Jay Gaulard Blog

Costco Wholesale in Enfield, CT

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

We took the leap. The leap to Costco (finally) up in Enfield, CT…near the border of MA. We have been meaning to do this for a very long time, but never got around to it.

Back at our old house, we were members of Sam’s Club, which is just an extension of Wal-Mart. We got pretty sick of it and didn’t renew our yearly plan. It seemed like there was some sort of stagnation with its stock. My father kept telling me that Costco is much better. I remember Costco from the Danbury location and it was pretty good. My father and I are a little different when it comes to shopping at Costco though. He likes to look at tools and equipment, while I like to look at the heads of lettuce.

One of the main things I was looking for was high quality food, mainly produce, and a big store. We visited BJs in Willimantic earlier in the week and were disappointed. It seemed like an older store and was much smaller than the others. I like to feel like I am in a stadium.

The Enfield Cosco was built in 2004, which means it has all the latest perks, groceries, tire changes, pharmacy, etc…and for those people who need to have dessert while they go food shopping, there is a fast food place. It’s almost sad.

Anyway, membership is $50 and good for a year, so we did it.

Yes, that is the actual Enfield store.

We filled our cart up last night and made out like bandits. I got a 2 1/2 pound bag of spinach and a huge box of veggie burgers, among other things. The prices were pretty good, but you can never really tell. On some stuff, they are definitely better. On other stuff, it’s a little tricky. The good thing is that we don’t need to keep running out to the grocery store for every little thing, like we used to. Now, we just load up the trunk and that’s that. Of course, we are still going to have to go to the regular grocery store for some stuff, but this place helps out a bunch.

Visiting Eastern Connecticut State University

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

The other day, while driving home from Home Depot in Willimantic, CT, I noticed a sign that said, “Eastern Connecticut State University.” I thought that was pretty strange, because I had no clue that Eastern Connecticut was so close by. I knew that UConn was pretty close, but that was it.

Since I was intrigued, I decided that it would be nice to drive through the campus on a nice sunny day like today. We are always looking for a good college campus to go to shows, etc…

We drove over to Willimantic this afternoon and pulled into campus. I was very pleasantly surprised. The school is very well taken care of and quite attractive. Laura really doesn’t care if a school looks good or not, but I do. She is all about function and I am (a good part) about looks. I try to explain to her that I want to be happy when walking through a campus and not look only at bare concrete and parking lots. I am not sure I am ever going to get my point across. Either way, this campus looked great.

We drove around and left campus after a little while. I was going to take some pictures, but it was just too busy. We drove around town a little bit and then drove to the new hometown to stop at the local food store to get some cold food for dinner. Again, the gas people are coming on Monday. We need that to cook.

Bull’s Bridge River Rapids in Kent, CT

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

As promised, I am posting some (well all) of the videos we took the other day when we were in Kent, CT.

I would say there are eight videos in all. I am posting them as I upload them, but as you might guess, YouTube takes a while to upload, especially when the videos range from 30MB - 130MB. In the videos, the cool part is how much water is going down the river. We have had a bunch of rain, so that really took its toll. Also, the weather was great, so there was some company during our hike.

Enjoy the videos.

Fife’n Drum and Bull’s Bridge, Kent, CT

Monday, March 24th, 2008

I know that I have told you in the past how much Laura and I like to eat lunch at the Fife’n Drum restaurant in Kent, CT every Easter. We have been doing it now for about four years. It usually is a very good time. Well, unfortunately, yesterday was our last visit to this restaurant.

I am going to try to keep this short and sweet and not too much like a restaurant critic. Let’s just say that it seems like there is some new management and a new chef at this place.

The wait was very long during each portion of our two course Easter lunch and the food was amateur at best. It seemed like the dish washing dude was back there cooking too. I swear it seemed like there were parts of my dishes that were from a can. To me, “warm potatoes” does not mean potato salad that tasted like it was straight from Costco. A vegetarian dish does not mean boiled vegetables. Oh well, there’s $80 down the drain. We didn’t even stay for dessert…my favorite part. We just left the money on the table and left. During the last 20 minute wait to have our plates cleared from the table, three different waiters walked by and looked at us at least seven times. We kept wondering if our waiter had gone home. Well, as it turns out, as we were leaving, Laura caught sight of this guy eating at the bar. What the hell? If you can’t tell, I am a little annoyed. To think, I still left a tip…A TIP. I didn’t have the patience to wait for any change. I swear, if we had stayed any longer, they would’ve started vacuuming the floor while people were still eating. Yes, we will have to find a new place to eat on Easter.

To simmer down, we went on our traditional hike at Bull’s Bridge. I have a few posts about our previous hikes. It’s a really neat place.

Since we have been down the same trail so many times, I thought it would be a good idea to check out the top part of the trails. Laura might have been a little disappointed because she wanted to go on a real hike. I will have to make it up to her. We took lots of pictures and video. I will upload the video today and post it here.

This is a photo of the front of the Fife’n Drum restaurant in Kent, CT. I don’t even know why I am showing this. Perhaps someone from the restaurant will read this post and mail me a refund check.

This is the monument in Kent, CT.

These are two shots of Bull’s Bridge itself. We got lucky with very good weather.

These are all shots of the river. The water was rushing very fast, due to all the rain we have been getting. We didn’t see any kayakers like we have in previous years. Maybe the water was going too fast. I sure wouldn’t get in there.

House Offer Was Accepted

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

I thought I would give you a little update on the house. The homeowners accepted our offer. The real estate agent is drawing up the contract and we are going to visit it once more on Monday. We are going to walk up and down the road for a second once-over. I guess it would be called a twice-over. If everything is cool, we are going to head to the real estate office and sign the contract. I will be sure to take photos of the neighborhood and post them.

I already called the mortgage company and gave them the revised numbers and I have an appointment on Tuesday morning to get everything done. He says that we could have the closing before the end of the month. I would say that’s pretty fast. He told me that he had a closing in four days, a few weeks back. That is just nuts.

Needless to say, I am a little nervous. We are going to be swimming in the house, but at least Laura will get her own office and so will I. There will also be another bedroom with a bathroom, so if we ever have guests, they will be hooked up. We can then have another whole family living in the finished basement. Also, the two car garage is something I have always wanted. No more scraping ice off the windshields. Ye haw.

Mayflower Inn, Washington, CT

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

Laura and I decided to get in the car and visit Washington, CT yesterday. What was the destination? Well, no less than the Mayflower Inn & Spa in Washington, CT.

As I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, my mother purchased a gift certificate for us a few years ago for the Mayflower Inn. If memory serves me correctly, we used it for a Valentine’s Day dinner, but I may be wrong. It was either that or New Year’s Eve. Anyway, we drove there at night and (even at night) really liked the area. We decided that it needed to be visited during the day.

Now, please let me explain…I am sure we have all heard of New England. Sure, we have heard of it, but have we ever really seen it? What we learned yesterday was that be merely driving through Connecticut and Massachusetts really doesn’t count for visiting New England. There is a little corner of Connecticut that, if visited, you can easily imagine some English dude sitting on a log with one of those white wigs on. That is what Washington, CT is like. You can also throw in Bridgewater too. They are both like that. There are more white houses that are over 100 years old than you know what to do with. Needless to say, they are really cool towns. Pricey towns, I’m sure. What really struck us both yesterday, was the fact that we weren’t able to locate one messy property or piece of junk. The whole entire area was extremely clean, which made us feel very nice inside.

One of the things that really aggravates me is the lack of pictures and videos on the internet. Even on Google Earth, people would rather post videos of their kid’s first birthday party, instead of videos of main st. in the town the video is attached to. When I visit town websites, I expect to see some sort of photo gallery or even a walking tour. You would be amazed at how few websites actually offer these features.

Since we visited the Inn yesterday and I happen to own a regular digital camera and a video camera, we decided to use them. I took all the photos and Laura took half the video. These are all just of the Inn and not the town. We’ll get to that. Enjoy!!!

It may look cold, but it was actually the first time this year that I actually felt a warm breeze. It was about 50 degrees outside. This is a photo of the path up to the bush maze, going towards the spa.

These are both of one of the places you can stay if you decide to check in.

This is a photo of the main building that we ate lunch in.

Here is a photo of the outdoor pool and the pool house. We decided against going for a dip.

These are all photos of the spa building.

This is my favorite part of the whole place. I just love the Rhododendrons and huge trees.

Ok, time for some video…

Panda House in Danbury, CT

Sunday, December 30th, 2007

Laura and I went out for Sushi at the Panda House in Danbury, CT tonight. This Chinese/Japanese restaurant is, by far, our favorite Sushi place. We have been to quite a few Sushi restaurants, so we know what’s good and what is being charged too much for. Usually, we are getting ripped off…especially that place up on Rt.9 in Poughkeepsie. I am not going to name names, but if you have been there, you know they have some skinny Sushi. Nobody likes skinny Sushi.

Actually, we don’t get the Sushi, we get the Maki-zushi (roll).

Today is cause for celebration, so we wanted to go out to Dave & Busters down in the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack. They were calling for snow (which it is doing right now), so we had to call everyone to tell them to stay home. That was a drag. Then, we got an idea. Since we could go get Sushi much earlier than we were going to go to Dave & Busters, we may miss the snow. That was a good idea. As we were sitting in Panda House, enjoying our Sushi with two friends, it started to snow. It snowed all through dinner. I wasn’t all that nervous, because it looked like it was melting as it hit the ground. We were more than an hour from home, so it did concern me a bit.

We finished up dinner and left. We made it home in good time without event, except for that car going 30MPH on Interstate 84. We had a nice dinner too.

YEE HAWW

Kayaking at Bull’s Bridge, Housatonic River, Kent, CT

Saturday, November 24th, 2007

These are some old videos of a time when Laura and I went hiking on the Appalachian Trail near Bull’s Bridge, Kent, CT.

As my old post said, we like to go to dinner every Easter at Fife’n Drum in Kent. Afterwards, we go hiking on the trial just for a few miles. It’s nothing huge, but it is fun.

A few years ago, I got some video of some crazy people kayaking down the river. Also, there was a big raft doing some white water action. It was a good show. I just keep thinking how cold it was.

Flying a Stearman PT-17 at Candlelight Farms Airport in Sherman, CT

Friday, November 23rd, 2007

This is another oldy, but a goody. These are some videos from the time Craig and I flew a Stearman PT-17 at Candlelight Farms Airport in Sherman, CT. yes, this is the same airport that the helicopter landed at in the movie, Mr. Deeds.

It was a great day. Unfortunately, I took these videos with my old camera. They are kind of pixelated and there is no sound. You get the idea.

Thanksgiving at the Red Lion Inn

Friday, November 23rd, 2007

Wow, what a night. Laura and I had a great Thanksgiving dinner at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, MA.

This is becoming quite the tradition with us. I while back, Laura and I decided to start a new tradition of going out to eat at different inns and restaurants located in different parts of…the area. Apparently, we have developed a few favorites.

I remember the first one we went to. It was New Year’s Eve. We went to the Hudson House in Cold Spring, NY. Since then, we have been to the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, MA, the Village Inn in Lenox, MA, Old Drovers Inn in Dover Plains, NY, Fife’n Drum in Kent, CT, Bar, Barnaby’s in New Paltz and a few others I can’t remember. We really like the tradition.

Last night’s dinner was great. I was so nice to see the entire dining room full of people all dressed up. Of course, Laura and I looked marvelous, as usual.

Here’s a picture of the Inn at night…