2011 Hampton Beach Seafood Festival…

Labeled as "One of the Top 100 Events in North America" the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival was going on this weekend just a few miles up the road from us in New Hampshire. This was the 22nd annual event for this festival and it will mark the transition for this area of moving into fall and signal the end of summer. This event lasts three days so we decided that we would head over on Saturday and see what all the hoop-la was about.

The festival started as a means of promoting Hampton’s local restaurants and allowed you the opportunity to taste some of the local seafood specialties. Entrance fees were only five dollars per person per day and parking was free so off we went to the festival…

Of the several highlights of the festival on Saturday we probably most enjoyed the Culinary Chef Demonstrations where we got to watch some of the local chefs prepare their signature dishes.

We also got to listen to some golden oldies played by a couple of bands called the Soulmate and the B Street Bombers. Lots of folks enjoyed the music and a bit of dancing. Another fun event was to watch was the all-you-can-eat lobster roll competition which exemplifies America’s fascination with gluttony… the winner consumed 14 lobster rolls in ten minutes… YIKES!

Scattered throughout the festival were Arts & Crafts vendors promoting locally made products and hawking cheap bulk goods (we now know that this is all called “Stuff” and is really not needed by anyone).

The local restaurants were selling all kinds of delectable treats and we gave in and bought some fish and chips along with some grilled scallops wrapped in bacon… YUM!! Prices for the seafood were very reasonable with whole grilled lobsters being sold for $10 each and if that was too much lobster you could just get claws for a buck each.

It was a fun day to spend some time exploring the festival at Hampton Beach and partaking in the food and entertainment with the other 25,000 plus people in attendance. The evening was to culminate with a spectacular fireworks display but by about 5:00 p.m. we had our fill and headed back home.

On Sunday we will be moving to Topsail Mass. to the Alfalfa Farm Winery which will be our first Harvest Host stay. Then on Monday, following one of our reader’s advice (Thanks Ed!), we will move south of Boston to Scusset Beach State Reservation which is located on Cape Cod’s east end. Until then…