Storyland, The Golden Apple Inn and Moat Mountain Mineral Site, New Hampshire 2023

We recently made the drive across Maine to Glenn, New Hampshire where we stayed at The Golden Apple Inn and visited our favorite New England theme park, Storyland. It was part of our 9 day trip by car in and around New Hampshire.

Travel Day

We are fully embracing big kid mode and loving the fact that a 3.5-hour drive was effortless. The kids happily listened to an audiobook and fed themselves snacks. This is so different from the days of babies and toddlers where there was so much screaming and crying to make it anywhere over an hour away.

Once we made it to Glen we stopped at Dairy Queen for lunch. There’s a lot of nostalgia about this town and Storyland in general for our family. We’ve been coming to this area since before children. Jamie and I had a mini honeymoon at The Golden Apple Inn 11 years ago this same time of year. This Dairy Queen was where Anika had her first ice cream cone.

After a quick lunch we grabbed a few groceries and then headed to The Golden Apple to check in. 

The Golden Apple Inn

We’ve been staying at this hotel for years and have always loved it, but the last time (two years ago) it felt a bit tired. We decided to give it another try and were quite pleased with our decision. All the people I spoked with at the front desk were friendly and accommodating. The rooms have had a refresh and felt clean, as did the entire property. The pool was beautiful and heated with new patio furniture and lounge chairs. Even the pool towels seemed new. Each room has a decent size mini fridge, microwave and Keurig coffee maker. I was told that they had a new owner and they have done great with the property.

After getting settled we immediately changed and headed for the pool. When staying here request a pool side room! It gives you direct access to the pool and a much better view.

After swimming all afternoon we went to Tuckerman’s Tavern in Intervale for dinner.

Storyland

The next morning we woke up early for our day at Storyland.

Our strategy this year was to cut directly through the middle of the park to get to the Polar Coaster. We hoped to avoid the line and Anika wanted to ride before she lost her nerve. Our strategy was a success. We were the first people to arrive and rode it two times in a row without waiting.

This strategy continued to work well for us as we realized when we finished with the Polar Coaster that the majority of the crowd was still back in the front area of the Park. We easily hoped on the Flying Shoes and Bamboo Shoots with no wait. This continued with the majority of the rides we went on that morning.

We stopped for lunch for a bit, then headed back to the front of the park and were quite pleased to find it empty, as that morning crowd had now made it to the back of the park. I’m not sure why we hadn’t thought of doing this sooner, but this is 100 percent our new Storyland strategy.

The longest wait of our day was for the pumpkin that goes up to Cinderella’s castle. What we figured out after was we could have walked up, viewed the castle and met Cinderella, then taken the pumpkin back down without waiting at all.

We finally made it to the very front of the park, The Mother Goose Area and I was pleasantly surprised that the kids were still happy to play here. For the second time that trip I was reminded how awesome this older kid age is. This was my favorite Storyland trip yet. The kids were big enough to go on all the rides, but still young enough to enjoy the smaller rides and attractions. I didn’t have to change diapers, rush a kid to the potty, breast feed, supply a hundred snacks, push a stroller around and find a place to park it or worry about a toddler on the run. It was easy. I was able to just have fun with the kids. I think I needed to go the bathroom more then they did this trip. 

We finished our day at Storyland with a train ride around the entire park.

After a long day we grabbed dinner and then headed back to the hotel to swim in the pool for a couple hours, then headed inside for showers and TV before bed. 

Moat Mountain Mineral Site

The next morning we were all moving pretty slowly. Storyland and lots of swimming had worn us out, I don’t even know if we could handle Disney world again at this point in time. Maybe we should start training for when we eventually return 😂

We decided to head out for a little morning adventure on a short hike that Jamie found in Albany, Moat Mountain Mineral Site.

The hike in was easy, flat, well marked and smooth. We didn’t bring any tools to dig out minerals, but still filled our pockets with plenty of rocks. I downloaded an app so we could try and identify some of our new finds. 

After our gem excursion we headed back to the hotel room where we relaxed for a bit. It started raining and the weather was much chillier than it had been the previous days, only 67-70 ish. We popped some microwave popcorn I had brought from home and enjoyed some free hot chocolate from the golden Apple lobby. 

We got takeout from Matty B’s. It was five minutes down the road from The Golden Apple, the food was decently priced and delicious.

After dinner we went to the hotel playground for a bit even though it was still raining. The kids jumped in the pool one last time with their clothes on, because they were wet anyway. Then we headed back in for showers, pajamas and bed.

These three days at The Golden Apple Inn felt like an actual vacation. We had fun at Storyland, loved the pool and enjoyed the time we got to spend together. We are still all very much in summer mode and although I am excited about the upcoming homeschool year, for now we are enjoying our break from Rightstart Math, Fundations and formal homeschool curriculum in general.