Day 24 Wed May 30

Just down the road to Portsmouth NH and visit to the Strawberry Banke Historical Park. Interesting because various buildings for different stages of history. For instance on the left in the picture is a house built in 1643, one of the oldest in America. In the center is a house that was a store in colonial times and then became a duplex after WW II so 1/2 of house is set up as the old store and living quarters and the other half as a home in the 50's with tv, viewmaster, etc. Kind of fun. On the right is the restaurant where we had lunch. Trendy but very tasty. Made us kind of dopey but we did see I would say 80% of the park. Strawberry Banke was the name of Portsmouth originally because first settlers saw so many wild strawberries along the river. They changed the name to reflect their boom times as a port for primarily pine exports. Then came across rougher times and the area became seedy and they filled it in to make room for housing for immigrants. One house is that of Russian Jews for instance. Then revived a little because they needed housing for the navy yards and shipbuilders in the area in WW II. So the corner grocery from that era is there with prices and lots of stuff on rationing. So really kind of interesting to move across centuries by just crossing the street. Portsmouth is of course very old and touristy.

So much for New Hampshire and on to Maine right across the river. I don't think I mentioned the bed and breakfasts that are everywhere - reminded me of Seinfeld.

Jack talked to one of his lawyer listmates from Solosez who lives in Bath, ME. Invited us to visit and take a sail with him BUT he is getting married and so timing not so good. Gave us some good hints and confirmed our decision to pass on the expensive ferry was a good one.

Spending tonight in Saco, ME because he have appt tomorrow for oil change, lube etc. Saco and Biddeford which is next to it are kind of shabby but lots of new development at Biddeford as you get off of I-95. Saco happens to be the home town of Kim Carpenter one of my USF advisees. I would look her up but as I recall she is not in this area. There was a lot of storm damage at this camp. I would say 1/3 of sites unusuable because of downed trees that they are trying to clear. Same old story. Everyone behind because of bad weather this spring. We are very close to Kennebunkport so maybe we will go back a few miles to see it depending on how long the rv service takes.