Double Hike: Connecticut

From Connecticut

Continuing my exploration of Connecticut, today I drove down to Southford Falls in Oxford, CT.  It's a nice park although the "falls" were not much more that a trickle - I've seen brooks with more action.  I had a nice walk/hike on the trails that loop around the park and saw lots of chipmunks.

I think I heard a bear up near the watchtower, and later I saw what appeared to be bear poop, too.  Not really loving the idea that I might have been near a bear.

I had planned to have lunch in Litchfield and then take back roads home.  On the way, I SWEAR I saw signs for a Garlic and Harvest festival, and followed the following signs to a vineyard where there was no garlic, so I left.  I am not a huge wine person and was pretty hungry at this point.

I got to Litchfield and ate at Aspen Garden and I had a delicious cup of chilled apple and butternut squash soup, and an OK greek salad with spanikopita.  I poked around the shops in the cute little downtown area and then took off for my slow drive home.

When I got to Simsbury, I saw what looked like a monestary on a mountain and I immediately thought, a la Liz Lemon, "I want to go to there."  So, I kind of just drove toward it.

From Connecticut

I found Talcott State Park and Heublein Tower (it's not a monestary).  I hiked my butt again up to the tower, took in the 360 degree view from the observation deck and hiked my tired butt back down.

I heard a woman who was on her way up with some kids say "It's so much easier on the way down!"  LIAR!!!  She should have her kids taken away for lying to them like that.  I jest.  Mostly.  I was tired.

I continued on back roads home until I drove by a southern/cajun joint in a plaza and picked up some dinner:  ribs, cornbread, corn, rice and candied yams.  OK, at this point I had food so I hopped on the highway for the rest of the trip home.

My feet are tired, but it was a great day and I'm going to sleep well!  I burned a lot of calories today and enjoyed the fresh air.

I'll think of it as prep for my trip to San Francisco with Jose which is coming up!

Trying out the local stuff

From Connecticut

So I've lived in Connecticut for 8 years and I hardly know it.  I've been to somewhat unusual locations throughout the world, but I have not seen much of the US, so I've been using my weekends to explore the area around me.

I made some half-hearted attempts to find a traveling companion but decided to go it alone like I often do when traveling abroad while Jose's rehearsing.

I had heard from a friend of mine who was CEO of a tourism board in CT that Essex was a nice, quaint town, so I drove down and checked it out.

It was nice, but really small.  The one main street had some little shops and galleries and a lot of expensive cars parked along the road.

I did, however, book a cruise on the Connecticut river on the Mary E. which is based from the Connecticut River Museum.  I grabbed a quick lunch at Olive Oyl's - crab cake and a shrimp thai pasta salad.  Then I had perfect weather on my side and me and a boatload of older folks had a nice, relaxing time on the river.

Lots of really expensive houses, an island for sale ($1 million with a house), osprey nests... one bird of prey we couldn't quite identify.  A biplane flew over us... People on the river in speedboats, though, are not very considerate.  I saw one little boat almost get bowled over by the wake of a speedboat.

From Connecticut

Someone on the boat mentioned Gillette Castle, so I decided to head over to there after my sail.

The castle itself is a little weird looking - very craggy - and I didn't pay to go inside, but had a nice walk around the grounds (there are trails) and down to the river near the ferry.