“It’s time for a three musketeers adventure” I announced, “the first three musketeers adventure of 2013.”

You all looked at me, and in your own words, in your own time, you said:

“what are we going to do, where are we going to go, when are we going?”

“I’m not sure what we’ll do yet, but I can guarantee it’ll be something fun… and there will be something yummy,” I said.

“there’s always something yummy, are we going to that breakfast place we always go to?”

It was day two of school vacation – Tuesday, February 26 – a perfect time to get together again.

Sometimes you want me to tell you where we’re going before we go…  other times, you like to play my riddle game.  This time you were less patient:

“Just tell us what we’re going to do!”

… you all said excitedly from the rear of the “Youk” as I drove south toward Portsmouth.

“First stop:  The Friendly Toast”

‘Yay! I’m going to get pancakes.  Me too!  Not me, I’m going to get french toast!”

“Second stop:  the oldest house in New Hampshire.”

Uh, that one fell kinda flat.

“Third stop: a Fort where we’ll be able to play inside buildings and have a snowball fight.”

cool! a real fort? like a civil war fort?” Camden asked

I said, “it’s my favorite fort around here.  You’re going to like it.  It’s even better than Fort Constitution – the fort we saw last summer after the Gundalow ride.”

what’s after that?

“Fourth stop: the beach house!”

cool!  we haven’t been there in a long time…  can we play some board games? Ben asked

“Sure,” I said as we parked by Friendly Toast and prepared to get out. Here’s a photo of you guys when we first got there.  See Goat Man?  Ben and Camden like to make faces that make them look, well, not quite right.  Funny!

Everyone ended up getting pancakes except me; Emma gave up on her french toast idea.  I got two orders of crispy bacon for everyone to share.  Ben loves the bacon, and so do I. Emma and Ben had orange juice and Camden got a vanilla shake.  I ate a club sandwich and drank half of my chocolate shake. We were stuffed but ready for action.

Here you are after we had finished eating and you were fooling around (time to head out!):

Before leaving, you all made funny faces in the carnival mirror at the back of the restaurant.  I think this is one of the best 3 Musketeers photos of all time!

Next up was the oldest house in New Hampshire, the Jackson House.  I told you about the history, and pointed out the steep roof on the backside that almost touched the road. I tried to have you imagine what the land around it would have looked like over 300 years ago with no other buildings around.  Hard to imagine now because the neighborhood is so built up.    Here’s the Jackson House:

You were anxious to get to the fort- this was definitely what everyone was most excited about.   Being the off season, it was closed when we got there, but we walked in and had the place to ourselves.

THIS PLACE IS AWESOME!!!!!!

you said as you ran ahead full speed.

I showed you around all the different structures: first the big mound behind which they mounted the cannons; the tunnel (flooded with ice and water; you could barely maneuver through it and Emma got soaked!!); the white blockhouse overlooking the ocean; the old gunpowder and munitions storage; a brick house without a roof and high stone walled areas.

After exploring, I started a snowball fight – me against the three of you.  You hid in the brick building without a roof – I was outside, tossing snowballs over the walls.  Then I’d charge the building and you’d fire away. One time I jumped through the door and we went at it, firing snowballs at each other point blank.  Then we moved to the munitions storage building which was enclosed and a very neat place to hide.  One time Ben ran around the back where I was hiding in a sneak-attack move.  Emma joined my ranks at one point – she was getting cold from being soaked in the tunnel – and the battle continued.

Finished with the snowball fight we then played a game of target practice, snowing snowballs at targets on the brick walls.

After exploring the blockhouse area – with Ben and Camden sliding down the steep hill – we checked out the granite boulder field and then headed to the car, wet and tired but still laughing.

Next up was the final piece of the adventure – a quick trip to the beach house, now even more important because it would give us a way to dry wet clothes, turn up the heat, and bring everyone (especially Emma) back to normal.  Ben reminded us about playing board games, selecting the game of Life and a sliding version of Sorry.  You guys hadn’t visited the beach house since before Labor Day, so it was fun getting back.   There was nothing to eat, so we passed out glasses of cold water which tasted great after our snow battles.

We would have enjoyed a walk on the beach, but alas, we ran out of time and headed home, satisfied and tired from one of our best adventures ever.

On the way home Camden said:

let’s have a three musketeers adventure every week!