The Wilds of Connecticut

I'm going to try and condense as much of my Connecticut stay as I can into one posting, so I can say I'm "caught up" (I arrived in Boston last night). There are lots of pictures.

My older brother, Rob, and his wife, Candy, met me and Adele on the Garden State Parkway for the Great Beth Pass-Off. Me and my ever growing travel belongings were transferred from one car to another and, after a bitter-sweet goodbye, off we went. We headed to Connecticut via a scenic route along the Hudson River. I love the Hudson River Valley and this unexpected detour was greatly appreciated. We stopped at a couple of New York wineries and, while I can't say much about the red wines, the whites were pretty good. The Riesling from Benmarl was particularly tasty. I also picked up a bottle of mead from Palaia. Both bottles shall be shared with the Boston crowd.

Fall along the Hudson. Due to the mild weather, the fall colors weren't as vibrant as they might have been.

A fair warning.

The Palaia tasting barn.

What dorks.

The drive up to the Benmarl vineyard.

A view of the Hudson River Valley from the winery.

A beautiful fall view of the valley. Every time I'm here I want to watch The Last of the Mohicans.

Detail of an old train depot in Hudson, NY.

On a country road not too far from Rob's house. The sun was just starting to set.

Rob and Candy live in what I think is considered central Connecticut, in a town called Goshen. It's all country out here. Besides Candy's two kids, Erin and Hunter (who hunts and actually got a deer while I was there and which I tasted the next night), they also live with Diane, Candy's mother, three dogs - an English Bulldog named Daisy (the new love of my life), two precocious and enormous pups, Tucker and Bear, and two cats, Gus and Cleo. Talk about a crazy household! It was great!

A portrait of Daisy in Repose.

Gus.

Bear and Tucker.

On Saturday we drove to a nearby town so I could get a fresh manicure/pedicure. Our plan was to go to some lake for a nice lunch and then to the carousel museum, but the mani/pedi ended up taking 3 freaking hours! The guy was nice but slow, slow, slow. Poor Rob was beside himself with agitation! So, we missed lunch and just went to the New England Carousel Museum in Bristol. They were having an arts & crafts fair, which got in the way of the horses, so I didn't get to see them as up close as I would have liked, but it was still a nice little museum.

A lovely white horse.

From a miniature carousel.

In the same museum was a room with a fire department collection

Fireman hats!

We drove back via Litchfield, a beautiful and carefully maintained New England town. I was told that you can't paint your house anything but white or some slight variation, like a cream. The way people might subvert this constraint in their stylistic expressions is to paint their front door in their color of choice. Most looked normal - black, red or some such - but we did see one painted lime green. It was hideous, of course, but I understood the sentiment behind the color

A church in Litchfield. Very New England.

Along a Litchfield country road.

When we got home we chilled out and had some snacks and beer - Rob's own brew, of course.

A tasty home brew. And from a non-beer person, that says something.

Daisy joined us for brews.

On Sunday, Rob and I drove over to Northampton in Massachusetts to have brunch with my nieces and meander around the town. Brunch was at the swanky Hotel Northampton and for dessert I had their bread pudding which very nearly beats out Wing's bread pudding (but not quite). Smith College is in Northampton and is my Grandma Forest's alma mater. She was very proud to have attended Smith. The town looks exactly as I remember it looking from all the times we visited when I was growing up.

A reservoir along the drive through Connecticut. A lovely location.

Fall colors.

More fall colors.

Rob, Jessica and Ashley in front of the Hotel North Hampton.

One of the buildings in downtown North Hampton.

Downtown North Hampton.

More downtown North Hampton.

After we parted from the girls, Rob took me over to a butterfly place - I think it was called Magic Wings. There were some really cool butterflies in this joint.

Look for it...

From what I was told, this is one of the biggest breeds of moths, though this one is small in comparison to others of its kind.

Check out the wings.

On Monday, Candy, and her daughter Erin, took me for a drive to Kent, another picturesque town, so I could get some new shoes (my left foot has been killing me since the visit to the Met). While there, we stopped at the coffee shop, where I had a BOOGEYMAN latte! How cool is that?

Kent scenery and art.

In front of the shop where I found my new hat.

The only covered bridge I've seen this trip. Not an old one.

Winter is near, though given how mild it's been, not sure what kind of winter it is going to be.

On Tuesday, I wanted to get some nice chocolates to bring to Steve and John and Tracy. Candy suggested a little artisan chocolatier in Litchfield, but when we got there, we discovered they had changed to their winter hours. We did get to see the new baby cow, however, who was just 20 minutes old!

That is one big cow and one little calf.

Instead, we drove down to Bridgewater (home of Bridgewater Chocolates), stopping along the way to have lunch at the White Horse, a really pretty English-pub styled restaurant. I had an amazing crab cake burger. Did I say it was amazing? Cause it WAS!

Pretty signage.

That liitle burger-like food on the left was a nice hefty crab cake. And talk about a bun!

We took a drive around a pretty lake.

Wednesday was spent packing (I have accumulated a lot of extra stuff on this trip) and running an errand to the post office (so I could mail back some of that extra stuff back to SF, rather then lug it to Boston on the bus and then back to SF on the train). I said my farewells to my brother, Rob, and Candy and Erin drove me to the bus station in Hartford. 3 hours later, I was helping Steve put Gina and Isaiah to bed!

So, we are all caught up. I'm in Brookline now (which is part of Boston, I think, or surrounded by Boston, or something like that). The kids are off to school, the dads are off to work, and I'm here at the kitchen table enjoying the sound of the wind blowing the trees and watching the leaves fall to the ground. I'll spend the morning working and then will meet up with John and the kids, who'll take me over to Harvard so I can see Steve's digs. Steve's then going to take me on a little tour of Harvard. I expect Madge will have a good workout today.

View from the kitchen. A damp New England fall day.

Downsized from 3 pups to 1: Frieda.