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Bopping around the coast
Jul. 11th, 2005 08:44 amHad the opportunity to drive around Newburyport and southern New Hampshire for a bit yesterday. First off: beach. Hot summer day. Traffic. Yeah. Newburyport, and especially Hampton Beach, were pretty mobbed; it looked like they had closed off Parker River NWR on Plum Island to cars. (Also noticed how much the pavement sucks between the Newburyport CR and the Parker River gate...sigh.) We hung around at the beach at the far end of Plum Island for a bit, then headed up 1A for a bit.
The Seabrook power plant is really visible from the beach area, and kind of ugly. Hampton Beach was...special; there was a mile or so that was all tacky beachfront shops and continuous traffic. We stopped at the north end of the strip for lunch (Kennedy's, not bad and better than I expected for the location, but only if you like fried) and kept driving. North Hampton and Rye were both pretty and had somehow managed to keep the development sane and the very expensive mansions very pretty. In Seabrook we took a detour along NH-1B ("we have time and it's a numbered road") which took us through New Castle, also very pretty in a Marbleheadish sort of way. This brought us out in downtown Portsmouth (didn't realize there was an actual town beyond the traffic circle); we touched Kittery, ME and then came back into New Hampshire.
We took 4 west (is there some rule that US highways can't charge toll? Both US-3 and US-4 in New Hampshire strategically skip the toll bits of their respective highways...) to 28 south through Manchester. I think Manchester fits a slot in my mind of "small city"; the area we drove through had maybe the density of Somerville, or a little less, but with all single-family homes. Found the airport, then drove down 3A to Hudson, across the highway I don't understand to 3, and from there home.
In all, a pretty drive. Being efficient over scenic for the non-coastal bits might have been nice (take NH-101 from the coast to Manchester, take US-3 or the Everett Turnpike from there).
The Seabrook power plant is really visible from the beach area, and kind of ugly. Hampton Beach was...special; there was a mile or so that was all tacky beachfront shops and continuous traffic. We stopped at the north end of the strip for lunch (Kennedy's, not bad and better than I expected for the location, but only if you like fried) and kept driving. North Hampton and Rye were both pretty and had somehow managed to keep the development sane and the very expensive mansions very pretty. In Seabrook we took a detour along NH-1B ("we have time and it's a numbered road") which took us through New Castle, also very pretty in a Marbleheadish sort of way. This brought us out in downtown Portsmouth (didn't realize there was an actual town beyond the traffic circle); we touched Kittery, ME and then came back into New Hampshire.
We took 4 west (is there some rule that US highways can't charge toll? Both US-3 and US-4 in New Hampshire strategically skip the toll bits of their respective highways...) to 28 south through Manchester. I think Manchester fits a slot in my mind of "small city"; the area we drove through had maybe the density of Somerville, or a little less, but with all single-family homes. Found the airport, then drove down 3A to Hudson, across the highway I don't understand to 3, and from there home.
In all, a pretty drive. Being efficient over scenic for the non-coastal bits might have been nice (take NH-101 from the coast to Manchester, take US-3 or the Everett Turnpike from there).
