My Day Trip To Hampton, New Hampshire!
One of the coolest things about Dartmouth is how it enables you to become a really active member of the immediate New England community around you. While a lot of students do like going to cities once in a while (like Boston or New York with friends), it's also really cool to have a day trip to one of the surrounding New England towns in Vermont or even in New Hampshire.
Two of my best friends on campus and I decided to take the trip to Hampton, New Hampshire, which is about an hour and a half away from campus. We took her dog, which was visiting campus from home, with us and set out on our way.
Here are 5 things we did in Hampton, and why I strongly recommend checking it out!
- We ate fish tacos. Really, really good fish tacos actually. We got to eat lunch just when it was nice and sunny outside, which provided respite from the usually chilly November that we had been experiencing. The food was great but the vibes were even better.
- We visited the beach. The beach is actually quite big and it's this super nice, clean, white sand beach. We spent hours just chatting while trying very hard not to get sand in our shoes (we really, really failed).
- We played fetch all over the town! My friend's dog, Theo, took a particular liking to Hampton. Which meant that he was running all over, with his balls and toys, trying to get us and other pedestrians to play fetch with him. He managed to win most of them over and we were playing fetch with him all across the town.
- We ate really good sandwiches. It's telling that two of the five most memorable things we did have to do with food, but these sandwiches were actually bomb! We ate at a shack right next to the beach, and the sun was just about to set. As music thumped from the loudspeaker and the sun set from the horizon, it was honestly a phenomenal experience.
- We took pictures. Like a lot of them. This sounds super vain, but to be honest, we were just taking pictures of the town. Hampton is a throwback to the '50s, with shops and bars resembling architecture of that time. The town has a big Americana influence, that seemed really timely and on-trend, and it made for some super cool portrait shots.
When the day was over and we headed back to campus, we were honestly so happy. It didn't matter that the drive was three hours (both ways), what mattered was that we had such a great day and I would do it all over again — especially in the spring or summer, when there's not a lingering chance that I freeze to death!