Beach Landing

First Friday operations were moved to the New Hampshire seacoast area as my excellent boss and some fellow managers decamped to spend the weekend in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We were supposed to leave right after noon. My wife promised to be ready when I returned from a half day of work and she was almost there when I got home. The key word there was “almost”. I was concerned about running into weekend getaway traffic as we headed north so I employed my typical histrionics to get her moving. She met them with her usual aplomb and eventually deigned to permit our departure.

First Coastal Beers with the Boss

We met some of my fears on the road but I always got the feeling we were just ahead of the worst of the traffic. We arrived in our hotel to find my excellent boss and his wife had established a beachhead in the hotel bar. We joined forces to await the arrival of the rest of the party. First Friday proved to be the moveable feast I knew it to be as I sampled some of Portsmouth’s famous Smutty Nose pilsner.

At The Gas Light Company

The stay was kind of nostalgic as all of our recent visits to the picturesque town involved seeing my favorite son and the ABFA. Unfortunately they vacated the premises the day before but he did provide the promised guidance on dining. We’ll see him this afternoon for lunch.

After the entire party gathered we wandered into town in search of pizza. We ended up in the basement of the Gas Light Company for the promised pizza. This is also a well-known historical location as it marks the spot where my son officially met the ABFA for the first time. We had a very good time over dinner catching up with everyone. While the boss and I see each other every day it was fun seeing the wives and others who no longer work with us. As always when you’re with friends time seems to melt away.

The Other Side of the Table

We were enjoying the conversation and the Red Sox who were playing the team of ultimate evil whose name cannot be mentioned in polite company when the waiter apologized to say he was required to switch the television to a promotional beer raffle. While I would be the last to argue with anything beer related this was unfortunate and cost the bar a lot more in terms of sales than they ever hoped to make on the promotion. We moved back to the hotel bar for the tragic ending of the game when the worst possible scenario unveiled. Even that punch to the gut did nothing to defuse the fun of the seacoast invasion. Today’s pub crawl looms as additional signal of a magical weekend.