Portsmouth, NH Mini City Guide

Boujour, Salud!

One idea for the show is to incorporate little snapshots of cool places to visit, highlighting unique boutiques and maybe a couple of resturants and other attractions.

So, this is my first Mini City Guide on a little weekend vacation my family and I took to Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the tip of Southern Maine, Kittery area.

Overall, I love the area. Portsmouth is a bustling little town with great New England charm. The Port itself is lovely, there's plenty of great restaurants, and several downtown shops worth checking out. Two of my favorites were: The Odd Showroom where the cute owner remakes vintage clothes http://www.myspace.com/oddshowroom

She had a rad dress on that I was surprised to find out was from Forever 21, one my favorite secret shops where you can find trendy clothes for no mucho dinero. I was inspired to track that dress down and luckily found the last one in my size. Okay, getting of target here...

Portsmouth! And my other favorite is this very cute little paper store

called Gus and Ruby Letterpress http://www.gusandruby.com/

I loved the design of the store itself with custom white cabinets, great lighting (see fabulous anthropology chandelier which I can't seem to find). Check out the store's blog here- http://www.paperhounds.blogspot.com/

The owner was super friendly, and I got these lovely papers there, which I promptly used to revamp my daughter's new (vintage) dollhouse, click here to see before and after shots.

Restaurants

The Friendly Toast- a great family place serving yummy stuff all day and open 24hrs a day on the weekends (not that we are ever out past 10pm these days...). The decor is fun too, a mix between 50's, 60's and 70's junk/vintage store complete with a fake baby in a cradle that rocked. A bit odd, but entertaining to watch. No website that I could find, but here's a bunch of reviews on yelp http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-friendly-toast-portsmouth

Flatbread Pizza- We liked this bustling , noisy open space joint. Simple brick oven pizza, but really great, fresh, local and organic ingredients. http://www.flatbreadcompany.com/2007Home.htm

Portsmouth Brewery- Matt (the hubby) says to check it out. http://portsmouthbrewery.com/

Beaches

We headed down 1A, South of Portsmouth, and just parked on the side of the road, walked over some big boulders and enjoyed a lovely day at the beach.

You can pay at the parks, but this was just as good and free. Although, watch out, this water is cold.

Regardless of the chilly water, Portsmouth and the Southern Maine area has lots to offer for a lovely weekend fun spot.