Fort Constitution

Driving around Portsmouth, NH at the end of last month we followed signs to Fort Constitution.

We parked in the designated parking spots, read this sign and

followed the blue line.

The fort is still government property and is on a Coast Guard base.

The fort dates back to pre-Revolutionary War times when it was called "The Castle" then Fort William and Mary.

It was captured by Patriots during the war, then taken back by British forces.

In 1808 it was renamed Fort Constitution.

We felt like we'd been here before because it resembles Fort George in Scotland but on a smaller scale.

It lies at the mouth of the Piscataqua River.  Maine is across the river.

This lighthouse has been in use since 1878.

New Hampshire is the Granite State and that's not just because of the mountains.

The fort was used through World War II.

In fact where we parked was in front of these fortifications, left over from that war.

Read more on Wikipedia here

New Hampshire Seacoast

We traveled in two cars to the Odiorne Point State Park on the New Hampshire coast.  Daughter Emily and granddaughters were coming with us for the day.  We stayed in the area for two nights.

It was a gorgeous blue sky day to explore the seashore.

The cove we walked around is known to have petrified stumps of trees from the last ice age. We got there as the tide was almost in so missed the petrified stumps.  Dan and I saw them the next evening at low tide but I didn't have the camera and it was getting dark fast.

Lots of rock cairns/towers populated this point.  Notice granddaughter L is barefoot.  She has tough feet.

As I look at these photos it may be that I captured some of the petrified wood and didn't know it at the time.

Some of the tidal pools were visible even at high tide. Emily is pointing out some critter to A.

The rock on the left above could be petrified wood.

We had lunch sitting on this rock wall with the Atlantic Ocean in front of us.

A light house across the cove.

This seagull thought it could get a handout - not from us.  The Seacoast Science Center is behind.  It was started in someone's summer house and has expanded.

We headed there after lunch.

Lots of hands on activities for children,

including a tidal pool - touching tank.

Then there were the aquariums.

One more stop along side the ocean before heading to our cars.

Montshire Museum of Science

Located in Norwich, Vermont along the Connecticut River, the Montshire Museum of Science is known for its hands on exhibits of interest to every age group.

In July 2007 my daughter Emily had her wedding reception there and guests had access to all the fun exhibits.  Emily & her husband have a yearly membership now and enjoy taking their two daughters there especially in the winter when its too cold or wet to play outside.

When we visited last week it was a very rainy day -  a perfect day for the Montshire.

The bubble making exhibit.

2 year old L used to be very afraid of bubbles.  Not any more.

 

Granddaughter A got to participate in an experiment.

There was an exhibit on musical instruments.

None of us could pass up putting scarves into this mechanism and catching them when they puffed out from various spots.  L caught one.

Then there are the fish and turtles and frogs.

Dan got hands and feet on several exhibits.

A fun morning.

Problem Solved!

A big thank you to Betsy of Joyful Reflections who was experiencing the same  problem as I was - not being able to comment on most blogs because I wasn't recognized as signed in to Google.

She wrote that she experienced the same thing.  She has been doing some marvelous sleuthing and found that she just needed to change preferences in Safari.

I went to Safari to experiment and unchecked the box above "Prevent cross-site tracking". 

Lo and behold that made a difference.  On my own blog page I'm shown as signed in and that continues on other blogs too.

Yeah!

Thank you to Marie of After 60 the Next 10 for being willing to change her comment selection to a pop up window so I could comment.

Thanks to everyone who commented hoping I resolved my problem.