Winter adventure

I always feel a little S.A.D. this time of year.  The cold days and the limited hours of sunlight make me feel a little depressed and unhappy.  My self-diagnosis of Seasonal Affective Disorder makes me yearn to do something outdoors, to be active, to get myself out of the funk.  This winter hasn't been bad at all so far, weather-wise.  It was 60 degrees last weekend and we have yet to see a significant snowfall  (I'm knocking on wood like crazy right now), so I really have nothing to complain about.  But my S.A.D., coupled with last weekend being a long weekend, made me long for a winter adventure.

Luckily I have a wonderful husband who understands my "illness" and thinks of ways to help me get over it.  Spike's idea was that we go north to Portsmouth, NH and explore the downtown, then visit some of the local breweries, after which we would enjoy a seafood feast at our favorite seafood restaurant.  Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately) only one of the breweries was open since we went on a Sunday, but the adventure was still just that!

We started out around 10 am on Sunday morning, with the temperature gauge in the car reading 14 degrees.  Once we arrived in Portsmouth an hour later, we realized that exploring the downtown in the now 12 degree cold was not the best plan.  We quickly walked up one street and down the next, stopping in stores sporadically to get warm.  We each grabbed a bagel at the Works Bakery Cafe, which was almost as good as one from Collegetown Bagels, but not quite, and then decided to head to Kittery, ME to check out some of the outlets there.

After stopping in at the Pepperidge Farm outlet and buying some Goldfish, we moved onto Yankee Candle and bought a yummy-smelling evergreen-scented candle.  Then we headed to Yummies, a store I've been wanting to visit since I first saw it on Phantom Gourmet almost 10 years ago.  The candy selection was magnificent, but we refrained as we wanted to save our appetites.

Redhook Brewery was the only brewery open for tours on a Sunday, which automatically makes them a-ok in my book.  We were about a half hour early for the 1pm tour, so we enjoyed a pint at the bar while we waited.  Spike had an Irish Red (fitting, no?) and I tried their Nut Brown Ale, which was really yummy.  The bar had almost 800 mugs hung from the wall and ceiling for their mug club (I didn't count, I asked).  It reminded me of the lockers the old German men would keep their steins in at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich.  The tour was pretty standard but I did learn some interesting tidbits (unfiltered beer won't give you a hangover because of the yeast) and will drink more Redhook in the future!

The next stop was Newick's Lobster House in Dover, NH, a restaurant Spike used to go to when he was little.  He had taken me there a few years ago on Fourth of July weekend and I had instantly fallen in love.  The gigantic dining room sits right on the water and has a beautiful view... but that's not the real attraction, is it?  The portions of seafood are gigantic and everything is so delicious.  Spike got the Seafood Platter and I ordered clam strips.  After eating the sides and a few clams, I was too full and had to take the rest home.  The long journey down Rt. 1 gave me time to appreciate the fact that the sun is setting later and the days are getting longer.  But after spending a wonderful day in the middle of winter drinking beer and eating seafood, who can complain about S.A.D.?