Every Quest Starts With A Small Step. This One In New Hampshire!

Before the pandemic, when we were in Concord visiting the New Hampshire state house, we got a great idea for a new travel quest. Though Tom had visited all fifty states after our visit to Hawaii, but Karen had not, we decided to visit all 50 states together.

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Visit all 50 States or ?

After making the decision to visit every state together, we wanted to up the ante a bit. So we thought our travel quest would be more fun by taking a selfie at each state house / capitol. Yeah, even if it is one of our usual bad selfies.

Travel Quest #1: 50 State Capitols

So we started our new quest. Fittingly, our first discovery was that this state has the nation’s oldest state house in which the legislature still occupies its original chambers. What a great place to start.

To help us keep track of our progress, I made a page to keep track of our 50 capitols quest. As per late 2022 we are at nine capitols, so 18% of the way there. Maybe no very impressive yet, but it is a work in progress and the pandemic interrupted our bucket list.

If you like free things to do, visiting capitol buildings and state houses is a no-brainer. So far, all of them have had free admission and free tours. Not to mention that we are closer to winning our next trivia contest because of picking up new-to-us historic tidbits.

Travel Quest #2: 57 Liberty Bell Replicas

As always, we explored in and out of the state house, but this time our attention was strongly drawn to the big bell which was right in front. I knew we had looked at it before, but it clearly hadn’t stuck in my memory. It turns out that it is a replica of the original liberty bell.

In standing before this symbol you have the opportunity to dedicate yourself as did our founding fathers, to the principles of the individual freedom for which our nation stands.

This bell is one of fifty-three cast in France in 1950 and given to the American government

Liberty Bell Replica #42

Of course, we wondered why the plaque stated they cast 53 of them, since there only were 48 states back then. So we added it to our ‘List of Things to Google’ and went on with our life. Until I actually did google it.

We found out that they were cast as part of a ‘Save For Your Independence’ savings bond drive, and there are 56 more! Also, we found someone named Tom (good name 🙂 ) who is documenting his quest to visit all 57 of the replicas! Sweet, a new bucket list to work on! His site has the locations of all the replicas, including the ones in France and Japan!

Join us in our quest to visit all the Liberty Bell Replicas!

Since we were in Concord anyway, we decided to visit the former home of our 14th president Franklin Pierce. A relatively unknown National Historic Landmark, it is worth a visit for sure!

For kicks and giggles, our first Statehouse Selfie:

Looking forward to taking selfies in many more states and locating all the liberty bell replicas (Hoping to do some Virgin Island ones during a Caribbean cruise next year)

What Is on Your Travel Bucket List?

Do you have a travel bucket list? For example, would you like to visit all our National Parks? Maybe you want to visit all your local state parks or NPS sites (Here are the New Hampshire ones). Please let us know in the comments and have fun exploring!

Explore USA State Houses and Capitols

Are you wondering about other capitol buildings beyond the NH State House? Check out any of these links:

• Ten Surprising New Hampshire State House Facts New Hampshire people are cheapskates!
• Ten Surprising Vermont State House Facts Discover ancient fossils;
• The Maine State House With bells on;
• The Massachusetts State House Where the Boston Italian North End was born;
• The Old State House in Boston, site of the Boston Massacre. Do you know how many people died?
• Connecticut Capitol Fun Facts Home of the so-called “Black Law”;
• Rhode Island State House: Ten Surprising Facts Discover its Dutch history;
• New York State Capitol. An expensive boondoggle;
• Alaska Capitol. Which animal guards it?
• Washington State Capitol. Women’s suffrage for the win!
• Breaking news: why Puerto Rico has a State House of its own!
• The US Virgin Islands have a Capitol Building in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. Voted the state Capitol building with the best view!
• So we annexed this state, against the Queen’s will, go visit Hawai’i and her State Capitol;
• Get inspired by our Travel Quests and start your own!

Another Quest Idea: UNESCO World Heritage Sites

World Heritage Sites in the Americas

• Sian Ka’an Biosphere in Mexico: where the sun was born;
• The Everglades: both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Biosphere Reserve;
• The Statue of Liberty in New York City, USA;
• Take an Alaska cruise and visit Glacier Bay National Park;
• Go watch whales in Quebec City;
• Puerto Rico Does it Better! Old San Juan and fun facts about Puerto Rico

World Heritage Sites in Europe

• Paris around the Seine;
• Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam: right in the middle of the historic Canals District;
• Passau, Germany, often the start or end of a Danube river cruise;
• Matera, Italy: the oldest continually habituated place in the world, also called the City of Caves;

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