After week 1 of blended family living, we said goodbye to the Leadbetters as they were headed to TN for a family reunion. We were so thrilled to be able to help them out by house/dog/chicken sitting while they were away.
But what these 6 days turned out to be were a gift to ourselves. We needed time as a family of 4. We needed rest and reflection. We need to just be still and be together. It worked out beautifully that we got all that while able to stay in Sara & Chris's home and discover a bit more of Connecticut too.
Our first adventure was to drive down to see Tate's college! UNH is only 1 hour south and boy was I giddy with excitement to FINALLY see it!
It felt so great walking around campus with Tate! It feels like a good fit and I'm excited to finally know where he will be each day he is no longer at home with us.
I love hydrangeas and boy did they show off during our time in Connecticut!
New Haven is famous for their coal fired pizza. Years ago we took the kids to Frank Pepe's pizza in New Haven and now we are committed to trying them all and finding our favorite. I'd read about Zuppardi's, so we decided to give it a try. And we LOVED it!
Not only was it absolutely delicios, with great varieties of pizza toppings, the ambience felt like an old timey (it's 90 years old) pizzeria should, and the staff was so friendly.
We saw a picture on the wall of the two granddaughters who competed on Good Morning America last year and remembered watching that episode! The granddaughter (a bit older than me) was actually working this day, so we approached her and told her our story of watching GMA in South Korea and seeing her, sharing that Tate is now going to attend UNH. She was the sweetest, and told Tate that if he ever needed anything, he was to come see her. We now jokingly call her "Auntie Lori."
That night we played games outside and took a selfie-
Oops, no Tate!
We joaked that after walking around campus, I subconsciously left Tate out of the picture above because I was fast forwarding to what life was going to be like in just a couple months!
Each day I kept a little list of what we did/accomplished on our STAYCATION!
Sparky isnt a lap dog, but perhaps knows that Tate will soon be leaving? Or it was the thunderstorm outside that brought our game playing inside!
New day, new adventure! I spent a little time online looking up what to do today locally, and we headed out!
This place was fascinating! And horrific. We toured the old, dark, abandoned copper mine deep underground where prisoners were long ago housed and I could not wait to leave!
We got to walk down to where the prisoners were kept- so cold, so dark, so wet, ceiling so low- absolutely brutal.
I'd seen a sign on our way to the prison for a local winery, so off we went to try it out!
Lost Acres Winery was a beautiful farm like setting, with pretty good wine! It was a pleasant surprise. And they were having a local artist gallery show. Brian and I both fell in love with a blue bowl made by a local potter. But when we went to purchase it, we were told it was already sold. I snapped the picture below, determined to contact the potter and get another similar piece from her if we could.
On our way home, we stopped in at Enders State Forest for a little walkabout-
Happy to report that the dog sitting is going well! We kept Sparky's crate in the livingroom so that he could have a safe space away from Nora and Wendy, and apparently he has no PTSD from his 20 hour flight, because he was voluntarily going into the crate all on his own now!
I LOVE New England style creamery ice cream, and will almost always say yes to stopping for an ice cream. We all remember one summer when Sara took us to Tulmeadow Farm for ice cream on a very hot & humid day. We sat on hay bails to eat our ice cream and Tate LOST IT! He was so frustrated with not being able to keep up with how quick the ice cream was melting (resulting in the dreaded dirty hands), the hay bales were itchy, the black flys were annoying. It was all just too much. (Plus I think his Brian was deployed for the first time...) We think this was the last time Tate ever got an ice cream cone, and has since always asked for a bowl.
Today we went back and he did it!
US summer history lesson #1- MLK Jr spent two summers in small Simsbury, CT (the town next door to the Leadbetter's & also the town where Sara grew up) while he was in college. When we learned this, we knew we had to go to the local MLK memorial to learn all about his visits which he said propelled his life’s work.
Today was Brian's last day of active duty. He was now officially retired. So we went out for a lovely dinner at Millwrights restaurant. Oddly we didn't take a picture!
AS much as I'm loving our little American adventures and shopping, I'm loving the quite moments just as much-
US summer history lesson #2 - touring Mark Twain’s Summer home in Hartford CT. And finding my most favorite quote-
What a house!
And guess who his neighbor was? Harriet Beecher Stowe
We'd heard lots of good things about a new restaurant so we tried it with the kids and went through TWO of these giant platters of oysters.
They were so good! It's just unfortunate that our kids like oysters as much as we do these days.
The gorgeous air quality will never been taken for granted by us! Neither will a beautiful backyard sunset-
The next day I wanted to go for a long, flat, scenic walk. Not a hike though. So I read about an old railroad trail path and picked out a section for us to drive to and go walking. Off we went!
It was a miserably humid day. We walked 11 miles and Tate's back said so much-
I had NO idea that we would have picked up this path just a couple miles from the Leadbetters driveway and avoided driving so far. And it was likely an even more scenic route closer to home! Oops. Still so much to learn about CT!
It took 2 weeks, but after that walk, I knew exactly what we should have for lunch-
Guess who finally got a haircut?
Praise the Lord!
With no date for the next job yet, we are trying to watch what we spend. Macy's flying through books so fast that we may go broke!
All 3 dogs in the same room- we are nailing this!
Okay, remember the blue bowl we wanted to buy at the winery above? Well I emailed the artist and she called me that night. A mistake was made and the bowl was not sold actually. She was going to go pick it up and drive it to us the following day. She was a doll and I could hear in her voice how kind and lovely she was. I told her a little about our life and the wonky waiting period we were currently in.
The following day she messaged and invited our family to come to her home on Manitok Lake to kayak and swim, we could see her studio and pick up our bowl in person. I immediately said yes!
Then I told my family. Brian was all in, the kids predicted that we were going to be murdered.
Upon meeting Carolyn, I immediately adored her. She felt like an old friend, a trusted mentor, a wise aunt. Oddly enough, she had moved to CT a few years ago from Acton, MA- the town that my dad grew up in!
I could have talked with her all day, but off we went kayaking-
A lovely night for some outdoor gaming-
What a treat this staycation was for our family. It was just long enough and we were SO ready to have the Leadbetter's come HOME!
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