Escape! Travel to New Hampshire

No matter how much you claim to love living in the city, I'm sure you're often tempted to hit the road and disappear into the wilderness. I know I am. I sometimes question my inability to fall asleep without a subway train rumbling by.

I recently followed one of my escapist temptations and steered my VW Bug toward New Hampshire's Lakes Region. I attempted to travel light, but after a bit of research, I found my car quite stocked:

1. Fishing Rods (there was a bass out there with my name on it).
2. 1 Tent (I actually booked a New Hampshire Hotel Room, but felt as if the trip deserved a tent)
3. Costco-sized bag of Trail Mix (aprox. 10 lbs.)
4. Extra Fluffy Down Pillows
5. A laptop with EVDO broadband card (we all gotta stay connected somehow)
6. A hammock I picked up on the way out
7. My flatmate Alan (aprox. 245 lbs)
8. A suitcase filled with clothing and a wool jacket.
9. Hiking boots
8. Alan's stuff (mostly consisted of two thirty racks of beer)

We filled the silence of the five hour drive with Bruce Springsteen's greatest hits. You know you've crossed over to the Granite State's highways when they become lined with a surplus of gun shops and discount liquor stores. More blatant were the thousand or so bikers that cut past us on Route 93.

They growled by on packs of silver and black Harleys; I imagined them off to some grass-and-dirt battlefield to clash with a rival gang. Turns out it was Laconia Motorcycle Week, an annual June rally for the displaying of bikes and girls and the consuming of copious amounts of beer. Alan wanted to go, but I decided against it.

Just as the sun dipped below the horizon we arrived at beautiful Steele Hill Resorts, set amongst 500 acres of unspoiled fields and hardwood forests, and perched proudly on top of New Hampshire's lakes Region. We were hungry from traveling, and were provided a fantastic meal in Steele Hill's restaurant which offered stunning views of Lake Winnipesaukee and Lake Winnisquaum.

I lay awake that night, amazed at how quiet the world was outside of the city. A symphony of crickets had replaced the subway trains and drunk revelers. I fell asleep well-traveled and ready to catch my bass in the morning.

A New Hampshire Wedding

My brother just got married. Growing up, the thought of marriage always seemed so far off in the distance. As kids we had bigger fish to fry, like raking up a giant piles of leaves and jumping into them over and over again. We grew up in New Hampshire.

Between my brother and a few of my best friends getting married in recent years, I have had the chance to go home and visit. I couldn’t imagine a better setting to make a commitment to the one you love. After thinking about it for a few weeks, I decided to put together a list of the top 5 things that make New Hampshire the best place to get married. Let me make a case for my home state…

1. Views: I grew up on a mountain in the Belknap range overlooking Lake Winnisquam and Lake Winnipesaukee. There are only a few things in life that we don’t take for granted after a long time. The view of rolling green mountains and the stretching lakes has never ceased to amaze me. Naturally my brother chose to get married in the Lakes Region area. His wedding venue was a resort perched up on a small mountain with a panoramic view for miles around. This area has to be the absolute best location for a scenic New Hampshire Wedding.

2. Unique Venues: New Hampshire is home to a variety of settings and unique locations for weddings. From the seashore and mountains to the small lakeside resort towns like Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, the state has a range of settings to host your dream wedding.

3. Foliage: Anyone who lives in New England already knows that between Vermont and New Hampshire we have the best foliage season in the country. After living on the west coast for a while, I began to appreciate all those blazing reds and bright yellows that seemed to carpet the woodlands through out New Hampshire. If anyone even considers a New Hampshire wedding, I strongly suggest getting married in the fall. Your wedding pictures alone will make your friends jealous.

4. Nature: I have lived in cities for going on 9 years now. When I decide to get married it will be out in the country away from the noise and the smog. Having spent many days out on the lakes and in the mountains, I am thankful for having that foundation. True nature is in it’s own right religious. A background of birds and trees beats horns and sirens any day for me.

5. History: Weddings are ceremonies that date back to the ages. They are a product of history. Historic settings lend themselves well to marriage and New Hampshire is not lacking. If a historic setting is important to you, I recommend checking out a location like the Mount Washington Hotel. This grand old hotel was host to world conferences where presidents like Roosevelt would make international treaties in the latter days of world war two.

If you are going to tie the knot and live in New England, I highly recommend checking out one of the many scenic venues in New Hampshire. With almost certainty I can tell you that you won’t be let down and you will remember the moment for the rest of your life. Like I said, all the pretty pictures won’t hurt either.