Flashback Friday

Mary, Brad, and I spent Memorial Day weekend of 2009 in Connecticut. Brad had started his job a few months earlier so he was already living there; Mary and I would move in July. We went to a lobster boil in Mystic, where Mary showed characteristic enthusiasm about her lobster.

Catching Up With Last Week!

 I am behind on my blogging! Last week we returned from our trip to the East Coast. As you can see, we started our trip in New York City. It was great to be there again.

A highlight of the trip was getting to see the current production of Cabaret. We loved it! And it made us realize how phenomenal the Shorewood High School production of it was - honestly and truly it was on par with Broadway!

Brad was in town for meetings so I amused myself with some nice walks, a bit of shopping, and some museum visits. At the Historical Society I saw two interesting exhibits. I also went to the American Folk Art Museum, which I'd always wanted to visit.

Brad and I and a couple of his colleagues went to the 9/11 Memorial. It was respectfully done, elegant, and close to perfect. There are two reflecting pools like this one, each covering the footprint of one of the Twin Towers. Each victim's name is on the Memorial, and on each person's birthday a white rose is placed in his/her name. There is a new museum on the site, but we weren't able to go as one needed to have purchased tickets ahead of time. But just seeing the Memorial was enough.

 This is the new World Trade Center.

We're in front of the only tree in the immediate vicinity that survived the attacks. It was nursed back to health and is now thriving.

Afterwards we walked the High Line, which is the elevated city park constructed from the abandoned elevated railways that used to deliver to the meat packing plants.

The purpose for the trip was to go to an event at Scholastic's headquarters (and bookstore) as Energizer and Scholastic have been partnering together. The event was great and the bookstore was too.

Scholastic's building has a rooftop patio on the 11th floor and the views were great! That's the new World Trade Center over Brad's shoulder.

After New York we spent some time in Woodbury. The colors were super pretty. It was past peak but still gorgeous. Though you really can't capture the scene with a camera.

We visited lots of friends but I spared them my camera. It was a busy visit but so great to see everyone. I headed home after three days in Woodbury, and Brad spent a day at his old office in Shelton, then continued back to New York City for two more days of meetings. Now we're home with no plans to do any traveling in the near term - but we're excited for lots of company over the holidays!

Gingerbread Houses

Today my friend Anne and I went to see the annual Gingerbread House display at St. George's Episcopal Church in Middlebury. The gingerbread houses were beautiful! Every item in each of the houses is edible, including the "glue" and the base - everything! It was a feast for the eyes. (And for the nose - the place smelled of gingerbread and frosting!) Here are photos of some of my favorites. (And then that's me and Anne in the last picture.)

Some of My Favorite Places

This is the sculpture on the main building of the Woodbury Transfer Station, referred by some (but not by me) as the dump.  We take our trash there and can recycle the usual stuff, as well as electronics, appliances, large metal items, etc.  It's neat and tidy and makes our life much easier, and the people who work there, and the people who use it, are so nice.  The transfer station truly is one of my favorite places.  (I don't want to know what that says about me.)

Mamies is a small, casual, cozy and elegantly simple little country restaurant in Roxbury that we like to go to for breakfast on the weekends.  Definitely a favorite place.

Any place that has pretty fall leaves is a favorite place.  This year our color isn't as good as in the past two falls we've had here, but there are still places like this where it's just breathtaking.

Another favorite place is anywhere to go and experience something local.  Over the weekend Brad and I happened upon this quilt show at a church in Roxbury.  The quilts were displayed over the pews and most were old, and each was different from the next.

The views in this part of the world are few and far between, since there are so many trees to obstruct them.  But when we can find a view it's usually breathtaking, as it's very hilly.  We found this place quite by accident and while the photo isn't the best, trust me when I say it's a stunning panoramic view.

But of course my absolute favorite place is home.  This tree next to our driveway produces pretty pink flowers in the spring and these deep red berries in the fall.  It's nice to know that no matter how many favorite places there are nearby, the best is right here under my nose.

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.

Good Life

What is the "good life?"  It's really a complicated question and it usually involves a complicated answer.  But if you asked me (and even better . . . . . I just asked myself!) it boils down to two simple things: special people and special places.  This weekend, I was blessed to get to enjoy both.  And for this I am so thankful.

When I think of the people I most like to spend my time with, tops on my list are my family.  I am blessed.  While I wish Peter and John could have been with us, it was still great to spend a Saturday night with Brad and Mary.  We were in a favorite place:  New Haven.  Although New Haven isn't a place that most people think of as a destination, for us it is a special place.  It has food from all over the world and an energy around Yale that we love.  New Haven has such a variety of ethnic restaurants that we continue to discover new places each time we visit.  (Okay, true confession.  Since about half the time we are there we go to the same Singaporean noodle shop, it takes us double the time to try all the other places in town.)  New Haven is famous for its pizza, but there is SO much Italian food in Connecticut that we rarely crave it.  We usually reserve New Haven for Indian, Thai, Malaysian, etc.  But last night we went for pizza.  And it did not disappoint.  Modern Apizza was delicious!

After pizza, we went to the New Haven Green for a free concert by the New Haven Symphony.  Mary especially enjoyed the first selection of the night, which was Carnival of the Animals.  Back when she was in elementary school in Warsaw, she performed as an elephant in a rendition of this piece.  So she hummed along and enjoyed the memory.  The weather was spectacular and it was great to spend an evening on the Green.

Another favorite place is New York City.  And another favorite person is Sara, my friend from our days in Japan.  Now she's living back in her hometown of Perth, Australia, and this weekend she flew out here for business.  Before her work week starts on Monday, we met in New York City on Sunday and spent the day eating, visiting museums, and walking around the city.  We hadn't seen each other since she and her family left Japan to move back to Australia six and a half years ago, but it felt like no time had passed.  It was a great day.  This picture was taken on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Isn't the skyline of Manhattan behind us gorgeous!

We caught up with Brad and Mary toward the end of our day and had some time to sit down and visit some more. While Sara and I were out and about, Brad and Mary had spent a father-daughter day exploring Central Park and visiting the United Nations.  I honestly can't imagine a more perfect day in a city I adore with a friend for whom I am so very thankful and with my wonderful husband and daughter.  Without a doubt, I am living the "good life."

The Turning of the Season

This afternoon Brad and I went to Flanders Nature Center and Land Trust in Woodbury to learn how maple syrup is made.  (Tis the season.)

This is the Sugar House at Flanders.  Inside, maple sap is being boiled down to syrup.  We got a tour inside and out and learned a lot about the syrup making process. 

From our tour, here's a map showing the only part of the world where the sugar maple trees produce the sap with the right sugar content to be boiled down to syrup.  The sap can be tapped when the nighttime temperatures are freezing and the daytime temperatures are above freezing.  In Connecticut, that roughly translates to February/March.  Not surprisingly, the Native Americans are the ones who first figured this out. 

This is the sap boiling inside the (fragrant) Sugar House.  It takes about eight hours to boil down from sap (4% sugar) to syrup (66% sugar).  And it takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.  Flanders (an educational center staffed by volunteers) has about 200 taps on trees in the area.  Last year the weather was such that they only got enough sap to produce 40 gallons of syrup.  With this year's weather, they are expecting to get enough to make about 100 gallons of syrup. 

We brought home some maple syrup with us.  It is delicious!  If you want to get a quick explanation of the syrup making process, click on the Flanders link at the beginning of the post.  It will take you to the Flanders website and on the top right corner is the same guy in these photos (the one with the hat) explaining the syrup making process.

Afterwards, we went on a walk around the Flanders preserve.  It was muddy, snowy, leafy, windy, brisk, and the birds were out chirping.  The season is clearly turning from winter to spring.  There was also some beautiful moss.  I will call this one Moss 1.

Moss 2

Moss 3

Heading South

On Friday, while Peter headed into the South with fellow AU students to protest against the School of the Americas (now renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or WHINSEC) in Fort Benning, Georgia, Mary and I headed into Southern Connecticut.  She attended a two-day conference in Groton, so that gave me/us a chance to see some of the area.  I drove to the nearby Naval Submarine Base and toured the Submarine Force Museum, including the USS Nautilus, which is permanently berthed there. 

Looking into the water from the USS Nautilus.  You probably already know this, but it was the first nuclear-powered submarine and the first to cross the North Pole. 

Mary joined me in the evening and we drove over to Mystic, which is a beautiful old seaport town.  We had been there last year and spent time at its restored seaport village.  This time we just enjoyed walking around the historic downtown and enjoying the scenery.  This whale art was in the downtown area.

 Late dusk on the Mystic River, from the bridge in downtown Mystic.

For dinner we ate at Mystic Pizza, of the movie fame.  After Mary finished up at her conference the next day, we drove to a suburb of Hartford to watch the girls' volleyball championship games, of which there were four.  (One for each of the four divisions in the state.)  We watched two of the matches, and by then we were tired and ready to head home to watch the exciting (not) conclusion of Big Game with Brad.  Next up, we await the Thanksgiving return of the boys on Tuesday night!