Portsmouth 2024 July 12

Was flown to Portsmouth, New Hampshire for a couple weeks by my company to attend some training. After a solid week of death-by-training-slideshows I had the weekend free and a shitty clapped-out Toyota Avalon at my disposal.

I decided to make an escape from the training facilities and hotel to spend an afternoon checking out the downtown area.

Portsmouth is a nice little town on the coast of New Hampshire. It sits across from Maine to its North and is connected by a vertical-lift bridge that carries US Route 1 across the Piscataqua River into Kittery, Maine.

I parked downtown along a road adjacent to Memorial Park by the World War I Memorial Bridge, grabbed my camera, and began to stroll. The bridge was, of course, the first thing that caught my eye. Conversely, it was my first arrival once parked.

I walked down the length of the bridge into Kittery, Maine. I admired the industrial design and metalwork of the bridge structure and the aesthetic nature of its angles and the shadows it cast.

Kittery, or, what little I saw of it, seemed very quaint and lovely. I didn’t make it any further than Badger’s Island on the Maine side before turning back towards Portsmouth, but it’s definitely an area I’d like to check out on a future trek.

[The World War I Memorial Bridge] opened in 2013, replacing a bridge of similar design that existed from 1923 to 2012. A large overhead plaque carried over from the original reads “Memorial to the Sailors and Soldiers of New Hampshire who gave their lives in the World War 1917–1919.”

I paused back on the Portsmouth side of the bridge and browsed online for some food options. It was around 1400 and I’d yet to eat any food the entire day, so I was fairly hungry. I found a highly-reviewed pizza place (my “go-to” food) deeper into down and decided I’d lackadaisically wander in that general direction.

Down Daniel Street I went, whick quickly turned into Congress Street. If I found an interesting side-street or alleyway I walked down it to see what might lay hiding therein. Unlike places like China or Thailand…American cities are widely pretty boring and sterile. Not much “hiding”, not many surprises. Lots of lovely brick architecture, however.

I found the pizza restaurant: Flatbread Company. Excellent food, wonderful bread. Pizza is always brilliant when it’s by a restaurant that really understand that pizza is, primarily, just bread—that’s the foundation of the stuff. If you can get the bread down, genreally, the rest of the pizza will follow. Flatbread Company is a place I’d highly recommend if you find yourself in Portsmouth with a hankering for good pizza. I ordered some light ale to go along with my lunch.

[North Church-Portsmouth UCC] This historic church was rebuilt in 1854 & features a big, iconic bell tower & Italianate exterior.

Paid my bill and went back out. Made a couple phone calls, including almost an hour long phone call with one of my best friends, Hersh. Walked all over other parts of time during this and didn’t really take any pictures.

By the time I was done speaking on the phone I was ready for another beer, and summer afternoon storm clouds were starting to roll in from the Southwest.

I went into a Mexican restaurant for what I thought would just be a quick drink before moving on. However, right about the time as I was finishing my beer the sky opened up and began pouring rain. Oh, well! Nowhere to go, so, another drink ordered.

The television over the bar was playing the news about former US President Donald J. Trump just narrowly avoiding an assassination attempt by a lone gunman. Of course, this caused much discussion amongst various bar patrons. The couple sitting next to me volunteered their opinions, and I listened. The listening turned into talking and before long I had gotten to know them. Turned out the woman worked for my company! And her husband also worked in aviation with a long career in legacy airlines. We had a ton to talk over and I left with their contact information!