Category Archives: Bronder Luck

New England: Portsmouth, NH

This past week Julie and I headed to New England on vacation, planning on stopping in a couple towns on the coast and then heading to Boston for a couple of days. Our first day was spent in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Portsmouth is a little more than an hour outside of Boston so we were able to get an early start on the day after a quick drive. We stayed at the Ale House Inn which one might call a boutique hotel but I’d say it’s more of an Inn that a couple of guys are running. Upon check-in we were handed two Shoals beers from Smuttynose. After the beer we headed out to walk around the town. We ended up having dinner at the Library Restaurant which is in the Rockingham Hotel. The Rockingham has some what of an illustrious history. The Rockingham once served as a George Washington’s Headquarters during the Revolution, Teddy Roosevelt brokered the peace for the Russo – Japanese War, and I had cold crab meat as an appetizer. Any time the Russo – Japanese War comes up during dinner it ensures a good meal.

After dinner we headed over to the Portsmouth Brewery which is a sister brewery to the Smuttynose. The brewery pub is located in the heart of Portsmouth, they had a large selection of their own beer and Smuttynose beers as well a good selection of bombers. I had my usual selection of Pale Ales and IPAs. They were out of their bombers of both so I took a Kölsch for the road. It was all good beer and there were a good amount of people order the four ounce flights of all ten house beers.

Chauncey Creek (Kittery Point, ME)

Our actual first stop on vacation an hour after landing in Boston was to stop by the Chauncey Creek Lobster Pier in Kittery Point, Maine for lunch. After heading through a driving rain storm without noticing the rear windshield wiper we made it to the Chauncey Creek under a steady drizzle of rain. The temperature was nice and cool but the rain did not slow down the lunch crowd. Chauncey Creek (recommended by Imperial Josh) is a BYOB fresh lobster shack on the water. After we arrived a group of about 8 senior citizens rolled in with a cooler full of beer and wine and all kinds of sides. It was rather hilarious as they basically took over half the tables.

With this as our first meal Lobster meal of the trip we knew we would be judging all others against it. Julie and I each got a lobster and an ear of corn. The corn wasn’t up to par but I think that’s because we live in the Midwest and corn nearly anywhere else isn’t as good. The lobster was great, it took some skill to eat with a plastic fork but you learn to survive in New England.

Side Notes:

And that's a wrap at the Chauncey Creek Lobster Pier -

* My meal at Chauncey Creek, note the fork is missing a couple of prongs.

Bobby Hull at Finley Dunnes

Last night after the Blackhawks overtime win over the Red Wings Julie got word that Bobby Hull was in the neighborhood at Finley Dunnes. We figured it was worth a trip to see if he was still there.

Finley Dunnes is an official Chicago Blackhawks bar so that’s how the Hull appearance was arranged. Bobby Hull as a ‘Blackhawks Ambassador’ was booked for FD’s. He basically just hung out at a table while people came up to him for an autograph, photograph or just a handshake. My understanding is this was to be a ‘word of mouth’ event so there really wasn’t a crowd, granted it was 10:30pm on a Monday night.

Side Notes:
*At one point when I was taking photographs something funny was said so I started laughing from behind the camera when Hull dropped the following line:

“Don’t you fucking laugh.”

** The rest of my photographs are on Flickr.

BlizzNasty.

BlizzNasty began yesterday around 1pm and continued until about noon today. With nearly everyone in Chicago with a snow day we decided to throw together a last minute cookout.

Foraging

Julie and I headed out into the neighborhood for supplies. We made our way to Dinkel’s Bakery which was packed considering the 18 inches of snow on the ground. We picked up a couple donuts for our neighbor and got a batch of pretzel buns for our cookout. Then we headed back up Lincoln to Paulina Meat Market which was also open. We were their first customers of the day, so we scored some burgers and charcoal. It was great to know that with all the snow both places with in walking distance were open.

SnowBBQ

At around 2pm we started the cookout, we used the snow as a cooler and we setup the chairs and table in the middle of the snow. We spent about two hours in the yard as the burgers cooked. The sun was out and the weather was really good considering all that has occurred in the past 24 hours.

Train Football

After our cookout we headed down Marshfield in search of a suitable football field. We ended up playing under the Brownline Paulina Stop for a little one-on-one Train Football. I’m pretty sure we’ll all be feeling this for the rest of the week. A running game is probably the best option in this weather. As you can see in the video above I’m pretty sure I blew my knee out.