Month: September 2017

Dog Friendly Beach in Rye NH!!

On By careofmonIn Trips2 Comments

Alright folks, one day past my due date..continuing to distract myself through writing 🙂

We found a beach in NH that Mizpah can be off leash on!!! Wooo!!! New Hampshire’s state beaches which include Hampton, North Hampton, Wallis Sands, Rye Harbor, and Jenness do not allow dogs EVER. These beaches do not allow dogs in the mornings, evenings, or in the off season. Now, we have of course seen violations of this rule in the off season, but we are rule followers. Rye NH has a stretch of beach that is considered to be a town beach though and before 9 AM, dogs are allowed under voice control! They even have the little dog poo bag stations for us responsible dog owners AND streetside parking is free! Its not the longest stretch of beach, and at high tide you definitely need to prepare to be in the surf with your pup BUT its still worth it for us. Changing up Mizpah’s scenery is great for her, and I love being at the beach. Alrighty, here are some pics of beautiful Rye Beach and our little pup romping through the surf!

IMG_1240
Hazy morning at the beach
IMG_0701
Mizpah looooves playing fetch with her ball in the surf. She will dunk her whole face and head in the water to get her ball, its so cute. 

IMG_0688

IMG_1264
In the distance, you can see the building with the red roof which is Ray’s Seafood. We totally use that red roof as a landmark to know where our car is and climb back up the jetty back out to the road.
IMG_1234
My little water lovin pup!
IMG_0682
View from the jetty, you can see the white tent in the distance, not a bad spot out on the jetty for an event eh?
IMG_1259
The lovely Ray’s Seafood!

The picnic area at Ray’s is dog friendly 🙂 These pics are from two different occasions in case you noticed that Mizpah has a harness on in some, and no harness in some ha. Going to the beach before 9AM means dealing with some haze, but it usually clears up a bit by the time we leave. Starting the day with a walk on the beach and a tired, happy pup is pretty great! We are so happy we found a close beach that is more dog friendly. The beaches in York ME are probably equally as close BUT pups have to be on leash. Hope you enjoyed the frolicking Mizpah pics!

Signature 2

Fall Wardrobe Picks!

On By careofmonIn FashionLeave a comment

Good morning!!! Happy first day of fall!!!

I am sitting here 39 weeks pregnant, home from work with gestational high blood pressure (not preeclampsia thankfully) trying to stay busy! I will be on maternity leave and really trying to save money this fall/winter so I am committed to NOT shopping for a while, but I couldn’t help sharing my faves for new fall staples!

The two websites I always gravitate to are J Crew Factory and LLBean, so here are my picks!

J. Crew Factory

Cotton V-Neck Sweater in Light Mustard- $29.50 Its time for the sweaters to come back out!!! I love the v-neck because it looks great by itself, and then later in winter you can layer the button downs and flannels underneath. The light mustard color is great for fall.

Tweed Mini Skirt- $51.00 Every year J Crew Factory has a cute plaid mini or tweed mini that becomes such a classic, and I am really loving this one!

Cuffed Striped Boatneck Shirt- $29.50 So this shirt might not scream fall so much, but I love a long sleeve navy and white stripe shirt as it gets cooler and while I am not sure how nice the cuff looks in real life, I would be open to checking it out!

LLBean

Mountain Pile Fleece Jacket- $79.99-89 I am really loving this fleece zipup with the Katahdin LLBean logo tag. This is the sandstone color which is one of the ones that is on sale for the cheaper price point.

Tumbled-Leather LLBean Boots- Flannel Lined- $149 These Bean boots are a part of the small batch boot collection. They are being released in October but you can order them now and the website says they are backordered at the moment. I want these….real bad, but I know I should resist- we’ll see haha.

Scotch Plaid Shirt Slightly Fitted- $49.95 I can’t recommend the LLBean Scotch plaid flannel shirts enough. I want them in every color and want to live in them all fall and winter. The color I featured is ‘Princess Mary’ which I really like. These sell out pretty fast usually, so get em now while all the colors are still in stock!

Signature Cotton Fisherman Tunic Sweater- $99.00 I have a couple of the regular sweaters which I love, but I really like this longer tunic sweater too! I would definitely get the black cherry color because I think its such a nice fall color.

Signature Merino Textured Fair Isle Crewneck- $99.00 This is the one thing that I actually DID buy! I love bird sweaters, and am obsessed with loons. I have been looking for a loon sweater for a few years now. This is a reproduction of a sweater LLBean made back in the 80s I believe. I can’t wait to be able to wear this one 🙂

What are your fall favorites this year? I will admit, every year I look forward to all the fall bucket list/fall wardrobe staples blog posts. I love this season; its so fun that my little boy will be a fall baby! Enjoy the first weekend of fall!

Signature 2

MS Mount Washington Cruise

On By careofmonIn Lifestyle, TripsLeave a comment

One sort of touristy thing that I have wanted to do since we moved to New Hampshire is take a cruise on the MS Mount Washington around Lake Winnepesaukee. Their website with the schedule and event info is here. Since I have had to be careful out on friends’s smaller boats with the pregnancy, this summer seemed like the perfect time to head out on the nice large and stable MS Mount Washington!

We went out on a Sunday, so the boat left from Alton Bay and motored to Weirs Beach in Laconia, and then came back. They had a brunch buffet on board but we brought a picnic of our own to save some dollars! It was a beautiful day and we got to try out our new camera. We have been wanting to get a nice camera for a while now, but definitely the impending arrival of our son who will surely be our favorite subject made us finally get one. We got a Nikon D3300 and so far so good. These are some of my favorite snaps from the day!

DSC_0087
Here’s our boat coming into Alton Bay!!
DSC_0120
Captain’s Office!
DSC_0131
35 weeks pregnant here!!
DSC_0191
This is Kimball Castle! Built in the 1890s by Benjamin Kimball, who was president of the Boston, Montreal, and Concord Railways. Interesting article of when it had fallen into disarray and was for sale for just 799,000 in 2013 can be seen here.
DSC_0163
Up on top of Brickyard Mountain in Weirs Beach is a structure that looks like a light house, but its actually fake! It’s actually a water tower and cell phone tower for the area.
DSC_0188
It was windy the day we were out, probably perfect for sailing!!
DSC_0169
One of the very large houses on luxurious Governor’s Island in Gilford. Looked like this one had a for sale sign out on the water, want to guess how many millions of dollars this beauty is going for?
DSC_0197
Pulling back into Alton Bay, this lovely home on this cute little island was just begging to be photographed.

Lake Winnepesaukee is beautiful, and a cruise on the MS Mount Washington is a great way to see it! On other days, the boat goes to Wolfeboro which is one of my favorite towns, and also Meredith & Center Harbor. All of the port towns on the lake where the boat stops have their own vibe and character. Center Harbor is probably the quietest with really just the Mug on the Bay, and Weirs Beach might be the liveliest with restaurants, bars, and nightlife. Wolfeboro has a cute street of restaurants and shopping right off the boat. Meredith has the Town Docks restaurant which is popular, and Alton Bay has some food places like Shibley’s athe Pier and Pop’s Clam Shell too.  Another couple that we chatted with on the boat was celebrating their one year anniversary. They had their wedding on the Mount Washington and brought the top of the wedding cake to share while on the cruise- so sweet!

Signature 2