College Trip - Day 8 - UNH Finale

  

Last stop Slauson 2008 College Road Trip.  University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH.  Jim's dad (Opa) lives 5 miles away in Dover, NH where Jim went to High School.  It would be nice for the boys to go to school near Opa and step-grandmom Peg.

Beautiful red brick buildings highlight the campus.

JW and Will's cousin Sara (far left) joined us today for the tour, led by the final comely student guide, Kaitlin.  Sara will be a senior this year so she is one step further along the process of college choice.

We couldn't quite figure out the masked lady on our tour today.  Protecting herself from pollen?  Protecting us from SARS?  Perhaps an Ordinary Decent Criminal taking a break from her work day to join the tour?  

Turk Coog added a cub to her pride today, cousin Sara Fechner.

A top benefit of schooling at UNH, the seafood!!  (By now you might have decided that food plays an important role in the daily life of a Slauson.   Well, you're right...)  One of our favorite seafood restaurants, Newick's.

The lobsters are trapped in lobster traps...

Taken from the Little Bay estuary...

Kept "on deck" in the holding pen....

Then placed on Will's plate for consumption.

Jim went with the Haddock and Shrimp.

You know the food is good when a Maine'er drives across the border from Maine (The Lobster state) to New Hampshire for dinner.  License plate in the Newick's parking lot.

Great end to a trip.  Perfect day at UNH, 75 degrees, pleasant breeze, blue sky.  Amazing that we've seen 6 colleges in 8 days.  Hopefully the boys are now motivated to maximize their grades so they have the most options available to them when the application process actually.

Besides education, access to seafood and great Greek food, the other fantastic benefits of UNH include snowboarding (a dozen areas within 2-3 hours in all directions,) and the beach (10 miles away.)  The family will recover from the trip at Hampton Beach tomorrow.   Then celebrate JW's 15th b-day the following day.

Trip stats.  6 colleges in 4 states in 8 days.  Texas to Ohio to NY to NH.  3100 miles driving, 188 gallons of gas, 50 hours of driving time.  Great family time.  Lots of great memories for Terri and Jim "just like we were back there."

Next big trip for the Slausons?  PAC Tour Ridge of the Rockies, riding bikes from Canada to Mexico in July-August.  2100 miles in 18 days winding back and forth thru the Rocky Mountains across the continental divide.  Terri and JW said they had enough last year and wimped out on the trip.

Hope you enjoyed the trip.  We did and appreciate all the support along the way!!  Jim talked on email with the coach of Syracuse University's Men's soccer team and shared the blog with him.  Coach Dean Foti commented that he was going to hire Terri and Jim to take his kids on their college search trip when they come of age....