Odiorne Point State Park and the Seacoast Science Center in New Hampshire

Not everyplace worth visiting is a multi-million dollar theme park or a world famous landmark. Some of them are small and quiet and only known to local residents and those who look really hard for interesting places to visit. Odiorne Point State Park in Rye, New Hampshire fits into the latter category. While it's not the sort of place you pack your family into an airplane to go visit from halfway across the country, it is the kind of place that will fill a day with enjoyable family activities if you happen to find yourself within driving distance of seacoast New Hampshire.

Odiorne Point State Park is home to the Seacoast Science Center which offers a variety of experiences and exhibits ranging from detailed histories of shipwrecks that have occurred right off the coast, to artifacts and accounts of the original settlers who founded one of the nations earliest homestead communities at the site. There is also ample opportunity to learn about the sea creatures who live in the Gulf of Maine.

Outside, of course, there are beaches, hiking and biking trails, a small playground, picnic areas, and some incredible World War II bunkers and gun placements that were built to look like part of the natural landscape so they could not be readily spotted by enemy ships should any approach from across the Atlantic. You can see inside the bunkers whose size is almost beyond comprehension and you can stand on the gun emplacements and see how they could command the waterways for miles.

A full recounting of the activities available and my own family's trip to to Odiorne Point State Park and the Seacoast Science is available here.