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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Here in Nashua, NH

We’ve arrived in NH. After leaving the VA eastern shore on Monday,NH plate (4) an overnight stay in NJ (our home state) and a 5-hour drive in intermittent rain, we arrived at our NH accommodations for the next couple of weeks.
extended stay1005extended stay1005 (2)
The extended stay rooms include a refrigerator, stovetop, and microwave, but no oven. We’re planning to prepare breakfast and dinner here and dine out at lunch time during our daytime road trips.

Today’s first stop was grocery shopping. We found a Market Basket, within a 5 minute drive with a greater selection than in our Food Lion grocery store at home.market veggiesMarket Basket is headquartered in Massachusetts and operates a chain of 64 operating supermarkets in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.market collageToday, we went in search of the Nashua YMCA, since before leaving home we found out that we could use our home YMCA membership there. This YMCA, which was dedicated in May 2011, is so new that it doesn’t display on our GPS.
YMCA Nashua1005 (11)This YMCA was dedicated in May 2011 and it’s so new that it doesn’t display on our GPS. We called for directions and eventually found our way there. We ‘re going back to use some of this equipment .YMCA collageBut, today was a day to explore downtown Nashua, which was built around the now-departed textile industry. Nicknamed "The Gate City,” it’s the second largest city in New Hampshire.
nashua collageSince it was a rainy morning, we decided to find the library and wait until it cleared before taking a walk around downtown. Whenever we’re travelling, the local library is a favorite destination – there’s usually free wi-fi available, plus it’s a good place to be on a rainy morning.
nashua libraryThe library’s children’s section was half of the total floor space.
nashua library2As of the 2010 census, Nashua had a total population of 86,494, making it the second largest city in the state. It was twice (1887 and 1997) named the “Best Place to Live in America” in annual surveys by Money magazine.

The downtown offers a selection of restaurants. Our choice today was Martha’s Exchange, built in part from the former 1872 Merchant's Exchange building, which was the Victorian equivalent of a shopping mall.
marthas exchangeGrenville and I both ordered one of the lunch specials – haddock quesadillas. There were no leftovers – on either plate – these were very good.
marthas exchange lunch (2)marthas exchange lunch
We’ll be taking day trips to cities in and around the Nashua area. Tomorrow's destination is Manchester, the largest city in NH and home to the Currier and Ives Museum and a house designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Photos and story to follow.


12 comments:

Connie said...

Looks like a neat place to visit. I enjoyed seeing all your pictures. I especially liked seeing the library there, of course. :-) Dinner looks like it was pretty good!

Christine said...

Hope you two have a wonderful trip! Looking forward to all those great photos you'll be posting!

john bain said...

Thank you. A very enjoyable day.

Out on the prairie said...

I am like you and use the library often or I never could post much.Sounds like a nice area,hope you are in time for lots of color.

possum said...

Glad you have had a safe trip so far...
Did I see little bundles of firewood down near the floor in the produce section? It looked like it... just for the fun of it, next time you are there, see where that wood came from, would you?
Have fun!

MadSnapper said...

looks like you are once again having a blast. that is a beautiful YMCA, ours is old and ugly but everything works well. the food of course is my favorite shot today.

Anonymous said...

I do like how it looks in the Market Basket! Nashua doesn't look bad either :-)

The swedish variety of WMCA isn´t especially big so I doubt one can find such a nice place like that over here.

Have a great trip!
Christer.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Thanks Everyone for your comments and the well wishes for our current road trip. We enjoy sharing our adventures.

Daisy & Steve, Nashua is a nice place to explore and the library is always a good refuge when it rains; it's one we use every time.

Mama-Bug, sure hope we get some fall colors to show cause so far there haven't been any :-(

Thanks John & Possum, and yes if we go back to the market basket and I remember, I'll check for the wood's origins.

Sandra, this new "Y" definitely beats ours, which is not too bed, considering we are lucky to even have one in our small area at home. Today, we used this NH one and it is so nice with state-of-the-art equipment.

Christer, we liked that grocery store as well and surely don't have anything like it where we live.

Unknown said...

I don't know how you find time to do all this detail posting on your trip; have never been to NH so this is very interesting to me. I know the textile industries were prominent in New England and MA too in the day. I usually seek out the local libraries wherever we go, not even for wi-fi but just to check in. Surprised there are no fall colors there yet, plenty here in MN. Enjoy your stay, sounds like you will.

Sweet Virginia Breeze said...

I enjoyed your photos and information about Nashua. Have fun!

Elaine said...

I'm keeping an eye out to see what you discover in NH! Here in PA a few leaves have begun changing but really not much color yet. We've had two beautiful sunny days and are off in the morning for NY.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Hi Pat, the "way" we find time to give lots of details is that we never watch TV. In the eves after we return to our motel room, we check out info on the Internet. It's amazing how much you can get done without TV interference and why we don't even subscribe to cable/dish services when at home, also saves $$.

Thanks Sweet Virginia Breeze.

Elaine, not much fall color here yet, hopefully SOON. Glad your PA trip was good.