Kate and I took this opportunity for a getaway ourselves to, you guessed it, the New Haven, Connecticut area!
Kate had to work until noon on Friday the 16th so we headed south just as soon as she got home. We hit traffic in Massachusetts and it took us over an hour longer that it should have to get to New Haven, which was quite annoying.
We parked in a parking garage in headed for dinner at Shake Shack! It was amazing! Just like the other locations I have eaten at in New York City, my buddy Jay has eaten at the Providence, Rhode Island one and he loves it just as much as NYC too. Kate didn't like the shake sauce, which is a cheese sauce. I don't even understand how that is possible!
We walked around the block in New Haven stopping at a couple shops along the way. We found Louis Lunch, home of the original hamburger sandwich. This was sorta the reason we came to New Haven to begin with, and they were closed. Apparently they close for the month of August! I guess it's something that's known in the area, and they vaguely post about it on their Facebook page. Talk about disappointing.
We decided to just head to the hotel until I remembered that we wanted to check out Lighthouse Point Park and I'm glad that we did. We got down there just before sunset and somehow no one was sitting on the bench directly in front of the lighthouse so we did. Because of it's location on the Long Island Sound you actually get to watch the sun set on the ocean and it was beautiful.
Someone had gotten married on the beach before we arrived and talk about a perfect day for an outdoor wedding, you couldn't ask for better.
We stayed at the Rodeway Inn & Suites in Brandford and we would stay again. Clean room, king size bed, mini fridge, cable television, wifi was okay. I liked that it had a couch for me to sit on. I'm not into laying on or sitting up on the bed to watch TV, it's just not comfortable to me. The only downside was that they offered a free continental breakfast and that's not what we got, in my opinion. They bad a pot of coffee, a jug of orange juice, plain bagels with cream cheese but no toaster, and plain donuts.
We ate breakfast Saturday morning just up the road at 56 diner and it was tremendous! Fantastic food and great prices!
We stopped at Bishops Orchards next in Guilford. They have a lot of pick your own fruits at their orchards in the area, but this was their farm store. It was great and I would love to have something similar in our area.
We took the scenic route stopping at the Centerbrook Cheese Shop. They have a lot of amazing cheeses in the store but I settled on a 7 year ages Quebec Cheddar and from England Ford Old Cheddar. That English Cheddar was a-friggin-mazing!! Kate bought this olive relish spread, she loved it!
Our next stop took us to the Chester-Hadlym Ferry so we could cross the Connecticut River. Ferry service began here in 1769 and this is the second oldest ferry in North America, the first is up the river a ways. I found out about this ferry from watching this horror movie called "Let's Scare Jessica to Death" that came out in 1971, it is not a good movie. In the movie they take a car ferry that is supposed to be across the Long Island Sound I believe from Long Island to Connecticut or vice versa. In the movie they show the name of the ferry, The Selden III and I googled it and found this crossing.
They still use the same ferry today and have been using it since 1949. It cost us $6 and the crossing time was only about five minutes. It was awesome! Also the ferry saved us a lot of driving time because right across the river is Gillette Castle, our next stop!
Gillette Castle was built between 1914 & 1919 by actor William Gillette famous for portraying Sherlock Holmes. He lived there from 1919 - 1937 when he died. It was purchased by the state of Connecticut in 1943. The home and the grounds are beautiful in what is now called Gillette Castle State Park.
The grounds are free with many hiking trails but it costs $6 to tour the Castle. The tour is self guided with staff along the way to tell you about the place. They do have the place set up in sort of a one way path that guides you from the ground floor to the top floor and out the exit. You cannot backtrack down previous floors and once you leave the castle you have to buy a ticket to get back in. I understand why they do this and with the amount of people there it makes sense.
When we left the castle it started to rain, which prevented us from going on the hiking trails. Someone was having an outdoor wedding on the grounds of the park, talk about a terrible day to have an outdoor wedding.
The planned next stops were at the Devil's Hopyard State Park to check out a waterfall and covered bridge. We tried as the rain has let up, but as soon as we got to the top of the waterfall it started to rain again. We made it back to the car just in time for it to pour.
Always with a back up plan we continued on and as it was nearing lunch we hit up a spot I had heard about for years and saw featured on many different TV shows and magazines; Ted's Restaurant in Meridien, serving steamed cheeseburgers since 1959.
We got there just after the lunch rush and were able to find a seat at the counter in this very small establishment. At Ted's they steam both the burger patties and a huge hunk of cheddar cheese that is oozes all over the burger. They are magnificent. Also the burger is fresh, never frozen. I know what you are saying, steamed burger? Yeah they don't look very appetizing, but the taste is amazing.
We drove to Cheshire and the Barker Character, Comic, and Cartoon Museum. The sun finally broke through on the way and driving on I-691 Kate saw Castle Craig in this high cliff face. I had read about it but wasn't sure if we'd have time. With the post Gillette Castle rain out we now had time.
First we went to the Barker Museum. This place was so cool! Kate didn't care to visit the museum because, as she said, it would be wasted on her so she sat outside. I took my time touring this toy museum that had collections going back 100 years. I keep saying amazing a lot in this blog post, but we saw a lot of amazing things. Sincerely though, to see all the vintage toys in excellent condition like these were was so cool. Outside they had all these wood cut out and standees, I posed with this Scooby-Doo one and I nailed it!
We headed to Castle Craig next and it was really cool. Located in Hubbard Park on East Peak in the Hanging Hills the drive up to East Peak is a well paved road. There is ample parking at the top and you can easily climb to the top of the 32 foot tower. The Tower was dedicated on October 29, 1900.
Our next stop was in Newington at Stew Leonard's a local grocery store chain that is so much more than just a grocery store. Kate thought it was dumb that I wanted to stop there, she just didn't understand because she had never been before. We were only inside the building a few minutes when she begrudgingly admitted that she got it!
I won't go into deep details but you need to go to Stew Leonard's if you've never been to one. You are missing out if you don't. It's very kid friendly, has fresh foods all along the way, mostly they sell their own brand goods with most being prepared in house. I would love it if we had one up our way!
We headed back towards the hotel and on the drive we could see the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in East Rock Park towering over the City of New Haven. We decided to check it out in the morning before we headed home.
We stopped back at Bishop's Orchard as Kate wanted a piece of pie she had seen there that morning. While checking out we asked the girl at the registered where the best pizza in the area was with out hesitation she said Marco Pizzeria. So that is what we got and she was right, fantastic pizza! We watched Jaws on AMC in the room that night while enjoying our pizza pie! Kate had never seen it before.
The next morning we packed up and drove over the East Rock Park. At the summit of the park is the 112 foot tall Soldier's and Sailor's Monument which was built in 1887 after nine years of planning. The view of New Haven from the East Park summit is breath taking.
We stopped at the Eli Whitney museum which was closed but the grounds were open and I just wanted to get a photo of this very cool looking covered bridge.
The route we took to head to the Interstate lead us by a place called Best Video Film & Cultural Center, which is a VIDEO STORE!
A good old fashioned video rental store that has DVD & VHS and so many great classic movies! Located in Hamden, Connecticut, it is the classic Mom & Pop rental store. Inside they also had a cafe with local coffee, so while Kate got herself a little something I just wandered the store marveling at the shelves.
Our next stop wasn't until we were in Union, Connecticut on the Massachusetts State Line at a unique little restaurant called Traveler Food and Books. Essentially it's a restaurant that promotes reading, every person who buys a meal gets three free books!
I picked up one called Ox Bow Incident, which is a story that takes place in 1885 about two cattlemen drawn into lynch mob to find and hang three men responsible for cattle rustling and killing someone.
It was an awesome getaway weekend in the New Haven area for us. We need to go back so we can have us a burger at Louis Lunch and I need to go to the Pez factory as well as many other adventures for us in that part of Connecticut!
Until next time!
