Girls’ Weekend in New Hampshire

There’s something so wonderful about friends you’ve had for two decades. There’s so much shared history and your friendships have gone through so many different seasons, changes and life events together. You have a million shared memories; memories that make you laugh so hard it hurts and memories that make your eyes instantly fill with tears — the good kind and the hard and therapeutic kind. The love I have for my college girlfriends is strong and deep. They’re women I trust completely and love wholeheartedly and I’m so glad we were able to spend 48 hours together in New Hampshire this weekend.

Longtime blog readers may recognize a lot of the faces in the pictures from this past weekend as they frequently popped up on the blog in my early days of blogging during the post-college years of my life when Ryan and I lived in Orlando and most of us lived fairly close to each other. Memoriesss! Now we’re living all over the place which makes our time together feel all the more coveted and special.

Friday

Laurel, Merri, Leah, Kaitlyn, Krystal, Cherayne and I met up in Boston and we flew or drove into town from Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Connecticut to make our weekend time together happen. With so many moving parts and perfectly-timed arrivals in Boston, we were glad no flight delays popped up so our trip started out on a smooth and seamless note!

(Bodysuit tank: Amazon / Cropped button-down top: Target / Slip skirt: Target / Sneakers: New Balance / Suitcase: Samsonite / Quilted bag: Free People) 

All weekend long we continued to thank Kaitlyn, the master planner behind our trip, for organizing basically everything for our group. Kaitlyn grew up visiting New Hampshire’s coastal towns (there are only 18 miles of shoreline in the entire state) and picked three of us up at the airport in Boston before driving us about an hour north to her parents’ house. Her mom and dad greeted us with sub sandwiches from a local shop, chips and onion dip, which, after a morning of travel was a very welcomed lunch! We enjoyed chatting with Kaitlyn’s family and seeing the house she spent so much time in throughout her childhood before making the short drive to the house we rented in Rye, New Hampshire for the weekend.

Though we rented the home on our own, we love that it had a connection to Kaitlyn as one of her friends was the builder who handled the interior renovations inside the home. It was a stunning house and the interior was so gorgeous that I’m kicking myself for not taking more pictures. This is the room I shared with my friend Laurel for the weekend!

It’s a lot cuter than the room we shared together in college but it took me right back to the years we spent sharing Room 12 of the Kappa Delta house at UCF! We didn’t have too much time to unpack and get situated in our rooms before we had a reservation at The Franklin for cocktails, oysters and fries. We drove into downtown Portsmouth, an adorable town in New Hampshire with brick-lined streets and lots of local shops, cafés and restaurants to explore around every corner.

Our cocktails were great (I opted for a cocktail made with grapefruit juice, lemongrass, Bergamot Liqueur and vodka and loved it) and anytime raw oysters are on the menu, there’s a 100 percent chance I’ll order them. We then popped into another local spot for a drink before making our way to Surf for dinner where, once again, I was in seafood heaven — a major perk of visiting a coastal town! After dinner, we were all craving our comfy clothes and wasted no time changing into our pajamas back at the house before we spent more time just hanging out and talking — the main goal of our trip — before calling it a night.

Saturday

Saturday was our first and only full day together and we made the most of it. Kaitlyn’s mom and two aunts were so thoughtful and arrived at our rental house at 8 a.m. with two breakfast casseroles. We filled our plates with a cheesy egg casserole, pecan French toast casserole and buttery biscuits. Kaitlyn’s aunts are actually her mother’s best friends and they had all of us cracking up and admiring their closeness and friendship. It was just another reminder of what a gift longtime friends are and made me feel all the more grateful for a weekend away with some of my very favorite people. Our main plans for Saturday took us on a drive along the Atlantic coast into Maine where we had reservations at Cliff House, an unbelievably gorgeous oceanfront resort with expansive views of the rocky coastline.

We planned to grab brunch at Cliff House and were blown away by the view we had of the ocean from our table. We sat at a large round table (random, but I love round table seating for large groups!) and as someone who hasn’t had a leisurely brunch in way too long, it felt amazing to sip my latte, enjoy hot seafood chowder and tuna poke and just relax with my girlfriends.

Once we were done eating, we didn’t want to leave Cliff House and opted to order some drinks and walk around the property to take in more of the stunning views.

The rest of our day we intentionally left up in the air as we were planning our trip and we thought driving back into Portsmouth to wander in and out of some of the local shops sounded like a good way to spend the afternoon.

Ordering pizza in our pajamas at the house sounded like ideal evening plans for our group and, after spending a few hours in Portsmouth, in the early evening we made the short drive back to our house in Rye, put on our sweats and dug into wine, Prosecco and snacks before ordering pizza. We also had a little surprise in store for our friend Leah as her birthday is in early December and we knew we wouldn’t be able to spend it all together. We sang “Happy Birthday” and brought out the cake her husband Ricky ordered for her and our group to share from a local bakery before giving her our cards and a group gift. She seemed surprised and I hope she felt all the love from our group coming her way! The rest of our evening passed by way too fast with lots of laughs (the best kind that make your stomach hurt from laughing so hard) and plenty of chatting before bed.

Sunday

Sunday was a travel day for all of us but we planned our flights for the early afternoon so we thankfully had the morning together. My friend Merri and I made the short drive to Sandpiper Café, a small café located inside of a surf shop, to pick up coffee and hot breakfast sandwiches for our group.

I loved getting out a little bit in the morning, spending time with Merri and seeing all of the surfers in the water right off the beach across the street from the café.

By the time we got back to the house, we had a little over an hour to pack up and straighten up the house before making our way to the airport. We hugged goodbye and talked about our next trip together and are hopeful it will happen sooner rather than later. We’re eyeing next summer at our house in Charlotte with all of the kids which would be a chaotic dream!

Once I landed in Charlotte, I could not wait to get back home to Ryan and the boys! I missed my crazy crew so, so much but thankfully we were able to FaceTime a few times while I was away. Normalcy resumes in our house today with the usual school and weekday madness but I’m still smiling thinking about this past weekend. It was much-needed and wonderful and definitely filled me right up in the way only quality time away with close friends can. I hope you all have a wonderful Monday and a great week and I hope to see ya back here soon!