Another Weekend, Another Outing

Yesterday we headed east again, this time to the far southeastern corner of Connecticut.  Mary was our travel planner, as she had heard about a sunflower festival at a farm in the town of Griswold.  This farm has a 10-day festival every year to benefit the Make-a-Wish Foundation.  So we decided to trek over there and see it. 

We started by taking a hayride through the sunflower fields.  It was the first hayride for all three of us.  Before we got to the sunflowers, we rode by a bunch of chickens and turkeys, and also a herd of cows.  (Our life is nothing if not exciting.)  But seriously, it was fun.

This is our hayride driver as we're driving through one of the sunflower fields.  The farm planted 15 acres of sunflowers for the festival.  Needless to say, they were beautiful.  At the festival they sell bouquets of sunflowers.  They harvest the remainder of the sunflowers for seeds.  This farm also grows Christmas trees and they have pumpkins and a corn maze in the fall.  The terrain of the farm was really rocky and hilly and there was cow gate over a stream that runs through the farm.  Sounds quaint, but I don't think it's ideal farmland.   

The only downside to the whole day was that there is a lot of pollen on these flowers.  Brad woke up this morning with bad allergies.  Next time:  Claritin!

I took a lot of pictures of the flowers, and this was one of my favorites. 

The farm also has an ice-cream stand (a common sight in Connecticut, especially in summer), so we couldn't leave without a treat.  Mary and I split this cup of sunflower ice-cream.  It's made with sunflower seeds, honey, and a bunch of other tasty ingredients.  Even though we're usually partial to chocolate, we loved it. 

Just about 20 minutes south of Griswold is Stonington, Connecticut.  I believe it's the last town on the Connecticut shore before you get to Rhode Island.  It is supposed to be one of the most picturesque towns in Connecticut, so we drove there after the sunflowers.  It did not disappoint.  The downtown has lots of shops and restaurants and it's right on the shore, but it wasn't bulging with tourists. These are some houses in the town.

 Mary in downtown Stonington. 

Stonington also has a nice harbor with lots of boats.  We were glad to be able to see this pretty little town.  Afterwards, we headed home.  On the way we stopped in Guilford, which is also on the Sound, and had dinner at a Thai restaurant that we ate at on Mary's first visit to Connecticut over two years ago.  We thought it was delicious then and after last night's dinner, we still think it is.