Travel Diaries: New Hampshire and Maine

New Hampshire. Maine. Adventure. New Hampshire’s beauty will sneak right up on you, if you’re not careful. New Hampshire is reminiscent of North Carolina’s beauty in some ways and that’s enough to make your heart ache in the best way. Maine is similarly stunning, with its untouched forests and rocky shores, you’ll never want to be more lost than you will when you find yourself in these beautiful pockets of New England.

We spent the first night wandering around the streets of Portsmouth. Our personal favorite city, if you’re looking for places to visit in New Hampshire. It’s on the water, so from just about any angle, you have a terribly quaint and romantic view. It resembles a town near and dear to all of our hearts back home – Wilmington, NC – but with a New England vibe, and a much colder climate! We had dinner at one of the sweetest restaurants, The River House. All of New England's prized gems (aka seafood, seafood, seafood!!!): chowder, lobster rolls, the works! After stuffing our faces (which happens to be a pastime of ours), the rest of the evening was spent catching up, in that cottage in the sticks Lauren and Cody love to call home.

Second on our list of expeditions was to fulfill Mallory’s year-long dream of an early-morning rendezvous at her most favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant, The Big Bean. Their sausage and wild berry muffins (not when combined, well, I guess if you want to - good luck figuring that unicorn out) are what dreams are made of – literally, Mallory dreamed of coming back to this place for a YEAR! And to top it all off – we got to prance around in the most beautifully plump snowflakes – what a morning!

Anyway, we filled our bellies to the brim and set out for Cape Elizabeth; get ready to rip your heart out because even on the snowiest of days, this place lit up like the fourth of July. I mean, this place is as rad as it gets.

It was cold but it didn’t matter because we all couldn’t get over the view. After some exploring of the lighthouse and adjacent forts (plus a snowball fight or five), we set wheels for the LL Bean flagship store. Don’t forget your back-up wallet, LL Bean doesn’t play around. It really is just a fun place to explore! They have three separate stores, full of outdoor equipment, clothing, and home goods. Just the right amount of cozy in there too! To wrap up the most stellar day ever created (well, maybe second to our weddings, of course), after grabbing a quick bite at a local Mexican restaurant (SCORE!), our husbands made a campfire back out at the cottage in the sticks. It is so serene out there – nothing around you but a blanket of white, some out-of-season pear and apple trees, a personal covered bridge driveway, and some furry friends – the pups. In true form, Mallory was the first to fall asleep.

The weekend wrapped up as per usual, with us wishing for more days, a longer trip, more adventure, definitely more Big Bean breakfast, and still no sign of a moose. Really do need to plan a week-long trip though! Most of the fun we had didn't cost us a lot and truthfully, those times always seem to be the best! New Hampshire and Maine have a lot to offer, if you find yourself in need of a getaway that is the perfect amount of secluded and sociable, this might just be your lucky number! It is quaint, quiet, and is terribly charming – bar none some of the most beautiful sights this wonderful country has.

And now for the long-awaited sappy turn of events - best friends are hard to come by and we have said it a million times to each other but we do feel stupidly lucky and grateful for our friendship. It's the times like these that we hope to remember when we are old and wrinkly someday, if we haven’t lost our minds by then!! Grab yourselves a pal or twelve and hit the road jack; who knows, maybe you won't come back!