Day 16: A brief trip to the New Hampshire Seacoast

 

A quick trip

Today is Father's day and so the post is short and limited to a short outing in preparation of the festivities.  My family is awesome, but I have yet to get a sense of whether or not they wish to be a deep part of this blog or not so I keep the two worlds separate

One of the fun features of the Granite state is the number of small farms still in operation.  The rocky soils were abandoned by many over a century ago for more easily tilled fields out in the mid-west.  Those that stayed had a hardscrabble existence shifting to dairy, corn, berries, and poultry,  but never at a large scale.  THis is likely one reason Ice cream out here tastes so freaking good.

We began picking up some fresh eggs, yogurt, and garlic sprouts and even getting to meet on of the farmers who made this happen.  Then we embarked on a drive through the woods.

Hampton and Seabrook Beaches

Our ultimate destination for the day was a seafood market on Seabrook beach. For Anita and I it was our first time on the Atlantic Coast this trip.  As this is a passive margin shaped primarily by deposition and subsidence over the past 200 million years you get some very different coastal features:

1.  a lagoon running parallel to the shore.  

2.  A salt marsh

3.  A barrier island flat

4.  Dunes

5.  THe ocean facing beach.

Here the Anthropocene has covered everything, but I do recall a bridge across a lagoon and a lot of parking lots in areas that looked like they'd get flooded at high tide -  many charging 30 even 40 $ for a day of parking.   Apparently paving paradise and putting in a parking lot is profitable and low risk here. We slowly make our way down highway 1A amid the crowds. 

The shop is very much a New England classic - no nonsense, just a lot of people who know what they want moving in and out moving a lot of sea harvest product.  We walk away with some of the freshest lobster ever, steamer clams, and oysters all from local waters.  It's nice to see places like this doing well and well stocked, though I do wonder how the overfishing of New England  continues to affect things far and wide, there is a sense of population pressures and limits to what is sustainable.  We think little of these as we go back to the mainland and celebrate the day.  Happy Father's Day everyone!