This weekends trip took us to the capitol city of Concord NH, and the Museum of New Hampshire History. Not unlike many of our other trips we started later in the afternoon on Saturday. What should have been about a 2 hour and 15 minute drive ended up taking more like 2 hours and 45 minutes due to my brain being in auto pilot mode. But like I've said many time before, it doesn't matter how fast you get there because sometimes the "getting there" is the adventure.
We pulled into downtown Concord just before 8:00pm and headed right to the hotel to check in. On the list of places to stay in the Concord area, only one can top the list. The Centennial Hotel, billed by trip-advisor.com as the 4th highest ranked hotel in all of NH, it was my top choice for this trip. After searching around on a bunch of travel websites I decided to book the room directly through
www.thecentennialhotel.com . This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I was not only able to select the exact room I wanted, but also add-on a few extra things to make the stay that much better. I chose a queen turret suite, which featured a circular sitting room with wall mounted flat screen tv (from the outside the room looks like a gun turret in an old castle), a private deck, an office with a desk, a large bedroom, and bathroom. When we got into the room we were greeted with a bottle of champagne, chocolate covered strawberries, 2 large bottles of locally brewed beer, and a bowl of assorted nuts. Even though these items were all add-ons, they are absolutely worth every penny, especially if you are planning a romantic weekend getaway.
Don't let the the classic victorian exterior fool you into thinking that
the interior is old and outdated. Everything from floor to ceiling is
modern with an urban-contemporary feel. From the boutique furniture,
pillow top queen bed, flat screen tvs, and artwork taken from the pages
of Vogue Magazine.
After relaxing for a while and enjoying our champagne and strawberries, we decided to order room service. Fortunately for us The Centennial Hotel is also home to Granite Restaurant and Bar which is located just off of the hotel lobby. Once we called in our order it took no longer then 20 minutes for the food to arrive. We started off our meal with the beef and potato pierogi. Meaghan had the half size Granite cesar salad and half size potato crusted haddock. I had the grilled fillet mignon with bacon mashed potatoes and steamed carrots. I wont get into how much all of that cost, but you can imagine that it wasn't cheap. Either way it was a great meal and it allowed us to just kick back, relax, and not have to worry about finding a place to eat.
Sunday morning after check out, we headed over to The Common Man Restaurant for their Sunday morning brunch buffet. The buffet featured all of the usual suspects from the breakfast menu, as well as some lunch items and deserts. Nothing stood out as exceptional whether it was the food, the decor, or the service. Just an average restaurant filled with average food, and what I can only assume was mostly local regulars. The highlight of my morning was listening to the other patrons conversations and quietly laughing to myself. I like to consider myself a semi-professional people watcher, so being close enough to be able to hear what everyone was saying made the game that much better.
We headed back downtown and found Pitchfork Records. This is a great record store right in the middle of the downtown shopping area. They had a good selection of new and used CDs, records, DVDs and cassette tapes. I could have easily spent all day in this store, but after picking out 3 CDs to listen to on the ride home and 5 records to add to our collections, I figured we had enough.
Our next point of interest was just around the block to The Museum of New Hampshire History. This is a fun place to visit on a weekend, and it only cost $11 for admission for both of us. When we got inside we found ourselves alone which was great because we were able to goof around freely. The museum was full of artifacts, artwork, and even a children's area all based on NH and it's past. Check it out if you get the chance, and if you're lucky you will have the place to yourself like we did.
The last thing we did before heading home was to walk around the downtown shopping area. I must caution anyone who may be visiting Concord on a Sunday, because most of the businesses on North Main Street are closed. It is still worth walking around checking everything out and learning the city, but keep in mind that Sunday may not be the best day to do so. After popping our heads into the few places that were open we decided to head back home before it go too late. Overall I had fun on this trip, and as always I loved the adventure of visiting a new place.
On a scale of 5 stars, here are my rankings for our Concord NH trip
The Centennial Hotel - 4 1/2 stars
www.thecentennialhotel.com
Granite Restaurant and Bar - 4 stars
www.graniterestaurant.com
The Comman Man Restaurant - 2 1/2 stars
www.thecman.com
Pitchfork records - 4 stars
Museum of New Hampshire History - 3 stars
www.nhhistory.org/museum
Concord NH (downtown area/ N. Main street) 2 stars
Jay
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