We woke up to lousy weather - a real soft sort of day. But when the rain stopped we both went for a run. Well, more like a bit of a shuffle. We were out for 21 minutes but didn't really go very far. We are both getting back into running after a long lay off so it's tough going for both of us.
We checked out of the hotel and went for a good old American breakfast in the first place we saw - The Paugus Diner. Then we got down to business. First we went to Walmart to pick up some supplies. Then we went to 4 different shops trying to find a SIM card for our phones so that we could ring American numbers with our Irish handsets. All the (pretty vacant) people in the shops looked at us like we had 2 heads when we asked to buy just a SIM card. Eventually, we found a Radio Shack though and bought a Cingular phone for only $20.
Next, we went into Laconia to a cafe called Awakenings because I had seen that they had free wi-fi access. We spent about two hours there and got loads of stuff sorted out including (most importantly) a rental car for the next month. The place was very quaint and pretty cool to hang in. I ordered a cappuccino and was very impressed. It's not easy to satisfy my snobbish taste but the coffee was just the right amount of espresso, milk and foam. Paulo opted for the smoothie (much to the staff's surprise, without whipped cream).
Weirs Beach is described as a curious slice of honky-tonk Americana and I would have to agree. There are junk food stands, video arcades and a drive-in cinema. The weather was lousy but we hung out on the promenade for a bit, eating pizza and taking pictures of what we could. Since it was raining, none of the mini-golf courses were open so we decided to go to Funspot. What a great place! I'm not much of a video game fan but this place is seriously impressive. There is a big sign at the entrance that states the video arcade museum pays homage to the era of coin operated game machines. It has over 220 games and must contain every single arcade game ever made - the original machines! There is even an original Pong game from 1972. Ironically, as we strolled around to check out all of the games the song 'Games People Play' by The Alan Parsons Project was playing.
We decided to have a go at skee ball and won enough tickets to get a 'lucky' green rabbits foot. Watch this space to see if it actually works...
Next we had a best of three series in air hockey which Paulo won although I would argue I was robbed since the points counter on my side didn't work properly and I actually scored about half of his points for him. Then it was on to the hockey game that resembles foos ball (I don't know the proper name for it). Again we played a best of three series. I won the first game at the buzzer (the only goal), Paulo won the second game in OT and I won the
third in OT. It was a great way to spend a few hours on a rainy day.
This evening we decided to get a take-away, a six pack and pulled into the first motel we saw, a Super 8. We ate and chilled out watching the fifth game of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs. In a really exciting game
(including 2 OT periods), the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Detroit Pistons and took a 3-2 lead in the series.
Quotes of the day:
Me - "It's a nice day out... if we were ducks".
Me (speaking to the woman at the front desk of the hotel when we checked out) - "Do you know if
there is a Walmart around here"?
Woman - "Yes".
Me (after a few seconds pause) - "Can you tell me how to get there"?
Woman - "You just asked me if there was one here and now you want me to tell you where it is"?
Paulo & I just looked at each other...
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