Summer Holiday

January 22, 2015January 22, 2015 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

I was barely a teenage when I fell in love with the White Mountains. It was my first time at camp, the last summer before liking boys and caring what other people thought about me. We did a lot of hiking and the trail almost always ended with a spectacular view of those rocky peaks and the tiny towns in the valley below. My memories of this place and time are hazy, like the blue-hued ridge line in the final hours of the day. I can’t remember the trails I took or the people I met, but I’ll always remember how at peace these mountains made me feel.

This summer, I got painfully homesick for the mountains. It had been a few years since I’d visited. After the birth of our daughter we stayed pretty close to home. Knowing my husband shares my fondness for the hills and peaks just a few hours north of us, I booked a quick Labor Day vacation for the family at the Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa. It looked beautiful on website and the reviews screamed family friendly, but because this is the White Mountains and you never know what you’re going to get up there, I worried it wouldn’t meet our expectations.

I vastly underestimated this place.

The yellow clapboards pop from behind the trees as you round the final twist in the road to the hotel. Pulling up for check-in, a bell hop grabs your bags and helps you up the tall staircase to the Veranda. Don’t worry about them again. Staff whisks them of to your room in good time. This is old-school hotel service for a very old hotel.

The Sunday evening we arrived was rainy and miserable. The expansive porch and lobby bustled with families wrapping up their trip. We took a seat by a picture window, looking at only fog. My husband and I sipped cocktails while my daughter danced to jazz standards and Disney ballads played by an older gentleman at a baby grand piano. For a wash-out kind of night, it was pretty fantastic.

Plenty to look at at Santas Village.

I envisioned Santa’s Village as one-part fun, one-part scary and two-parts depressing. I was happy to find it’s a clean, well-run, quirky and creative place to take young children for the day. We went on Labor Day and had plenty of elbow room; we waited in line for a ride twice. The food was surprisingly good, with plenty of kid favorites and healthy options. Admission includes the new water park, which we didn’t try but looked like a blast.

I rode the carousel with my daughter for the last ride of the day. She waved to my husband as we rode round and round, and I realized this was one of those moments parents of grown children talk about – you just never want to forget it.

The dining options at the Mountain View are somewhat limited in the off-season, but largely good. Our first night, my daughter enjoyed chicken fingers, fruit and French fries from the free kid’s buffet. I had a seafood-stuffed baked haddock that was that good. Breakfast dishes included the regular favorites, and all that we tried was fresh and tasty. On a breakfast menu, fare like oatmeal can be tasteless afterthoughts, but my oatmeal was topped with nuts and fruit and real maple syrup. The table service overall was a little lacking, mostly just slow really, but we were on vacation. I sipped my coffee, looked out as the sun crossed over the mountains and was patient.

Relaxing before dinner

The rooms are neat and clean, but the standard king we booked felt a little cramped. They were not designed for hanging out, but for crashing after a fun-filled day. This wasn’t really a problem for us. My daughter wanted to run around the grounds and my husband and I were drawing all we could from the last days of summer.

The Mountain View’s onsite farm has a large barn with hens, rabbits, llamas, goats and cows. You can visit most days and the farmers welcome kids to pet animals when appropriate. My two-year-old showed no fear, walking right into the goat pen. The farmer guiding the tour said the goats must like her. They usually aren’t that nice to kids, she said.

Turning 37 isn’t one of those birthdays you’re texting friends about. It’s not a milestone. It’s just one day closer to 40. I could tell my husband wasn’t feeling the one-year-older thing, so when I saw there was an ax-throwing class the morning of his birthday, I pushed him to try it. He landed one. Not quite a bulls-eye, but close.

Taking in the view

The Veranda is by far the Mountain View Grand’s best asset and where we spent the bulk of our time each afternoon. The long, wide porch has rocking chairs and sitting areas for taking in the expansive view of the White Mountains. In the summer, they serve drinks and small snacks on the Veranda, but in the off-season you must grab your own drinks at the tavern.

Looking down the Veranda

When it came time to pack up the car, I took my daughter to the playground. A little exercise and distraction would help with the ride home. As I pushed her on the swing, I reminded her we would be leaving soon. “I don’t want to go,” she cried.

“I don’t want to go either,” I said.

Sunset behind the White Mountains

It’s a small state

October 18, 2014November 11, 2014 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

If you stay in the media business long enough in New Hampshire, you’re going to know everyone — reporters, photographers, TV newscasters, columnists, PR flacks, company spokespeople, campaign bloggers — you get the idea. While I’m far from knowing everyone, I’ve been around long enough to see connections overlap more and more often.

I first connected with Kate as a blogger for Stay Work Play New Hampshire. It was a fun way to write about weekend trips and job hunting tips as I got my career on track after having my daughter. The amount of content this site produces regularly is impressive, as is the amount of work Kate does to keep the organization going. I got the chance to speak with her again for an alumna interview for UNH Manchester “Campus News.” You can read the first part of the story below, or go to the UNH Manchester site for the whole piece.

Alumna Helps Young People Find Ways to Stay, Work and Play in NH

When Kate Luczko talks to students about her role as Executive Director of Stay Work Play New Hampshire, they often ask her what she does in a typical day. There is no typical day, Luczko said.

“Every day is different, which is one of the things I love the most,” she said. Stay Work Play New Hampshire’s website features work and life advice for people in the early stages of their career, as well as links and blog posts about fun things to do in New Hampshire. The organization also runs a series of programs, including the Talent & Internship Summit, NH Internships, the Challenge Grant student loan repayment program, and the annual Rising Stars Awards.

The non-profit, which aims to encourage young people to start their careers and make home in the Granite State, has recently hired a part-time staff person. But before this person came on, Luczko said her role at Stay Work Play New Hampshire was like being “a jack of all trades.”

“Among other things, I’m responsible for the website, social media, outreach, organizing events and public relations. We have almost 20 volunteer bloggers, so I’m managing them too,” she said. “It’s a wide variety of things.”

The Pitch

October 14, 2014October 14, 2014 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

Pitching stories is not my strength. It’s difficult to find a subject I want to write about, let alone try to find a place for that story to eventually land. As a relationship with an editor develops, it often becomes easier to discern which stories her or she will like and on what stories they will pass. But those first few pitches can be a beast.

General story ideas usually come to me by regularly checking in with fruitful sources. These can be government websites, industry events, or key people who have a unique perspective on an area of expertise I find interesting. Local newspapers are good for identifying trends, which they usually report on piece by piece. I can then pitch a big picture look at the story to a publication with a broader audience. When I’m struggling to come up with something that will really work for a certain publication, I find the best cure is to browse the publication’s website. What kind of stories do they post in the top spots? Are they humorous, newsy, contrarian? Most importantly, have they done stories similar to my pitch idea?

After my first few pitches landed with a thud, I finally got a bite at New Hampshire Public Radio. When the idea hit me (after reading stories about the subject in the local newspaper) I had a gut feeling this would be the one that worked. It fit in well with the kind of stories they’ve posted — newsy but a little quirky, too. You can read a portion of it below, or click through to the NHPR.org website for the whole piece.

As Scooter Popularity Revs Up In Portsmouth, So Do Parking Concerns

Walk along any street near downtown Portsmouth and you’ll likely hear the buzz of a moped motor. Recently, these small motorbikes have been whizzing along Portsmouth’s streets in greater numbers and packs of scooters can often be found parked along the sidewalks and in alleyways near the Portsmouth waterfront.

But this rise in moped ridership – and where they’ve been parking – has raised some concerns among business owners and city officials.

“In recent years and particularly this year, there seems to be a dramatic increase in scooter type vehicles being used in the downtown part of the city,” said Portsmouth City Attorney Robert Sullivan.

“These vehicles are able to park on the sidewalk or where regular vehicles cannot. It’s actually been suggested that this is the reason they are being used.”

Summer projects

September 9, 2014 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

Sometimes a story evolves between assignment and deadline. That was the case with this piece, written for UNH Manchester’s Campus News. I originally highlighted the long-running small mammal research project headed by Professor Steve Pugh and the unique experience it provided students over the summer, but after first review the story became something bigger.

Beyond the Books and into the Field for Summer Animal Tracking

Each day, Joshua Linnane walks a portion of an 800-acre plot of undeveloped land on the outskirts of Manchester. The senior biology major at the University of New Hampshire at Manchester eyes the ground and trees for hair, scat and rub marks on trees. He’s looking for signs of wild mammals in this urban forest.

Linnane has three motion detection cameras set up in the woods, located in the area known as Hackett Hill. He leaves each camera for up to two weeks to eliminate his human scent from the area and later retrieves the card to see what animals crossed its path.

Linanne is one of UNH Manchester’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship grant recipients. Linnane is conducting a 10-week study and after will compare his findings to data collected 12 years ago by then-student Christine Andrews, UNH professional tutor and lab instructor.

“I’ve found coyotes, raccoon, something that looked like a bobcat, porcupines, opossums, chipmunks and a couple of non-mammal species, like turkeys, blue herons and turkey vultures,” said Linnane. On one of his morning walks, Linnane said he wandered upon a moose and her calf. “It’s really only five minutes out of the city and the diversity in this area is huge.”

To read more, go to UNH Manchester Campus News.

When it’s changing all around you

July 24, 2014 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

The little nugget enjoying a Friendly Toast fry

I pitched a story about the Friendly Toast on a Tuesday morning. Less than 24-hours later I wondered if I had made a mistake.

Jeff Feingold, editor of New Hampshire Business Review, liked the idea immediately. He asked for a profile of the well-known Portsmouth eatery and a look at the benefits and challenges that come with taking over a business that everyone seems to love just the way it is. By noon on Tuesday, I had posted the following on my Facebook page, hoping to nudge some opinionated people into commenting on what I had heard was a controversial change in management.

“As a regular Facebook user, I’ve notice the Friendly Toast changing ownership story has elicited strong opinions from Seacoast residents who are long-time patrons, and especially from those who once worked there. I am writing a story for a business publication about the new ownership and the direction they are taking the business. But if I’m going to write this, I don’t want to gloss over that’s there’s been some controversy in the change in ownership. I would like to interview a few people who work/worked there and long-time customers about the changes being made. I’m not sure what will end up in the final story, but I want input from these folks before I sit down to write it.

Have you worked for the Toast in the past 5 years? Are you a regular customer who’s been to the Toast since the new owners have taken over? Are you a customer who’s had a hard time going back now that someone else owns it? Do you feel this change is just one more sign Portsmouth has lost its soul? Please contact me about being a source. Or if you’d just like to leave a ranty comment about the Friendly Toast, past or present, that’s fine too.“

The response to this post was immediate, but mostly from people I expected to chime in, not necessarily people I wanted to interview. Around mid-afternoon on Tuesday, I got a private message from a woman saying she had some friends who wanted to talk to me for the story. I gave her my email, letting her know I wanted to talk to anyone, pro or con. I received an email a few hours later from a long-time customer raving about the royal treatment given to his relatives, who recently married, and their extra special love for the Toast. The story sounded familiar, and I soon figured out why. It was featured on the Friendly Toast’s own blog.

The next morning, I found an email from a representative from the owner’s marketing company, letting me know that the Friendly Toast owner would love to chat. Before I had a chance to email her back, I got a message from the owner (!?) saying he can’t wait to do an interview.

Before I could even ask, I have an interview lined up.

In any other city, this would seem like a lucky break for the reporter and nothing more, but in Portsmouth, where a city meeting on sprucing up a small parking lot draws a skeptical crowd and causes a 30-minute debate over where to put a dumpster, this is a symptom of a much later problem.

Portsmouth residents and business owners are divided on the growth the city has seen in the past decade. As other communities struggle to pull themselves out of the recession, Portsmouth is booming. We’ve seen two new hotels go up and another is on its way. There will soon be conference center and a Whole Foods — a big deal for a city of 25,000 people — and enough luxury condos to house all the rich empty nesters north of Boston. Some see this as progress. Other say the soul of the city is dying. Any change, no matter how badly needed, is maligned as another sinister way to rid the city of its historic charm. The result of this long distaste for anything new are hideous fake historic buildings made of brick, nowhere to park because we can’t decide where to build a new garage or if we should even encourage more people to come, and a divided City Council paralyze by the ginned-up outrage of a small but active minority.

It is in that context that the new owners of the Friendly Toast became wary of anyone accusing them of changing yet another Portsmouth institution. Despite improvements to the building and operations, rumors of horrible working conditions and substandard food being served flew around town. I brought these rumors to the owners during our interview, and he addressed them. I was honest. I had to include some dissenting voices, and he understood. I suppose after operating in Portsmouth for six month, you see outrage over the color of the walls and the size of the servings as part of doing business here.

Friendly Toast, Portsmouth, NH

Portsmouth eatery with a past looks to the future

Walk down Congress Street in Portsmouth any Sunday morning and you’ll find a crowd of roughly 15 people milling about on the sidewalk, waiting for a table at the Friendly Toast.

For 20 years, the diner-style restaurant has been an anchor in downtown Portsmouth, attracting both visitors and locals with its big plates of homemade food and retro décor ripped straight from the walls of your crazy aunt’s house.

The menu has 75 items that include nachos, burritos, milkshakes, homemade soups and nine different burgers, but breakfast is the true star at the Friendly Toast. Served all day, offerings include the basics, like eggs benedict and blueberry pancakes. What the Toast is best known for is the original dishes, like the popular Guy Scramble – a mix of eggs, cheddar, avocado, black beans and fresh salsa – or the Green Eggs and Ham – a play on eggs benedict that includes anadama bread and a homemade triple herb sauce. Most dishes are served with a big, butter-slathered piece of toast, made from bread baked in-house daily.

These eclectic dishes have earned the Friendly Toast national recognition. The restaurant took fourth place in the Best Breakfast in America contest held by “Good Morning America” and was named “one of the best breakfast places in America” by Esquire magazine.

This year, the restaurant earned the state’s best breakfast honors in New Hampshire Magazine’s “Best of NH” readers’ poll, and both the Portsmouth Friendly Toast and its sister location in Cambridge, Mass. received a certificate of excellence from the review website TripAdvisor.

The Friendly Toast’s two locations bring in about $5.5 million in combined annual sales. The Portsmouth location has 45 employees and seats 143. It’s open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. most days, and until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday night, making it the largest late-night dining spot in downtown Portsmouth.

The Portsmouth Friendly Toast generates roughly $2 million in sales annually, but co-owner Eric Goodwin believes sales could easily grow to $2.5 million by the end of 2014.

A restaurant with a past

Goodwin and business partner Scott Pulver purchased both Friendly Toast locations in October 2013. With their new ownership come a number of changes, including upgrades to the kitchen and a new point of service computer system.

The changes caused some blowback among the locals, mostly worried that the laid-back, not-trying-to-be-cool coolness of the Friendly Toast would be lost. But Goodwin repeatedly emphasizes that the quality of the food and the overall feel of the dining experience have not and will not change.

“We are mindful of the historic value,” said Goodwin. “We want to strike a balance between ensuring all the things that make the Friendly Toast unique and special stay, while trying to protect the sustainability of the restaurant and utilize the industry’s best practices.”

To read more, please visit New Hampshire Business Review

Will Travel for Beer

July 23, 2014 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

With the boom in small craft breweries, it seems like every small town has their own tasting room stocked with beer brewed fresh out back. State tourism boards have noticed too, and are trying to boost their appeal by promoting their locally made ales and lagers alongside other attractions, such as skiing, hiking, and even work conferences. It’s not that hard of a sell. Who wouldn’t want to throw in a craft brewery tour on their vacation? For the story, click the link below.

“Will Travel for Beer,” Market Watch June 2014

Writing recorded

July 17, 2014July 17, 2014 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

Thanks to the staff at Stay Work Play New Hampshire, my blog posts for this non-profit are available in the “Past Bloggers” archive. Here you’ll find my tips on networking, my tour of a winery in Walpole, and my love for fairs and large arcades. Just look for the above photo with me in the glasses.

Science Teacher Shortage Lands in Two Publications

July 15, 2014 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

This piece was originally published on UNH Manchester’s Campus News site, but was later picked up by New Hampshire Business Review. Please click through to either one of the links for the full story.

UNHM program addresses science teacher shortage

Derek Burkhardt always wanted to be a teacher. He attended to the University of New Hampshire at Manchester to explore his teaching options in the arts, but ultimately decided to become a biology major and seek a career as an environmental consultant.

This summer, Burkhardt is finishing up his bachelor’s degree in biology, but he’s come back around again on the teaching career.

“I realized I always wanted to be a teacher and just because I didn’t want to be an art teacher didn’t mean I couldn’t be a science teacher,” said Burkhardt.

Burkhardt is entering an area of teaching where certified professionals are in short supply. Across the country, and in New Hampshire, science teachers are considered a “critical shortage area,” specifically in middle school and some high school science classes.

Read more either here or here.

Will Write for Food

June 20, 2014July 23, 2014 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

How a love of food and a past gig led to this business story assignment

Fresh, local produce at Monadnock Food Co-op

As the City Hall reporter at the New Hampshire Union Leader, I would often write news features about the residents’ various efforts to improve the city, from forming neighborhood watches to opening a farmers market. One of my features was about the Manchester Food Co-Op and their monthly potluck dinners to recruit new members. The group had only a few hundred members then, far from their 1,000 member goal before opening a retail store. I didn’t give that co-op much thought until years later, when I was roaming the aisles of the Monadnock Food Co-Op on a recent visit to New Hampshire’s Monadnock Region. If Keene could open a successful co-op, then Manchester must surely be close. And what other communities are talking about open similar cooperative grocery stores? You’ll find the answer in the story below.

The latest food co-op to open in NH

A hunger for local food

While it may seem counter to New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die” mentality, the cooperative business model is becoming a popular way for local communities to provide an alternative to the traditional supermarket.

Over the past five years, there has been a surge of interest in cooperative grocery stores as consumer interest in organic and locally sourced foods has grown.

Since 2009, food co-op stores opened in Littleton and Keene, and the Manchester Food Co-op is currently searching for a downtown location for a new grocery. Great River Co-op in Walpole is raising funds with the hope of opening a store in 2015, and Berlin, Gorham and Brookline have had discussions about launching a co-op in their communities.

To read more, click through to the full story in New Hampshire Business Review.

Big Data in a Small City

June 1, 2014July 15, 2014 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

I had no idea what the term “Big Data” meant until I was assigned this story. When I called my first source, I felt a little sheepish about being so clueless about it, but that’s often the case with journalism. One of the best tips I got as a fledgling reporter was that I should never be afraid to admit I didn’t know something. So I asked, what is Big Data. I was told the name is really just a silly tech term, like Web 2.0, and the actual substance of Big Data, well, it’s big. You’ll see when you read the story.

Photo by Mike Ross, UNH Photo Services

Preparing Students for Big Data at UNH Manchester

The amount of stuff we compile on digital devices has exploded in the past five years. Everything from the selfies we take on our iPhones to the medical data gathered every day at hospitals across the country, the amount of digital data now being created is massive. Coming up with better ways to store, access and process this information is a fast growing segment of the computing technology field, called “big data,” and it’s an area where University of New Hampshire at Manchester students will be able to learn more with the launch of a new class in 2015.

Jeremiah Johnson, a lecturer in mathematics at UNH Manchester, is currently developing the new course, “Statistics in Computing and Engineering,” which will be offered in the spring semester next year. Aimed at students in the Computer Science and Entrepreneurship program, the class will discuss methods for analyzing large amounts of data and breaking the information into functional pieces, essentially laying the groundwork for the skills needed to work in “big data.”

“Students coming out of college with a computer science degree will need to know how to work on big data,” said Johnson. “The big growth area in Silicon Valley is data-driven technology.”

Read more at UNH Manchester Campus News.

Gardner State

Writing my way around New England

New Hampshire