Other Things To Do

Other things to do in or near Weirs Beach include:

• Bumper Boats, Batting Cages, and a Ropes Course, all at the Daytona Fun Park
• In Gilford, the Aerial Treetop Adventure, Zipline Tours, Mountain Coaster, and Scenic Lift Rides, all at Gunstock
• Bowling at the Funspot
• In addition to the two arcades at the Half Moon, there are also arcades at the Winnipesaukee Pier and at Funspot, for a total of FOUR arcades in Weirs Beach! They are all GREAT places to have fun on a rainy day!
• Escape rooms are another great activity on a rainy day. In Gilford, you can escape from the Escape Hour House. In Laconia, escape from the Escape Room Experience.

Here’s a trivia tidbit for a rainy day – did you know that New Hampshire has featured a professional home team for four of the five major team sports? Still going strong are the NH Fisher Cats (baseball), farm team for the Toronto Blue Jays; and the Seacoast United Phantoms (soccer). Two teams went defunct. In hockey, the Manchester Monarchs, a farm team for the Los Angeles Kings, played from 2015-2019. In football, the Manchester Wolves played for six seasons, from 2004 to 2009. Only New Hampshire basketball fans have never had a professional home team.

History of Baseball in Laconia

The Winnipesaukee Muskrats (formerly known as the Laconia Muskrats, from 2010-2015) of the New England Collegiate Baseball League had their inaugural season in 2010 at Laconia’s Robbie Mills field. Unfortunately, the Muskrats last season was in 2022. They could not continue due to issues in housing the players. Hopefully, a team will return soon.

Baseball in Laconia has a long history, that even involved baseball legend Babe Ruth. Ruth’s first wife worked in Meredith and Laconia. On October 17, 1916, Ruth played an exhibition game in Laconia, and along with the other visiting players, was given a “gigantic” key to the City the following day.

From 2005-2007, the AeroBalloon ballooning service operated from the parking lot of the Weirs Beach Waterslide. The service took passengers floating up, up and away, to 300 feet high, safe and secure in the basket of their 100% helium filled, securely tethered balloon. Flights left only when wind and weather conditions were favorable. The ten minute flight offered a really magnificent 360 degree view of the lake without leaving Weirs Beach.

Ballooning has a long history at Weirs Beach, as can be seen in the postcards and photos below. Ballooning started as early as 1890, or before. The 1890 program for the annual NHVA reunion included the following schedule: On Wednesday, August 27, 1890, at 4pm: “…Prof. Ned Hathaway, the famous aeronaut, will make a balloon ascension of 2000 feet, from the Association grounds, and descend from that height with a parachute. Prof. Hathaway has made over 300 ascensions, and some thirty descents with parachute. July 16th he made a successful ascent and descent from Weirs.” On Friday, August 29, 1890, at 2pm: “…a balloon ascension and descent with with parachute by Miss Nellie Wheeler. She has made over 200 ascents and has the reputation of being a successful aeronaut.”

Other things to do in Weirs Beach that are no longer available:
• Parasailing high over Lake Winnipesaukee
• FlyBoarding in Weirs Bay. Invented in 2011, the FlyBoard channels the thrust from a PWC (Personal Water Craft) through a hose to the FlyBoard operator, where the propulsion can be controlled and directed, allowing the participant to reach heights of up to 40′ over the water.
• Jumping 30′ into a giant airbag at a Weirs Beach parking lot
• Pitching cage at the Winnipesaukee Pier
• Roller Skating. See the stickers below for the Weirs Roller Way, which occupied the Lakeside Garage at the end of Lakeside Avenue in the 1940s.