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 ConnecticutRiver.
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 ConnecticutRiver 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.
Yesterday, I decided to start riding my mountain bike in the morning, when it’s cooler outside.
I think we were going for a walk when I came up with that idea. You know, as I was out and about…I always get good ideas. When morning rolled around and I was drinking my coffee, let’s just say I was less enthusiastic.
Even thought I was still groggy, I stuck to my word. I got on the bike and started to ride. For any of you out there who have ridden a bicycle for any amount of distance, I am sure you will agree with me when I say it is great exercise. I already knew that, but was reminded of it as I was struggling to get up the first hill. For those who know what “Brewster Hill” looks like, this hill reminds me of that one. It’s not nearly as bad here, but when I was on the bike, it sure felt it.
I had planned on doing the 3.7 mile ride, but when I got to the end of the road, I decided to make a left and do the 5 mile one. I am glad I did, because I keep talking about doing it. There are tons of downhills and uphills. The uphills are much less fun, but my legs got a great workout.
This area is really great for recreation. I am very pleased that people take it so seriously around here. On the last part of the ride today, I had to go through the woods. That was fun because I got to “get some air” off a few rocks. You know what that means, I think I might need to get a helmet.
On the way to Home Depot yesterday, I decided to take a detour and quickly drive through Eastern Connecticut State University. I am checking out the local colleges for interesting classes. I already found a nice “Entrepreneurial” class over at UConn. It teaches you how to set up, operate, successfully harvest and start over a small business. That’s my gig. East Conn has some good photography and writing classes that I am interested in.
Now, I know these are the worst pictures on the planet, but please understand that it is really difficult to get these photos without feeling like I am doing something wrong. This country has got me so damn paranoid, that I can’t even feel comfortable taking pictures of a college from my car. I keep thinking that the “Thought Police” are going to jump out of the bushes and arrest me.
Anyway, this is what I got. I must say, this is a really nice little college. It is very clean and inviting. I have no idea what the quality of the academics is, but as far as looks go, it passes.
For quite some time, Laura and I have been planning a trip to Tanglewood this Summer. Every time it came up, there was something else to do. I think there may have even been a time or two where I was just too lazy to get up and go.
Last night was the night. We decided that we would go on Friday and on Saturday I went to the food store for all the goodies. You know, we get all the good food to eat while listening to the music.
The weather was supposed to be a little chilly in central Connecticut on Saturday night. What I wasn’t expecting was the downright cold air that was hovering in the Berkshires. I mean, I guess at this point, 45 degrees feels cold to anyone. I brought an extra shirt, but wish I brought my fleece as well.
On schedule last night was the “All-Mozart Program” in the KoussevitzkyMusic Shed. We grabbed our usual spot in front of the visitor’s center and spread out everything we had. I lit the four “bug” candles, but didn’t really need them due to the chilly weather. Mosquitoes and gnats like the heat and I guess it wasn’t optimal conditions for them to be biting people. That was nice.
The music was ok. I seem to remember our previous visits being more thunderous, while this one was pretty quiet. I like a roar and this time was more like a meow. I explained to Laura this morning that I felt it was more entertaining to the people sitting in the shed, not for us on the lawn. I would still choose to lay under that stars any day.
About half way through, I decided to take a few photos of the area at night. I am sure you could have guessed I was going to do that.
Today, we went back to Devil’s Hopyard State Park in East Haddam for what turned out to be a grueling two mile hike. It felt good, but there was a lot of sweat involved. We went uphill and downhill and everywhere in between. You should’ve seen me huffing and puffing like a fat guy at the tops of the hills. All this hiking should get me in better shape though.
We hiked the entire orange trail which brought us up to the vista, which was very nice. Then, the trail brought us down to the river again and past the Devil’s Oven. We walked back up to the bridge and past the falls to the car.
I took some more photos of various areas of the orange trail. I really have to stop taking so many pictures. Laura is starting to call me a tourist. Hey, this is the way I live. I am on my third digital camera because I like to use them so much. Also, somebody has got to like these things besides me.
As I have mentioned before, Connecticut is the place to be if you like parks, hiking, mountain biking and recreation in general. We are learning that people around here take this stuff very seriously. When driving around, it’s hard not to see people jogging, riding bikes, playing golf…whatever.
Last week, we decided to drive down to East Haddam to visit Devil’s Hopyard State Park. I looked at this park’s trail map online and it looked good. The thing that really attracted me was the waterfall. As usual, I opened up Google Earth and checked it out from above. Well, all it looked like was woods. I don’t know, after seeing the satellite view, I didn’t think it looked all that great. We went anyway. I am usually wrong about these things.
I was really wrong about this one. I have been to many state parks in my life and I have to say this one was the best so far. The water does it for me. It’s a very low-key park. There are no highways around and it’s tucked back in the woods. The waterfall is great and the river adds a lot to the hike. This park is going to be on our list for a long time. They also offer camping, which is cool.
I took a bunch of pictures and will add captions where I think they would fit.
I am not even sure how this turned into a blog post, but since I did have my new camera on me and the night was just perfect, I started shooting away. Leave it to me to suck the romance out of anything. It was quite romantic. It was dark out and there were so many couples holding hands. Just as I was mentioning to Laura that everyone was holding hands, I realized that I wasn’t. I grabbed her hand and made a night of it. Of course, she looked up at me with that big smile.
I told you I took some photos. These aren’t the greatest, since I was dark, but they’ll do.
If you have ever driven through Virginia, you would probably agree with me when I say it is a very pretty state. I like to drive down Interstate 81 because of the scenery. Virginia has a very diverse landscape, which makes almost the entire state exciting.
I am sure I mentioned that I love to browse different towns online. I like to look at photos of the areas. Many times though, there really aren’t a lot of photos to see, not even on the websites that the towns own and maintain. This always gets me a little curious. I mean, the reason for the website in the first place is to inform and attract, so why not add a nice photo gallery to it? I guess they are getting there.
Recently, my brother Jeff bought a cute place in the hills of Virginia near Luray. He has made a little hobby of taking interesting photographs of the area. He has been emailing them to me and I thought they were great. I asked his permission to post them on my blog and he agreed. I think this may be his big break…getting published on a famous blog like mine.
Anyway, since there really aren’t any great shots of Luray, VA out there yet, we are going to start putting them there. The pictures below are some country shots. I believe Jeff is going to start taking pictures of the town and different more populated areas, so I will post them when he gets them to me.
I think I finally know where Jeff gets his talent…me.
Yesterday was a pretty eventful day. We decided to hop in the car and drive out to Newport, RI for a quick visit.
I always think everything is so close to anywhere I am. When we are about halfway there, I realized that I am just an optomist. My butt starts to hurt and I feel like the rest of the population that understands the distance of things. I am not sure of the mileage, but I know the trip took about two and a half hours.
We took a bunch of backroads and then popped out on 95 North. I liked the backroads because it gives us a chance to see the world, off the highway. Plus, I think we have all seen enough highway.
After we got off 95, we went through this pretty cool town called Exeter. I remember this because there was a golf course and a huge plant nursery. I mean huge. The thing kept going. I am the kind of guy who would be on vacation and stop to have his pickup truck loaded up with mulch. Man oh man.
We went through a few more towns and then drove over the JamestownBridge. That bridge was pretty nice. When we landed on Conanicut Island, I noticed some pretty nice areas. I think we will stop on this island next time and spend some time in Jamestown. I have a feeling it is much less crowded than Newport.
Right after that short trip driving through Conanicut Island, we (paid the toll and) started up the Newport Bridge. It was a pretty steep bridge and I thought of my mother silently hating it if she was in the car with us. She never liked bridges. A few moments later, we landed on Newport.
For this trip, we had a goal…I wanted to see the ocean. Every once in a while, I need to smell the salt water. With this in mind, we turned down Americas Cup Avenue, onto Thames Street and headed straight South to Wellington Avenue. From there, we somehow got onto Ocean Avenue and stopped at Brenton Point State Park.
This was a pretty cool park right on the Southern tip of Newport. There were lots of people doing all sorts of things. We also noticed that it is a pretty cool area to retire to. The only problem with the whole place is all the tourists, like us.
After we hung out at the park for a while, we traveled back up North and ate at a little pizza place. That was pretty good. A few hours in Newport and we were good to go. We left for the trip home.
I took a bunch of pictures and will show some of them below. I am kind of tired, so I am not going to include captions. These were basically taken from the Newport Bridge and heading down to Brenton Point State Park, and back up. Enjoy…
I am starting to notice that ths area is pretty energetic. We see more people on bicycles and walking than we know what to do with. It kind of reminds me of when I lived in Atlanta…people were always out after work doing something.
Since I am energetic too, I fit right in. I actually went for my first bike ride up the road yesterday. I had to pump up my tires a little bit, but everything went very well. I would like to swap out my mountain bike tires for some street tires though.
Yesterday evening, we decided to head over to Gay City State Park to do a little walking. We have been hearing good things about this park and its large trail network.
Since we really had no idea where to start after we pulled in the park entrance, we decided to pull into the first parking lot and start walking.
This is the entrance. I believe the park closes at sundown. There is a fee if you want to visit on the weekends, but I think during the week is free.
We had a map, but forgot it back at the house. We used this one to see where we were going to walk. I would estimate our walk was about two miles.
The trails are nice and wide (well, most of them). They are rated…easy, medium, difficult. Since many people use them to ride their mountain bikes on, this is helpful.
All the way in the back, there is a lake that youngsters can swim in. It reminded me a lot of Lake Tonetta back when I was a kid.
There are tons of parks around this area, and from what I hear, they are very well kept up. We are planning on going back tonight to do a few more miles. It was nice to get my heart pumping again. Between this and the lawnmower, I should be in good shape.
This is my blog. Welcome to it. I write a lot of stuff that doesn't pertain to anything in particular, but you may find a common theme in here somewhere. Enjoy. More
