Kwaree Blog

Visiting Old Saybrook, CT For Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Okay, enough of the pleasantries.

This Thanksgiving, my lady and I had dinner at the Griswold Inn in Essex, CT. Since we had been there a few times before, this wasn’t a huge deal for us. What was a huge deal was the fact that dinner was buffet style. I like buffet because it translates to “all you can eat” for me. On Thanksgiving, that’s a good thing. Trust me, we’ve been down the road of “exquisite chef who only uses locally grown foods…blah blah blah.” What that means is small portions for too much money. I am so over that.

What I am into is wearing comfortable clothes and eating until I am fat and dumb. That’s what we (I) did. Dinner was great. The only complaint I have is that there were too many people. I guess the Griswold is a popular place. Next time, we are going to eat in a different room. The room we were in was crowded and I had to keep saying, “excuse me” when I got up multiple times for more food. I started getting funny looks for my second dessert run. Oh well.

So that was dinner.

We thought that it would be fun to head down to Old Saybrook, CT before dinner to do a little exploring. Since we had to be at the Griswold at 4:30PM, we went down to the water earlier to catch as much light as we could.

It’s funny, the weather was cloudy, but there were breaks of sun here and there. It was a very weird sky. November will do that. I am happy that it was the way it was because I got some great pictures of the coast line. Rarely…I mean RARELY have I ever said that something in nature is beautiful. Not that I haven’t seen beautiful natural settings in my day, but I generally say that things are nice or cool. I don’t get too excited. For some reason, when we came around the most southern bend on Maple Avenue, I started saying, “Now that is beautiful.” I couldn’t help myself. It was the way the sun was shining through the clouds and hitting the water. It looked like the water was steaming. It was really nice and you are lucky people to see pictures of some of it. I think you’ll agree.

There is nothing nicer than going for a stroll on a beach on Thanksgiving. Not too hot, not too cold.

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Schooner Cruise Up Connecticut River

Well, we finally did it. We took the schooner cruise on the Mary E. up the Connecticut River.

This was something we were supposed to do about a month ago. When we got the great idea, the weather was nice and cool. When it came time to actually drive down and get on the boat, the heat wave hit. We weren’t in the mood to do anything at that point.

September offers a bunch of great days to get back into those activities you missed during the heat of the Summer. Also, the kids are back in school, so that helps with the crowd levels. The schooner cruise we went on had mostly older folks aboard. I believe we were the youngest and best behaved people on the boat.

I took a bunch of pictures during the cruise and went through them this morning. We actually went on this boat ride last week. I just found the energy to write about it today. I deleted a bunch of pictures that I thought were good at the time of taking them, but later discovered that one can only have so many photos of a flat river. The ones I posted below are the better of the bunch.

If you are interested in taking a schooner cruise on the Mary E. up the Connecticut River, click here to get more information. The Connecticut River Museum manages the whole thing and is a nice place to visit on its own.

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The Rest Of The Summer

Laura and I are watching Lost over again. During the first go-round, either I missed a few episodes or she did. Neither of us had the complete picture of what happened during season 1, 2 or 3. Let’s face it…things really didn’t start getting hot until maybe season 3 or 4.

Anyway, we are all finished with watching seasons 1 and 2 and are now a few episodes deep into season 3. We are at the point of where Jack, Kate and Sawyer are trapped by the Others and John just saved Mr. Echo. Really, this has nothing to do with this post.

Okay, you know how when you watch a DVD and are at the main menu, there is this bit of theme music that keeps going round and round? It’s the screen where you choose which episode you want to watch. Well, On this DVD, the background picture for that screen is where Jack, Kate and Sawyer are kneeling on the dock in front of the water. There’s a mountain in the background. It’s right after they got captured. The picture of the water got me thinking.

I started thinking about how cool it would be to live in Old Saybrook, CT. Old Saybrook is located right at the mouth of the Connecticut River and the Long Island Sound. It’s on our list of places to get to this Summer. They even have one of those neighborhoods where everyone drives around in golf carts. That’s pretty much what I want to do. They have beaches down there in Old Saybrook and there’s a lot of really cool stuff. So there I was, looking at this picture of kind of what Old Saybrook looks like.

I turned to Laura and said, “Hey Pumpkin heart, I want to do two more things before Summer is over. I want to go on that boat ride down in Essex (next week) and I want to go to Block Island to ride a scooter around the entire island.” She liked those ideas and even threw in camping. I told her that I was up for camping in December, when all the bugs are gone. I think we agreed on maybe September or October for that. I want to get one of those big hoodie sweatshirts so I can wear it in front of a campfire while smoking a cigar.

So that was my idea and that’s why I am writing this, just to let you know. Well, I had two things but now with the Old Saybrook trip, that makes three. Over and out.

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Back To Essex And New Hartford, CT

Boy, what a weekend.

Laura’s brother and girlfriend came over for a weekend visit. They arrived yesterday and left today. Their visit was tentative, so when they said there were going to make it, I was a happy boy.

Since they showed up in the late afternoon, there was only one real thing to do…bring them down to Essex, CT for dinner. I bet you couldn’t figure that one out. Man, what an awesome night.

When we got to Essex, the sun was going down. We parked and walked around and bit and looked at the sights. I showed Laura’s brother and his girlfriend the town green and then we went down to the water. Oh yeah, just for your information, Author Norman Crampton named Essex as the best small town in America in his book, “Best small towns in America.” It’s that neat?

Last night, just like the night we visited two weeks ago, there was a wedding on the lawn at the Connecticut River Museum. It’s exciting when this happens because that means liquored up people and loud music. I dig it.

Before we made it to the water, I thought it would be a good idea to pop into the Griswold Inn to make dinner reservations. I didn’t know what kind of crowd was going to be there so I figured better safe than sorry. As it turned out, the place was pretty busy, but we could have done fine without the reservations.

Okay, so we hung out a bit at the water, then walked back up Main Street for some dinner. We ate dinner and went back down to the water. This is why I love this town. It’s a walking town and there seems to be stuff going on. I like the way that you just need to park and forget about it…then walk around all night doing all sorts of stuff.

As we were walking down to the water again, Laura’s brother happened to see fireworks going off in the distance. I guess there was some sort of fireworks show going on way across the river, maybe in Old Lyme or something like that. By this point, we heard the music from the wedding, along with people talking loudly. There was a real party going on down there. When we made it to the water, we saw everyone dancing like dancing people do. I luckily didn’t hear the chicken dance or one of those cheesy songs. They did choose “Faithfully” by Journey as their “Song.” I thought that was nice because I am a Journey fan. It also added some romance to the air and we all know how much I am into romance.

So as Laura and I were standing out on the dock in the dark, I thought to myself that a “move” was in order. These moments don’t come along too often these days, so I took the opportunity to give my lady a nice kiss. I think she liked it. The funny part is that as I was doing this, the drunk guys at the wedding caught a glimpse of it and started yelling, “WOO WOO WOO.” I got a little embarrassed, but handled myself well by smiling and waving at them. It was a funny scene. Hey man, you gotta do what you gotta do. I’m not going to let the drunk dudes stop me.

After that, we were looking out on the water at all the boats cruising around, when we noticed a big sailboat pulling in. I saw a sign that was half folded over, but I believe it said something like, “Come sail with us.” I got excited and needed to check it out. We walked over to the entrance to the Connecticut River Museum and saw a sign for daily schooner cruises. I think they go for about an hour and a half out to the Sound. I took a picture of the sign and have a little plan to go on one of these very cruises next week.

That was an awesome night.

Today’s plan was to head back up to New Hartford, CT and the Farmington River to do a little more canoeing. Since we had two more people this time, it was going to be even more fun than we had last time. The only problem was that the weather people were calling for rain all day. Funny, as I sit here and write this at 8:06PM, it hasn’t rained yet. Good thing we didn’t listen to them.

After a bit of indecisiveness, we got in the cars and left. They took their car and we took ours. Since they came from NY, it would be easier for them to get back home from where we were.

This time, we got dropped off four miles further North than we did last time. There were supposed to be more rapids up in this area of the river. Also, since the water was so high today, it was moving faster. I was all set for some serious canoeing. I really wanted to go for the full twelve miles, but there was a little fright in some of our friend’s eyes, so we decided to stick with the ten mile trip. It didn’t disappoint.

Since the river was higher (the highest level before they don’t let you go on it), there were many more opportunities to get splashed with water from the rapids. Again, Laura sat in the front and got hit the most, but I enjoyed my fair share of water in the lap. It was a good trip and I’m glad that we got to show her brother the river, because he was psyched to go down it.

So those two events took up most of our weekend. I am starting to notice that the good ‘ol state of Connecticut is pretty fun. There are just a ton of things to do and people around here love outdoor activities and nice little towns. Looks like I am in the right place. Now, if I could just get my hands on a nice old house on the water…okay, just kidding.

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Visiting Essex Connecticut

A few nights ago, out of nowhere, I was bitten by something. I didn’t know what it was, but when I woke up, I wanted a boat. I guess I was bitten by the boat bug.

This is horrible. I have never wanted a boat in my life. I think it all started when I was wandering around on Google Earth (again) and noticed how cool it was that the Connecticut River leads right into the Long Island Sound. I mean, it is so easy to either launch a boat or have it docked up in East Haddam and within a half hour, you could be in the ocean. The access is incredible. That’s probably why there are like two zillion boats on this river and in the Sound. How this is just dawning on me, I don’t know.

Anyway, I decided a wanted a boat about two days ago. Then I told myself to forget about it. I didn’t want another thing taking up space around here. Then, I got back into it because I was talking to my accountant about business and the boat thing came up. Apparently, he is in the market too and he knows all about them. So, I wanted one again. Then, I talked to my father and kind of didn’t want one, but still did. I just told him I didn’t want one anymore because I didn’t want to make him nervous, even though he has two boats and two jet skis. He believes that his boats are plenty and if I would just go visit him, he could take me out. What he doesn’t know is that I need a boat to go visit him in. Then I could take him out. To make a long story short, when I went to bed that night, I kind of didn’t want a boat anymore. I figured I should sleep on it instead of making another impulse purchase.

Okay, back to a long story. Since boating requires some knowledge of the subject, I figured it would be a good idea to visit a boating town to learn a little something. What better boating town is there than Essex, CT? It would be like visiting the belly of the beast as Rob would say. So, that’s what we did.

Today, we visited Essex, CT, the nicest small town we have visited in a good long while. Essex is otherwise known as “BMW Heaven.” That’s the name I gave it. There were more BMWs in Essex today than any other place on earth. It felt good being among so many high quality machines. I kept looking at all of their wheels, running boards, ski racks, etc…seeing who had what. I am sure there were a few other enthusiast doing the same thing as I was. I decided that the X5 looks great in black. Also, the larger wheels look pretty good, but could possibly make someone a little nervous around curbs.

We visited Essex on a mission. We had to get to the water and visit a few of the many shipyards and marinas in the town. We also had to talk to a few boaters and generally absorb he vibe of the boating life. We did that and now I really want a boat.

Here is my dream – I want a boat docked in East Haddam. I want to drive down to the boat weekly with my lady and hop in for a ride. I want to cruise down to Essex, Old Saybrook, Stonington, Block Island, Matha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, Newport, etc…, dock someplace and eat dinner. Then, I want to slowly cruise along the Connecticut shoreline while making our way back to the Connecticut River and up to East Haddam. Again, I want to do this all the time.

Now, I know this sounds absurd, but that’s what all these people were doing today in Essex. Man, it was so cool. All day, people were pulling up and docking their boats, only to jump out and walk around town and stop at the local eatery. It was a whole new lifestyle I have never really witnessed. I mean, I knew it was there, but I have never seen it. It’s interesting and really neat.

We did a lot of walking around today in Essex. I got a bunch of pictures and we visited a few shipyards. I got the skinny on where to dock a boat and how much it costs. Both Laura and I also helped a guy with his boat. He was having some trouble trying to dock it. All I needed was my skipper hat. It doesn’t help that I have been looking at boat websites for the past few days. Here, check out the boat I want. Now wouldn’t that be the mac daddy?

We also did a bunch of general walking around today just to check out the scene. Essex is really nice. It’s very well taken care of and the shops are unique. We stopped and went in one just because it had a sign that said, “Garden open in back.” I wanted to check that out.

After a while, we ended up in the Griswold Inn for some drinks and dinner. That was nice too. It was fun to see the boating crowd come in and eat and then leave to get back on their boats.

I am just going to post the pictures that I took and give some descriptions below them.

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Salmon River – Connecticut State Forest

The other day was kind of rough. I spent a good amount of time on the internet getting phone numbers for “Pick Your Own” farms around the state and calling them. I was disappointed because so many of them didn’t have anything to pick. Many of the crops are running late because of the lousy weather we had in June. The local farms around here are booming, but the ones up North aren’t on schedule.

Since we wanted to just get out there, we decided to hop in the car for a cruise around some roads we have never been on. I had an idea, so off we went.

For the past year, I have been driving by a sign that says something like, “Connecticut Wine Tour” and never gave it much thought. I figured that since this sign would probably bring us somewhere neat, we would follow it.

Okay, so we jumped in the car and started driving. It was more of a sight seeing tour than anything else. We first passed the Easter Seals at Camp Hemlocks and did a quick drive through. Camp Hemlocks is “…the place where people of all ages with various disabilities, realize their dreams and strive to reach their highest potential.” It’s a pretty neat place. I liked the fact that they have a small lake that people can canoe and kayak on. We just drove through and left.

Onward and upward. Next, we came across the winery that I guess those wine tour signs were talking about. It’s called, “Priam Vineyard.” We drove up the driveway to find some growing grapes and a nice wine tasting building. I really wanted to go in, but didn’t have any cash on me. I looked at Laura and told her that we will put this one on the list to come back to…perhaps on the weekend. Oh, the disappointment. We drove back down the driveway and left.

We made a right out of the road and drove for only a mile or so and saw a sign for “Day Pond State Park in Colchester.” We decided to pull in the entrance to do a quick drive through. I have actually seen this park’s description a few times while looking for various state parks last Summer. I kind of always passed it by because I thought they just had a pond and that’s it. Honestly, I didn’t do too much digging into its writeup. Well, the park has more than a pond. There are some hiking trails as well. I wouldn’t say the trail system is more extensive than Gay City State Park, but they go for quite a distance. Of course, I may be wrong because I only gave the trail map a quick glance. Are you seeing a trend here?

We stopped the car and walked around for a few minutes and decided to continue on with our driving tour. I did have a lot of fun driving on the dirt road with the car. I am always trying to see how it handles in different environments.

After that, we pretty much thought the major sights were covered. We were driving down the road, heading back to where we came from when I saw a sign for “Salmon River – Connecticut State Forest.” Now, this was interesting. I was curious what the difference between and state park and a state forest was, so we pulled in. As far as I can tell, there isn’t much of a difference. We saw parking areas, picnic tables, walking trails…all the usual stuff.

Since I wanted to go for a walk and actually achieve something for the day, we found a parking spot and hopped out of the car. We walked towards the river and that is where the picture taking began.

There is a pretty neat trail that takes you down the river quite a bit. Along the way, we saw burned out camp fires, so there may be camping at this place, although we didn’t see any signs for camping. The sign out front also said the park, or “forest” closed at dusk. Hmmm. We walked a pretty good distance and then turned back.

Upon returning to the house, I did a little research on Google Earth to discover that this Salmon River runs all the way down to the Connecticut River. I think it would be pretty cool to tube down it. Getting back up would be an issue though.

Okay, let’s see some photos.

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Visting Gillette Castle State Park in East Haddam, CT

On Monday (Labor Day), we decided to get in the car and cruise down to Gillette Castle State Park in East Haddam, CT. This has been on my “to do” list for a while.

We weren’t really in the mood for a hike. We kind of just wanted to see the castle. I read good things about it and heard it was really cool. I also wanted to see if it would be a good place to launch a boat, since it sits right on the Connecticut River.

It’s a good thing we weren’t in the mood for a hike. Even though there is a trail map, this state park isn’t like the others we have been to. The castle definitely is the main attraction. There is a visitor’s center and everything. The trails lead, in a zig-zag fashion, down to the river. We walked them, but there really wasn’t an opening down there. I kind of popped out of the woods where the water began. It’s not bad in the least, just not a hiking park.

Now, what was really cool was the castle. It overlooks the Connecticut River like nothing else does. I was surprised to see so many boats on the river. I mean, I guess it was Labor Day and everything, but still, it was packed with boats. I think the best part of this river is the fact that it leads down to the Long Island Sound. I am guessing that you could get from the castle to the Sound in about a half hour. That’s pretty neat, and really good if you have a boat.

The castle has tours, for a fee. We didn’t take them up on the offer this time, but I think we will do it when the weather gets a little cooler. I am thinking around Halloween. It can be spooky, I’m sure, especially because the castle has secret passage ways. I like secret passage ways because I am a secretive and sneaky person by nature.

Here are some photos of the castle and the surrounding area.

Bridge near pond at Gillette Castle State Park

Bridge at Gillette Castle State Park

Sherlock Holmes - William Gillette sign at Gillette Castle State Park

Castle at Gillette Castle State Park

Castle at Gillette Castle State Park

Connecticut River

Flowers at Gillette Castle State Park

Castle at Gillette Castle State Park

Castle and windows at Gillette Castle State Park

Castle at Gillette Castle State Park

Garden at Gillette Castle State Park

Boat on Connecticut River

Sailboats on Connecticut River

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Food Shopping at Shaw’s in East Hampton, CT

In an effort to learn more about the area we now sleep in, I have been suggesting that we visit different grocery stores for our food shopping. So far, we have been to Whole Foods in Glastonbury (very nice, but expensive), our local grocery store (pretty ok), Super Stop and Shop in Colchester (big and very well priced, but nothing wowed me) and today, Shaw’s in East Hampton.

We have been seeing quite a few Shaw’s grocery stores around in various towns. I haven’t really wanted to go in any of them because I prefer those jumbo super-stores. I like a wide variety. Well, today was different. Laura needed to deposit a check and her bank is in East Hampton, so Shaw’s was the store of choice.

We parked in the parking lot and began walking into the store. I turned to Laura an told her I really liked what I saw. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood and the store looked great. We shopped around for a little while, when I turned to say something to Laura. She kind of had a weird look on her face and hadn’t been putting any groceries in the cart for some time. I asked her what was wrong and she told me that the place had crazy high prices. I started to look around and I quickly agreed. Things were way out of whack. I understand that food prices are going up, but this was a little up, up and away. We did what we had to do and left.

After leaving the store, I stopped on the side of the road to grab some photos of Lake Pocotopaug in East Hampton. It looks like a really cool lake and it might be good for the canoe I want to get.

Pretty cool, huh?

After mentioning the canoe idea, I have been informed that this wouldn’t be the best place to go. Apparently the Connecticut River offers some sort of a canoe rental. I will let you know what we find.

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