Hanover, New Hampshire

July 19

As we were less than an hour from Vermont’s border with New Hampshire, we decided to take a quick day trip to Hanover, home of Dartmouth College.

After a night of drinking, we decided to take a trip over the Connecticut River into New Hampshire. Hanover was a quick 45-ish minute drive from our AirBnB in Stockbridge, Vermont.

We headed northeast through the rolling verdant mountains of Vermont, soon crossing the state line on Wheelock St. Almost immediately upon entering New Hampshire, the town’s Main Street was upon us. With the ivy league school ahead to the left, we made a right into the heart of the town’s shopping district and were immediately met with a ton of traffic. We slowly crept our way through the worst of it, eventually making a right turn off the main drag and into a public parking lot. Brandy complained that it was going to be too far of a walk to get back to the meat of the avenue, so I turned around and made our way back to the snail’s paced traffic.

As we sat at a red light, second in line behind the limit line, a car left a slant parking spot right on the corner just past the intersection. How fortuitous! We hoped the car in front of us did not want the spot. Sure enough, the light turned green and the motorist in front of us passed the spot leaving it for us. We pulled in and I headed to the pay station to give the city some of our money.

Once the receipt was on the dashboard, we headed back up the street toward the college, stopping at a few shops along the way, picking up our requisite souvenirs- t-shirts, stickers, magnets and shot glasses.

We crossed the street and made our way down the other side, peeking in here and there as we saw fit, eventually deciding it was time to eat some lunch.

We smelled some amazing-smelling barbecue but could not locate the source of the aroma. We followed the scent down Allen Street, a blocked off pedestrian-only road where there was a large outdoor dining area set up in the middle of the road right in front of a place called Sawtooth Kitchen, Bar and Stage.

The entrance to the restaurant was a little confusing, appearing to be a service entrance tucked behind a small corner in the building. As we entered though, a wide flight of stairs leading to the basement of the building showed us the way to the dining floor. Despite several people eating in the al fresco dining area, there wasn’t a soul in the inside dining room.

We were greeted by the host/bartender/waiter who seated us and took care of us the whole time. We ordered poutine for an appetizer, and Brandy ordered a wedge salad and I order a Cuban sandwich with sweet potato fries.

The poutine arrived and it was large potato wedges rather than actual frenched fries. It was still smothered with cheese curds and gravy though. Brandy’s wedge salad wasn’t a wedge at all. In fact, it wasn’t even made with the right lettuce that’s traditionally used in a wedge salad (iceberg), instead it was a large bunch of bibb lettuce topped with the regular salad toppings.

And the Cuban didn’t have any ham on it, and it was served with maple mustard on the side instead of yellow mustard on the sandwich. Finally, the sweet potato fries were also large wedges, instead of fries, and they were terribly overcooked. The skins had largely separated from the meat of the potatoes and had been fried to a blackened crisp, there was hardly any edible meat in the basket of fries. It was mostly a blackened, charred mess.

The sandwich was good, even if not traditional. The maple mustard was a nice twist for being in New England and the house-made pickles were very good.

After lunch, we swung by a nearby sweets place, My Brigadeiro, and picked up some desserts to take back to the AirBnB with us, Brandy getting a MASSIVE slice of cheesecake and me getting a creme brulee. (fast forward to us eating them later that night, they were delicious. The shell on the creme brulee was a little thick, but otherwise, the taste was spot on and the remaining texture was as it should have been.)

Once we had our desserts in hand, we headed a little further down the road to the nearby Mink Brook Nature Preserve. We parked in the small parking area at a trailhead at the preserve and made our way down the trail that parallels its namesake waterway. The water in the brook was still, murky and stagnant. It wasn’t too attractive of a sight. There was a person paddling a kayak through the water. We exchanged pleasantries before he paddled along his way.

We walked about half a mile onto the trail before turning around and heading back to the truck. We started making our way back to Vermont, driving alongside the aforementioned Connecticut River that serves as the border between the two states, finally crossing over the river, into Vermont then on to the interstate to head back to our temporary home.

We stopped for some groceries on our way then went back to the AirBnB for a relaxing rest of the afternoon.

Conclusion

So, how was New Hampshire? A lot like Vermont- mountainous, green and small-town. The shopping was nice, the food, not so much, and it was nice to add another sticker to my touring water bottle. Aside from that, it wasn’t too adventurous.

I only took a few pictures on this trip, but they can be found on my Photo Diary.

This trip took place on the Friday of an adventurous three day weekend, the posts for the other two days are forthcoming. Until then!

-Phil