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Our Thanksgiving Holiday – First 3 Days

We spent Thanksgiving Day and two days afterward in New Hampshire.

We drove from our home in Warren PA to Bennington VT on Wednesday. We left Warren at 7:20 am. It was a gorgeous, but frigid, morning. The temperature was 18 degrees, when we left home.

After making a few stops (for fuel, breakfast, stretching and bathroom), we arrived in Bennington VT shortly before 3:00 pm. Our drive there was smooth sailing all the way. The weather continued to be gorgeous; the traffic wasn’t bad; and the temperature got warmer. When we arrived in Bennington, the temperature was 36 degrees.

We checked into the Best Western Bennington, room 172. Our hotel room was spacious, with access to an outside deck.

The room looks nice on the surface. If you look closely, though, you will notice a moderate amount of wear and tear. The room was clean and appeared to have been recently painted. The refrigerator was turned off, and wouldn’t turn on. We assumed it was plugged in, but there wasn’t a way to check this as the refrigerator was bolted in place. We didn’t have anything with us that had to be kept cold. We didn’t say anything about the refrigerator until the next day, when we checked out, only to alert the hotel to the fact that the refrigerator was not working.

At 4:00 pm we ate dinner at Bennington Pizza Plaza, located in a strip mall behind our hotel. I had baked ziti with meat; Bob had stuffed shells. Both meals came with garlic toast. Dinner was delicious. Bennington Pizza Plaza, with its attractive table and chairs for dining in and tasteful seasonal decorative touches, was a notch up from a regular pizza joint.

On Thanksgiving Day we drove from Bennington VT to Bob’s sister and our brother-in-law’s house in Amherst NH. We got up at 6:15 am and went to breakfast about an hour later. We enjoyed a hot breakfast, with all the selections (waffles, eggs, bacon or sausage, pastries, etc.) normally offered by Best Western hotels. We departed the hotel at 7:45 am, en route Cynthia and Larry’s house. Our route took us on the Molly Stark Trail (Route 9) through the Green Mountain National Forest.

We stopped for a photo opportunity at the Hogback Mountain Overlook,
a short distance east of Wilmington VT.

Leaving the Green Mountain National Forest, we stopped briefly for a photo opportunity in West Brattleboro at the Creamery Covered Bridge.

Cynthia and Larry were not expecting us until after 11:00 am. In order to kill some time we drove into Nashua. We parked below Water Street at the entrance to Le Parc De Notre Renaissance Franchise.

These art murals are located where we parked.

We walked a short way along the Nashua River, in Le Parc De Notre Renaissance Franchise. The first thing to catch my eye was a sculpture of a woman and a child.

This sculpture pays tribute to the women and children who worked in the textile mills during the first half of the 20th century.

Later in the week we would meet up with a blogging friend and her husband. My blogging friend and her husband live in what used to be a textile mill.

Clocktower Place, a former textile mill,
is where my blogging friend and her husband live.

From Nashua we drove to Cynthia and Larry’s house, arriving there shortly after noon. Lunch was served around 1:00 pm.

We enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast of roast turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, baked squash, green beans, Brussels Sprouts with walnuts baked in maple syrup, and cranberry salad. For dessert we had a variety of delectable cupcakes to choose from.

We left Cynthia and Larry’s house for our hotel sometime between 4:00 and 4:30 pm, with plans to meet up again at 1:00 pm the next day. We drove to the Clarion Inn located in Nashua NH. The hotel is about a 20-minute drive from Cynthia and Larry’s house. We checked into room 235, which would be our home for the next 3 nights. Our hotel room was spacious with a king-size bed and a couch that would fit three people comfortably. Our room would sleep four people, as the couch pulls out into a bed. The room is equipped with a refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker.

We got up for the day on Friday around 6:30 am, after a good night’s sleep. The clerk who checked us in the prior night said that our room would be quiet, and it was. The rooms on our side of the hotel are used only as needed in late fall and winter. An hour after awakening we had showered, gotten dressed, had breakfast and were back in our hotel room. There were less offerings at breakfast here than there were in Vermont. We could make our own pancakes or waffles; there were cereal and packaged muffins selections; yogurt was available ; and there were juice, coffee and tea selections. We preferred the breakfast at Best Western Bennington.

We spent Friday afternoon and evening with Cynthia and Larry. We enjoyed a second Thanksgiving dinner that included open-faced turkey sandwiches with gravy and soup that Larry prepared using leftover turkey, rice and vegetables. Later in the day we left to go to an inaugural outdoor light show, located on The Links at LaBelle Winery golf course in Derry, NH. Unfortunately it was raining, so we didn’t see the display. We drove by a couple houses in Bedford that are usually lit up for Christmas. One house had decorations outside, but the lights were not turned on. The other house didn’t have any decorations on display. So, we didn’t get to see any Christmas lights. For dinner we had Chinese take-out that Bob and Larry picked up. After dinner we sat in the living room and chit-chatted for a while. We left for the hotel around 7:45 pm. Twenty minutes later we arrived at the hotel.

Thank you, Cynthia and Larry, for a wonderful Thanksgiving! We enjoyed our time with you and look forward to the next time we get together with each other.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

Bennington VT to Lincoln NH

On July 31 we were up, showered and dressed ready for breakfast by 6:30 am. Breakfast was included in our hotel accommodation. We had to wait, as breakfast didn’t begin until 7:00 am.

Breakfast was good, what we have come to expect when we stay at Best Western hotels…eggs, sausage, bagel and an assortment of pastries, waffles, fruit, yogurt,tea and coffee. I had an egg and sausage bagel sandwich and a banana for breakfast. Bob had eggs, sausage and a pastry for his breakfast. I brought a hot tea back to room with me. I sat outside our room on a chair on the covered corridor drinking my tea and listening to the rain drops fall. How very peaceful and relaxing!

We departed the Best Western Bennington at 8:00 am en route Cynthia (Bob’s sister) and Larry’s house. We followed VT 9 from Bennington VT to Brattleboro VT. The Molly Stark Trail, as VT 9 is called, winds its way through low-lying valleys, historic villages, busy towns, and the beautiful Green Mountains. This route passes through gorgeous scenery. It is the route I enjoy most when we travel between home and Bob’s sister’s house in New Hampshire. Had it been a sunny morning, we would have made a few photo stops along the way. It was a rainy morning, though, and the views were not very good or nonexistent. We did make one photo stop at a covered bridge. The covered bridge was located in Brattleboro, VT. It was raining, but I got out and photographed the covered bridge anyway. Bob walked with me, holding an umbrella over my head.

Brattleboro, VT
Creamery Covered Bridge

We walked through and around the bridge.

Creamery Covered Bridge

Creamery Covered Bridge is 80 feet long and 19 feet wide.
The bridge spans the Whetstone Brook.

We arrived at Cynthia and Larry’s house in Amherst, NH shortly before 11:00 am. We spent the next 4 hours eating lunch, conversing with each other and playing with their dog Weezie. Cynthia and Larry recently converted their screened porch into a sunroom and shed. We spent the majority of our time there in the sunroom. The sunroom was very comfortable and quite cozy.

We enjoyed a selection of appetizers before lunch which included crackers, meat, cheese, smoked trout, shrimp cocktail, an assortment of vegetables and a few other things I can’t recall.

Yummy, smoked trout!

Our lunch entree was lobster rolls, accompanied by pasta salad.

Table set for lunch
How elegant!

For dessert we split large peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes.

Lunch was exceptionally good.

The four of us and Weezie

To take this picture I used my selfie stick, which had been sitting in my camera bag unused for quite a while. My selfie stick came in handy, as I forgot my tripod at home.

Thanks for everything Cynthia and Larry.
We enjoyed our visit with you very much.

We left Cynthia and Larry’s house at 3:15 pm en route Lincoln, NH. We arrived at the Rodeway Inn a couple hours later.

Rodeway Inn – our home for 4 nights

Our hotel room was on the ground floor, Room 104, and faced Route 3. Our room was simply furnished with two double beds, a nightstand, a table and two chairs, refrigerator, dresser and flat screen TV. There was plenty of outdoor seating, under cover. Our room was small, nothing fancy. It was clean; the air conditioning worked; and it was quiet. We spent 4 nights at this hotel and had only one complaint. We were told not to use the toaster that we brought with us in our room. We were allowed to use our electric teakettle, but not the toaster. There was a toaster in the breakfast room that we could use. However, the toaster was on a timer. We were out and about in the morning before the toaster became available for use.

At dinner time we drove into North Woodstock, located about 3 miles south of our hotel.

We were welcomed in North Woodstock by the “mayor”.

We ate dinner at the Landmark II Greek Restaurant. Bob ordered a chef salad; I ordered a meatloaf dinner accompanied with mashed potatoes and a tossed salad. Our meals were excellent. Our waiter was personal and attentive. We met the owner, who was personable as well. We didn’t meet the chef but learned his name is Andre. He is a very good chef.

After dinner we returned to our hotel and went for a walk along Route 3.

During our walk, we stopped for a look at the Pemigewasset River.
The river is located on the opposite side of the road from the Rodeway Inn.
(Photo by Bob)