buildings on either side with beautiful purple and blue tones.

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I was recently rereading Thoreau’s ‘Walden’, and i was struck by a passage that is hard to completely understand unless you’ve worked a job, a real adult job I mean, in which you were left with something missing, that is to say a void of some kind, So below is a quote from the first chapter of Walden that I believe summarizes this feeling:

I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got to live a man’s life, pushing all these things before them, and get on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty, its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and woodlot! The portionless, who struggle with no such unnecessary inherited encumbrances, find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh. But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool’s life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before

Of Life and Love

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I recently decided it was time for a tripod upgrade, mostly out of necessity since I purchased a Nodal Ninja pano head, but I didn’t want to break the bank to terribly much.  After much research on Amazon and Adorama, I settled on the Manfrotto 190XB.  This is an aluminum legged tripod that provides excellent height range for shots that require either very low angle (a few inches) or very high angle (60 inches).  As a photographer who thrives on frugality, I like to get the biggest bang for the buck and I believe that this tripod does the trick.

The 190XB, while moderately heavy compared to some tripods, is still very portable and fits nicely in the tripod slot of my camera bag for a quick and easy setup.  My biggest issue  with the tripod is that the level bubble can be hard to balance, but with a tripod head that has it’s own balancing, it would not be a problem.  So until I get another tripod head, I’ll have to make do.

One of the biggest strengths of the 190XB is the ability to get very low to the ground by flipping the center shaft around and placing the camera upside down.  This allows for the camera to sit about 1.5″ off the ground (depending on your camera of course) for excellent macro shots of flowers or bugs or just an unique angle on a familiar subject.

One of the great things about this tripod is its versatility.  It can shoot low, it can shoot high, and everywhere in between.  I think you’d be hard pressed to find something that was this inexpensive and provided such a range of configurations.

Thoreau Rating (out of 5 total boots):

• Looses point for weight
  

Below are some photos of the different angles and positions the tripod has, Enjoy!

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