NH Tour Guide was created in 2006 as a way to get our kids to be more engaged in learning. We decided to come up with something a bit more interesting. Yup, we needed to outsmart the kids! Being a website developer recovering from cancer, I had a lot of time on my hands. So we decided to use our knowledge and adventurous sides as a “fun” way to engage them to learn. We didn’t ask the kids to help, didn’t make them do anything they didn’t want to, never asked them to pick up a book. We simply asked if they wanted to go have fun. They were in the truck before we even told them where we were going. Little did they know we were headed on a snowmobile trip to Pittsburg NH (photo above). We rented a cabin on First Connecticut Lake for the weekend. We took a lot of photos, read signs, and learned about the places we went and all the volunteer efforts it takes to create and maintain a snowmobile trail system.
From there, every weekend and school vacation we would go on a trip here in our own state of New Hampshire, take photos and write down details, much like a news reporter. After the first few trips, they finally asked us what we were doing. I told them that I had an idea for a new website about New Hampshire. At that point they both looked around to see if there were any witnesses to this embarrassing unfolding of events. Looking like tourists wasn’t exactly what they had in mind. So they separated themselves from us in public as much as possible. Not sure if we enjoyed embarrassing them or what the motivation was at that point but we kept going, pressing on with the original idea hoping they would get used to it and stop acting like we were strangers in public. Every once in a while we would show them a place we had adventured to and photographed on the website. They thought it was pretty cool that our adventures were online for the world to see.
Once the website was completely up and running they could see just how many places we had been and were able to recall the memories of our NH trips. The website quickly (an somewhat unexpectedly) became a great resource for New Hampshire travel information. us to revisit our adventures. The kids began to pay a little more attention to places we were going, knowing that we would need to put accurate information on the website.
As time went on the struggles got easier, we knew we had them hooked when they began taking photos with their own cameras and cell phones and told me we should put them on the website. Our patience prevailed, the children’s grades went up after our many adventures. Both of our children have graduated from school and are grown adults. They both have steady jobs and continue to explore NH. Whether it’s taking snowmobile trips, hiking, or revisiting childhood adventures we went on. They continue to send me photos and texts about their adventures around the state. They tell their friends about the website and how it has become a great resource of information for students, travelers, and curious NH residents.
NH Tour Guide will continue to add adventures with family and friends around NH. We now devote a lot more of our time to the website and have added places for advertisers to support the project so we can continue to bring unique NH information to students, residents, and tourists planning their trip to New Hampshire.
We have certainly been to a lot of really great places in New Hampshire, met some interesting people, and had some great experiences. New Hampshire is a small state, but don’t be fooled by it’s size. There is a lot to see here. Some people choose to travel the world, or to see every state in the USA, but we have chosen a different route. We are going to see as much of New Hampshire as we can and after over a decade, we’re not even close to seeing it all!
Recently, we opened up our site to allow people to use the site exactly as we did when we started, so you can now create a free account and post photos, videos, and information of your favorite New Hampshire places! We hope this helps our state, but more importantly we hope it helps bring your family closer together and continues to teach kids about New Hampshire!
