Our Thursday adventures started with a stop at the Vermont Country Store near Rockingham, VT. I imagine many of you have seen the store's catalog and have a sense of what's inside. You might compare this to "our" Mast General Store. The boys enjoyed looking around at all of the stuff...but what they loved most was the candy counters. It didn't take long before boys discovered that there was some candy that was actually priced at just one cent a piece. In hindsight I think we should have limited their purchases because some boys bought a bag full of some of the penny stuff. Actually, I imagine those candies had to be money losers for the store - but it did what it was supposed to do...make boys extremely happy! Some boys did buy other souvenirs and we all enjoyed relaxing on the store's porch or out in the yard on gliding swings or rockers. This was a worthwhile and relaxing stop.
After about an hour at the store, we headed toward our destination for the last two nights of our trip - Manchester, New Hampshire. We knew we wanted to go candlepin bowling so we had the location loaded in our GPS and headed for that. We found the place, parked, and then walked to lunch nearby.
We were in the bowling place around 2 and the owner seemed happy to have some completely "foreign" customers. He graciously gathered the group together and explained how the game works and how to score the game and how to use the overhead scoring system.
Now on this trip you can always find someone or several someones who have at least experienced an activity such as kayaking. But not a soul (except me) had ever even heard of candlepins bowling. You will need to get your son to explain how it works but briefly you use a ball about the size of a large grapefruit. It has no holes in it. You get three rolls per frame and you throw two frames at a time. The pins are a different shape as well, and once a pin falls it stays on the lane while you throw the other two balls. After three balls, you reset the lane. Boys found out it's much harder to get high scores in candlepins, but using the bumpers did help some. We found out that no one has ever scored a perfect game in candlepin bowling.
We did have a friendly little competition in the second round and a few guys received a small cash prize. Candlepins is pretty much a New England sport and something these boys will remember. Of course I hope they'll remember a lot of things they did on this adventure.
We made it to the motel a bit before 5 and a bit after 5 we were heading to dinner and then onto our evening activity - a baseball game between the New Hampshire Fishercats (a Toronto Blue Jays affiliate) and the Portland River Dogs (a Boston Red Sox affiliate). There was several thousand people at this Double A game and the boys had fun in the ballpark. We even had a welcome to MindStretch Travel Adventures on the electronic scoreboard. We stayed until the end because it was "fireworks night."
Another great day. Click to see some photos from our adventure.
After about an hour at the store, we headed toward our destination for the last two nights of our trip - Manchester, New Hampshire. We knew we wanted to go candlepin bowling so we had the location loaded in our GPS and headed for that. We found the place, parked, and then walked to lunch nearby.
We were in the bowling place around 2 and the owner seemed happy to have some completely "foreign" customers. He graciously gathered the group together and explained how the game works and how to score the game and how to use the overhead scoring system.
Now on this trip you can always find someone or several someones who have at least experienced an activity such as kayaking. But not a soul (except me) had ever even heard of candlepins bowling. You will need to get your son to explain how it works but briefly you use a ball about the size of a large grapefruit. It has no holes in it. You get three rolls per frame and you throw two frames at a time. The pins are a different shape as well, and once a pin falls it stays on the lane while you throw the other two balls. After three balls, you reset the lane. Boys found out it's much harder to get high scores in candlepins, but using the bumpers did help some. We found out that no one has ever scored a perfect game in candlepin bowling.
We did have a friendly little competition in the second round and a few guys received a small cash prize. Candlepins is pretty much a New England sport and something these boys will remember. Of course I hope they'll remember a lot of things they did on this adventure.
We made it to the motel a bit before 5 and a bit after 5 we were heading to dinner and then onto our evening activity - a baseball game between the New Hampshire Fishercats (a Toronto Blue Jays affiliate) and the Portland River Dogs (a Boston Red Sox affiliate). There was several thousand people at this Double A game and the boys had fun in the ballpark. We even had a welcome to MindStretch Travel Adventures on the electronic scoreboard. We stayed until the end because it was "fireworks night."
Another great day. Click to see some photos from our adventure.
Lane winners in the second round of candlepin bowling: Leader James Mills with Grayson, Brooks, Cameron, and Sam.
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