Portsmouth, New Hampshire

We arrived in Portsmouth just as Charlie started crying and I discovered she had a major blowout.  Matt was just coming back to our car after checking into the hotel so I had him tag team the diaper/outfit change.  Of course as I’m holding her up butt naked and Matt is wiping her down, the hotel front desk concierge approaches us with Matt’s parking pass that he left on the counter.  It wasn’t our finest moments, but that’s family travel for ya… you never know what to expect when traveling with kids and they have definitely stretched us to be flexible and more selfless every day. 

Sleep: We stayed at the Al House Inn and our interaction with the concierge was such a great first impression of the hotel.  He was so kind and understanding even though he literally saw us at our worst.  I always feel a little pressure when people see us at their restaurant or hotel with three little kids and I’m trying to find the balance of having realistic expectations for my kids according to their ages, but still being respectful to the other guests and staff where we are staying.  For example: playing on the floor, ok, taking an extra cookie from the lounge, ok, running in the hallway to find our room, ok.  But climbing on the furniture, not ok, yelling, not ok, sword fighting your brother with utensils (yes that happened), not ok. 

The hotel was great.  In the lobby they had a bunch of snacks to munch on (which the boys loved) and nitro cold brew coffee on tap which was AMAZING!!!  Our room was spacious too and we were welcomed with a personalized note and box of cookies which all three boys loved. J  The location was fantastic, central to everywhere we wanted to go.  The only downside was that you do have to climb a bunch of stairs to get in the front door, so had to carry up the stroller and whatnot. 

Eat:  Breakfast (or lunch... or dinner!): A friend recommended eating at The Friendly Toast in Porsmouth, a child-friendly, eclectically decorated, chain restaurant with really interesting menu options.  For breakfast I ordered avocado toast with eggs, salsa, feta cheese, etc. and Matt chose eggs benedict with grazed beef.  The boys ate off our plates and had an order of fries.  The restaurant was perfect for the kids, they even had a chalk wall for them to draw on while they waited for their food.  You could definitely eat there for dinner too, in fact it seemed very busy when we walked by in the evening as well. 

Dinner: We were super excited to eat seafood for dinner and it was recommended that we try River House.  The atmosphere was great, we sat at a table right on the water and it was loud enough for our kids to talk loud.  The food was great too- we split a lobster roll and sea food bisque.

Play: Porsmouth is a great area to walk along the water!  The boys enjoyed running around Prescott Park, running through the gardens and along the water.  We also enjoyed popping into small shops around the city. 

I was surprised how much I loved Portsmouth, it was just so quaint and adorable with all the cute shops and water access.  It was a great stop along our road trip to Maine!