Mountain View Grand – As seems to be the case for most of my photography endeavors, I hadn't planned to visit this lovely hotel on this particular day. But as luck would have it, there I was, standing outside this piece of New Hampshire history, newly restored and recently opened, only one of a handful of Grand Hotels still operating in New Hampshire.

I immediately started photographing this enormous piece of architecture until I felt comfortable with what I had captured. Of course temptation would take over and I found myself on the front porch continuing to photograph from a closer perspective. This lasted for a while until one of the employees "Paul" greeted me and struck up a conversation. He was genuinely interested in photography as well, though young, and had only recently started working as a valet and bus person at this grand hotel. We talked. He asked questions about photographing which I was more than willing to answer to encourage him about the subject. Before I knew it, he had invited me in for the "grand" tour. I wasn't going to say no. I mean, this is a photographers dream. So I walked along admiring all the facets of this magnificent building, photographing, as he explained each area in as much detail as he understood. Before I knew it, I was introduced to the Director of Sales and Marketing, Duncan, who was also very gracious. After explaining to him my affiliation with NHToDo magazine, though making clear these photographs were for personal reasons only, he wanted to know more. We went to his office where he looked up NHToDo's web site and encouraged us to feature the Hotel in the magazine, in return for some advertising dollars. I'm sure the director of NHToDo will be pleased to hear this, but that's another story.

My overall impression of the hotel and staff was excellent. They seemed genuinely happy to see me, without a trace of parvenu, even given the fact that I was dressed in torn jeans and a fleece sweatshirt. I will most definitely return, with camera in hand.

Please enjoy some of the selections of my photographs taken on this day. After that, take a look at the Mountain View Grand web site.