NH (the motherland)

A couple of days ago we returned from a tour of sorts through my old stomping grounds. We arrived in Manchester (pronounced "Manchestah"), NH, and visited my brother Jim and his family the first day. We then traveled out to Greenland, NH, near Portsmouth on the coast, to visit my little sister and her husband Ryan and their new daughter Ruby. Here's Molly and Ryan on the beach:


Here's Ryan and cute little Ruby:


While in NH I dragged Paige to what I consider is my hometown, Hancock, NH. We moved there from Massachusetts when I was about 4, and lived there for 7 or 8 years. It's a great old farmhouse, built originally in the 1700's. It's a tiny town, and my dad likes to boast that when we moved there, we increased the enrollment in the town's elementary school by 10% (there are 6 kids in my family).

Here's a picture of where I went to elementary school:

And yes, it's now the town hall.

Here's a pic of the local pond where we would take swimming lessons:


And here's the house:


Here's a picture of the barn where my mom would send us to play on rainy days:


And for those who are aware, EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports--yes, there are mountains out east) is an outdoor recreation store much like REI that is now nationwide. Well, fewer may know that it was started in NH in a town next to Hancock. We started going there when I was little and as it grew and expanded I have been amazed to see it in cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, and even Fort Collins, Colorado. Here's a pic of the original store:

Check it out at www.ems.com

We were only able to spend 2 days in NH before we moved on to Cape Cod where my family gathered for a reunion. But this has already been a long post so we'll save that for later. We had a great time, it was neat for me to go back and see the town and the house and relive those years, and I think Paige enjoyed seeing where I spent my formative years.