Day Trippin'

Today was supposed to be spent with "the Paula's" shopping in Portsmouth.  The Paula's consist of my sister-in-law Paula (1) and her best friend, Paula (2).  Well, Paula 2 is working on a wedding dress for someone and it isn't going very well.  Paula 1 is working on a baby quilt and it isn't going very well, either.  So neither of them was all that interested in spending the day shopping.  I should be working on a wedding quilt, which I have been faithfully working on nearly every day, but a day with no plans is always a good day for me.

Mr. Bill and I talked about going to the beach; unfortunately, the weather report didn't look great for the beach.  Mr. Bill decided we would go for a day trip and it would be a surprise to me.  He said it wasn't very far away and I had never been there before.  Oh...K...

We headed South on the Turnpike, through the rotary in Portsmouth and ended up at Odiorne State Park in Rye, NH.    It covers 331.5 acres and houses the remnants of an old fort.  We took a nice walk along the coast

View of Isles of Shoals in the distance from the coastal path

One of the tide pools

and through the woods where we found a very nice granite memorial bench overlooking the mouth of the river.

We discovered a quiet area along the coast where this bird bath was located.

Next we came across this monument, erected in 1899,  dedicated to the original settlers in this area.

The path to the monument, lined with stone walls.

As I said, there was an old fort located here and several of the bunkers are still here, although you can't get inside, you can get under and come out the other side.

We discovered later, after looking at a map, that we should have continued on the path and we would have come to a point of land within the park.  Instead, we went through the bunker, and returned to the parking area.  We came to a nice view of the salt marsh across the road.

Then, in the middle of no where, with no explanation other than Dolphin Fountain, we came across this.

We ate our lunch on one of the benches overlooking the ocean and the park across the river.

  Then we took some self portraits...it's harder than you think.

"Oop's, I think I moved too soon."

Something's not quite right...
 

 Good enuf!

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)