A (fantastic) day in Portsmouth, NH

Yesterday, Josh and I had the opportunity to wander around Portsmouth and take in the beautiful old buildings, the ornate blooming gardens and catching up with family.

We had lunch at a highly recommended haunt, The Friendly Toast, and then took off to walk off the delicious hamburgers.

My cousin Anna joined us for iced coffee and a stroll along the waterfront which included one of the most immaculately tended and labeled gardens I have ever seen. Did anyone else know that there is a little plant with yellow flowers that curry is made from? After squeezing the leaves between our fingers we smelled like an Indian restaurant for the rest of the day.
We strolled in and out of sweet little stores and spent almost an hour in The River Run Bookstore. We had to bone up on the latest Harry Potter before we see the next movie and before #7 comes out.

After meeting up with Candace and Tim we stopped by the Press Room for a beer and some really great music. A jazz quintet opened with piano, drums, stand up bass and two sax players. They did a few tunes and then one of the sax players (who was an instructor at a local jazz summer camp) introduced the next band 'Iced Coffee'. A group of kids ranging from ten to thirteen took the stage, and proceeded to knock our socks off. The group rotated through about four sax players, two piano players and various other instruments. The kids got their groove on for a howling audience. We were psyched, they were beaming and the parents in the audience could not take enough pictures! Rock on kiddos!