The Dahlem Dish: Vacation in New England

Our 2nd day in New Hampshire was full of good things! We first went to the Equine Center on the UNH campus since both Colleen and Avery love horses.

A year and a half ago in our blog we wrote about Avery liking a horse called Marcy there. We went back and Marcy was still there!

Then we went into town and stopped at what used to be our favorite breakfast place in town, the Bagelry. It was bought by a chain called The Works Bakery Cafe, and while not the same menu exactly it was tasty.

(They used to make a broccoli pizza bagel with Provolone cheese that was so good, and it is no longer on the menu...)

Avery also like the kids section there with little sized chairs perfect for her!

Then we went to pick up our race packets at Runner's Alley in Portsmouth.

The next day was the race and we were lucky to have Grandma Woods babysit for us before we headed out

The race was a beautiful course, (it was the Seacoast Half Marathon after all), and passed some of the neatest areas along the coast, including the Wentworth hotel, New Castle, plus salt marshes, and coastal views. Take a look at the course from Colleen's Run Keeper app on her phone

Jim got a PR with a finish time of 1:29:01 (6:48/mile) and finished 20th overall across the finish line. Colleen finished only two minutes off her PR and came in at 1:53:32 (8:37/mile). Here she is about to pass a few guys spring towards the finish!

Here we are happy after the race

Then we met up with Colleen's friend from college Amy Warner. Amy ran the race and after the finish we headed into Portsmouth and had lunch and a beer at the Portsmouth Brewery

When we got back Avery loved seeing mommy and daddy with medals around our necks!

We thought we deserved from greasy food after that effort and went to Five Guys grilled cheese for dinner, which had a long wait, but Avery was so cool waiting for her food

The next day we headed back to the seacoast. We had lunch at the River House overlooking the water and tug boats. What a great New England meal it was, with a lobster roll and a beer:

Then we headed over to see where we got married almost 5 years ago, St-Andrews-by-the-Sea in Rye.

And Avery had a stuffy red nose, sad but cute:

After that we went to the Seacoast Science Center.

Avery loved seeing the octopus:

Sea horses

Feeding the whales some fish

Going fishing herself

Touching sea stars, anemones, and other creatures:

All of it plus more was part of a scavenger hunt for kids, and Avery (with our help) found everything on the list!

Afterwards, we went outside the building and played in the rocks by the ocean:

On Tuesday, Colleen's mom took Colleen out for a belated birthday dinner to Petey's, right on the water. (It is also where we had our rehearsal dinner before our wedding). You can watch them pull the boats right up to the dock attached to the restaurant and load lobsters straight into the building, can't get fresher than that!