February 2012 in Portsmouth, NH

Since Christmas, every weekend has been taken up with at least two of the following: entertaining company, holidays, visiting family out-of-state, and/or traveling 1-3 hrs one-way for one of my daughters meets. It's. Been. Exhausting... So when I noticed she had this weekend off from competing, I jumped at the chance for a date-day with the hubby.

Pre-house, pre-second child, pre-meets it was sooo much easier to spend time as a couple together with the hubby. For a time, we were able to have one date night/month!! Those times seem oh-so very far away...  I hold our rare date-days so much closer to my heart now.  I just wish there didn't have to be so much time between each date.

Once we made our way into Portsmouth, we parked at the Prescott Park Gardens.  Obviously in February in New Hampshire there's nothing more to any gardens than bare branches & soil, but there were a few nice paths along the water front that we enjoyed.


Over-looking the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969

More often than not, turning away from the "obvious" shot has it's advantages.
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969

It's fun to compare & contrast the Hipstamatic app with my digital SLR.

My husband bought me a fantastic 70-300 mm lens for my birthday last year.  It's fun to see just how close I can get & crop out any unwanted noise.

A few boats parked in a small inlet a short walk from the gardens.

Clever way to fix a fence.  Makes me wonder why in the world someone cut the fence to begin with though.  It's not as if it's any less effort to cut through all that chain link than it is to just hop over it...
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969



Entrance to the Point of Graves.  Wrought-iron turn-style entrance in between two granite pillars.  I actually didn't get any shots of the headstones, although I wish I had.  The craftsmanship was remarkable.  Since everything was done by hand with chisels & each craftsman had his own style, each expertly crafted headstone was unique to the artist & it was quite intriguing.  Just one more thing that gets homogenized in our cookie-cutter culture without us even realizing it.  Shame.Lens: TejasFilm: AO DLX

Retracing our steps & passing the entrance to the garden there's an open air area for concerts & more waterfront space.  There were actually quite a few people here & we were getting hungry so we didn't stay. 

The lights in the Blue Mermaid.  I snapped a quick shot of these because I think they'd actually be quite simple to replicate & adjust the color, materials, & size for our taste.
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969

Twice now we've been to Portsmouth alone, just the two of us, & twice I've walked past this wrought iron gate AND photographed it & it wasn't until I got the photos off of my phone & onto a larger screen that I noticed the face.  When you see it...
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969

It's amazing how nice it is just to be able to sit on a bench, just the two of us, whenever we want to, & not have to keep eyes on the kids, springboard under our butts for whenever one of them needs us, usually 2 seconds after we even think about sitting down.
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969

I love brick buildings in a natural wash of warm sunlight as the sun is setting.  So rich.
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969

I know, I'm weird, I find it architecturally interesting how we merge modern advances with old buildings.
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969

I'll be honest, I don't remember setting up this shot.  But when I checked my "prints" later here it was & it was interesting so I kept it.  ;)
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969

Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969
Again, being honest, I must have shaken my phone & the lens & film choices changed because this was unintentional.  But the results were so striking that I kept them.Lens: Matty ALNFilm: Blanko

I have a thing for bulk heads.  The house my parents owned when they were married (& then later that my dad & stepmom owned) was always dank & full of cobwebs, it gave me the creeps.  And architecturally, they're very... odd.  Jutting out from the building, "LOOK AT ME, HERE I AM!" when of course it's just meant to be an access point to the basement, usually a place you don't want to draw attention to.

Lens: Matty ALN

Film: Blanko

Lens: Matty ALN
Film: Blanko

Lens: Matty ALN

Film: Blanko

Our son is two, & I just love the architectural detailing of this door, just decadent, so I had to capture it.
Lens: Tejas
Film: Ina's 1969

I am a huge supporter of breastfeeding, so I had to steal this & share it.
Lens: Tejas
Film: 1969
I actually spotted this when we were stuck in traffic on our way into Portsmouth so I was happy that we just happen to find ourselves walking past it later.
Lens: Tejas
Film: AO BW

Again, sitting with my hubby, here are the denims of our jeans.  It's such a rare event, I like to capture it whenever possible, & if I can do it in a way that's a step away from the traditional "press your faces together, hold your camera phone out in front of you & try to line both of your faces up in the shot"-way, that's great too.  ;)
Lens: Tejas
Film: AO BW
Does anyone else find it odd that with all of our advances in modern digital photography, we find new & exciting ways to make our photographs look old?  ;)Lens: Libatique 73Film: Ina's 1969

Just another shot to remember sitting & relaxing with the hubby.
Lens: Tejas
Film: AO BW

We had put our name in at The Portsmouth Brewery & they said the wait would be 45 minutes but to check back in in 15-20, & it was loud in there, so we went back out to stroll around the streets of Portsmouth at night.  And by "night", I mean February in New Hampshire after 6 pm, so "dark".
I can't even remember where it was, but we passed some store and the husband wanted to go in & I didn't feel like standing around waiting for him so I kept on walking & snapped a few random shots of the city after dark, this being the best one.
Lens: Tejas
Film: AO BW
We "lost" track of each other & eventually he made his way back to the restaurant & let me know we were 2nd in line so I found my way back as well.  
We had an amazing meal at the The Portsmouth Brewery.  We split an order of calamari, I had the fish sandwich & my husband had the chicken wings.
Few tips though:
1.) It's LOUD.  I have two kids, a hubby who likes to, on occasion, act like one of the kids, & a pup who thinks she's one of the kids, so you'd think I'd "know" loud & be used to it.  Nope.  It's noisy!!  Seriously.  I think Chuck E. Cheese may be quieter than this place on a Saturday night.
2.) The portions are huge.  Unless you're a bottomless pit or you skipped breakfast & lunch, you're going to be taking some dinner home with you.
3.) They have an AMAZING selection of brews on tap (DUH! it's a brewery), just keep your eyes on the alcohol content... There were two different beers with almost identical names on two different boards. I thought I was drinking a brew with 6.4% alcohol when in fact I was drinking a beer with 9.6% alcohol... I still felt full from lunch so I didn't eat much and after three beers, two of which I THOUGHT had 6.4% alcohol but actually had 9.6%, I was, well, grateful that my husband was driving home...
4.) The bathroom doors are tricky.  If you go, you'll get it.  ;)
That was it, our amazingly simple, peaceful, perfect day in Portsmouth.  Can't WAIT for another date-day!!  :)