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May. 30th, 2018 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancing_crowAfter my sainted mither waved us off the afternoon before we were supposed to leave for her house, the younger Crow suggested we just -go- somewhere, anywhere, on vacation. So Cath and I looked along the coast and settled on Portsmouth, far enough to feel away, close enough that the trip home didn't hurt, and filled with suggested diversions.
Cath works Saturdays, and had Tuesday off, so I've been offset for days now. But we had a great time. We found a fourth floor ABnB, and Portsmouth is tiny, easily walked in all directions. It is also been well and truly gentrified and touristed, and was full of useless things like galleries and museums and restaurants and froofraws. We visited the USS Albacore, an experimental electric sub used as an ocean-going test-bed for propellers, dive brakes (even testing parachutes, which failed spectacularly in the water) and varous steering options. The exhibit was excellent, with some interactive parts, several things to listen to, and many anecdotes related by people who sailed on it. (Do you call it sailing if it is a submarine?) I expected to be cramped and twitchy, but I liked it just fine. I still dislike the idea of caves, so maybe boatness overrode claustrophobia in this case.
We visited Strawberry Banke, which felt unfinished? Or only partly open, or something. It was interesting, but information felt thin on the ground, rather than readily available. Also there was no boat builder, and I wanted to know what they might be working on.
If you are in Portsmouth and like offbeat food, I can't recommend Moxy enough. Dinner the first night was so exciting and unexpected we went back again the next night because there were things we wanted to try, and also we wanted the brussells sprouts again but we were denied because they ran out. Also the bartenders are freaking genius - I offered that I wanted rum and coconut, and they came back with something smooth and with lime and orgeat added to rum and bitters... they just invented it! it was amazing! And since all we had to do was walk, it was even tastier.
ETA there were (of course, because ports) ten houses of ill repute in Portsmouth until four young men from the Navy Yard were murdered, and on the historic plaque telling us this was a photo of the most "refined" (expensive) one and it looked so much like our ABnB that I was convinced for a happy day that we were in fact renting rooms on the top floor of what had at one time been Portsmouth's most refined house of ill repute. Until I finally read the plaque, and remembered our actual address, and we decided it was not so after all. It was a good thought to be holding for a while though.
We found a bead store on the way home, and made it back in time for supper last night, and today I was utterly wrecked with a migraine, so I'm rebooting gently and staring at my new beads thinking round stones are the very sweetest things evar.
Cath works Saturdays, and had Tuesday off, so I've been offset for days now. But we had a great time. We found a fourth floor ABnB, and Portsmouth is tiny, easily walked in all directions. It is also been well and truly gentrified and touristed, and was full of useless things like galleries and museums and restaurants and froofraws. We visited the USS Albacore, an experimental electric sub used as an ocean-going test-bed for propellers, dive brakes (even testing parachutes, which failed spectacularly in the water) and varous steering options. The exhibit was excellent, with some interactive parts, several things to listen to, and many anecdotes related by people who sailed on it. (Do you call it sailing if it is a submarine?) I expected to be cramped and twitchy, but I liked it just fine. I still dislike the idea of caves, so maybe boatness overrode claustrophobia in this case.
We visited Strawberry Banke, which felt unfinished? Or only partly open, or something. It was interesting, but information felt thin on the ground, rather than readily available. Also there was no boat builder, and I wanted to know what they might be working on.
If you are in Portsmouth and like offbeat food, I can't recommend Moxy enough. Dinner the first night was so exciting and unexpected we went back again the next night because there were things we wanted to try, and also we wanted the brussells sprouts again but we were denied because they ran out. Also the bartenders are freaking genius - I offered that I wanted rum and coconut, and they came back with something smooth and with lime and orgeat added to rum and bitters... they just invented it! it was amazing! And since all we had to do was walk, it was even tastier.
ETA there were (of course, because ports) ten houses of ill repute in Portsmouth until four young men from the Navy Yard were murdered, and on the historic plaque telling us this was a photo of the most "refined" (expensive) one and it looked so much like our ABnB that I was convinced for a happy day that we were in fact renting rooms on the top floor of what had at one time been Portsmouth's most refined house of ill repute. Until I finally read the plaque, and remembered our actual address, and we decided it was not so after all. It was a good thought to be holding for a while though.
We found a bead store on the way home, and made it back in time for supper last night, and today I was utterly wrecked with a migraine, so I'm rebooting gently and staring at my new beads thinking round stones are the very sweetest things evar.