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…
Related posts
Posted in Travels, Winter | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 4th, 2006
I have been holding on to this post for a while. As you may have noticed from some earlier posts, Laura and I like to skirt the border of Connecticut and New York. There are some pretty cool areas along the line. Every time we go there, we see something new. This time, I wanted to head up Lime Rock Park and Lakeville, CT to enjoy the drive.
Now, just to give you a reference point, the Lakeville/Salisbury area is the most Northwest part of Connecticut. If you drive north from Lakeville into Salisbury and look to your left, you will see the Berkshires. Don’t be fooled by these tree-filled looking mountains…there is tons of stuff to do in there. One day, a while back, we drove for about 10 miles down a dirt road on the very top of the Berkshires. We had no idea where we were, but couldn’t turn around because the road was so thin. Good thing another car wasn’t coming in the opposite direction. We passed so many camping areas and a few much hidden resorts. We finally headed down a paved road and popped out right in Salisbury. It’s a very cute town, so that’s why I wanted to go back and visit the area. I am not sure I would be able to find the road back up into the mountains today…that’s how well it was hidden. We visited this area towards the end of the trip.
We started out by heading up Rt.7 in Connecticut…past New Milford, Sherman and Kent, where we stopped for a few minutes at Kent Falls State Park.
I used to visit Kent Falls when I was a kid, but like so many other things we do when we are kids, the memory was a bit blurry. I wanted to visit again. This is a great park to visit with kids. They can run around and create all sorts of havoc in the front field and then everyone can walk to the top of the falls on very woodsy stairs. It’s not a very far hike, but quite scenic. Make sure to bring your camera.
We continued North on Rt.7 and quickly made a visit into Cornwall over the covered bridge, which is very cute.
The great thing about driving through New England is that they take very good care of their covered bridges. This was a very small, but functional town, although it is quite a distance from a major food store or mall. Back on the road, we came across an area that reminded me of why I like this area so much…its beauty.
People travel out West to see the beauty of the landscape and forget about what is right in their backyard.
If you have never been to Lime Rock Park, you should really make it a destination. There is a really cool race track with lots of turns and a straightaway. You can watch motorcycles and many different types of cars racing around the track. There are even days where you can bring your own car or bike there to get timed. It’s pretty exciting. The last time I went, I was with my cousin Joe and we just chilled on the lawn watching the cars all afternoon. The best part is that this park is very casual. You pull in, park and walk to the spot you want to sit yourself for the rest of the day.
A few miles past Lime Rock is the “Lake” in Lakeville. It is called Lake Wononscopomuc. Say that 3 times fast…or once for that matter.
We had to pull in here to check it out. There was no one swimming at the lake today due to the clouds, but we were really interested in how a place this nice gets paid for up here where the population is pretty low. I walked inside the building to talk to someone. A woman inside explained to me that since there were many people from New York City who had summer houses here, there was good tax revenue generated for the town. Also, there are a few private schools in the area that bring in some money. She was actually pretty excited to tell me about how the native residents get all of the good benefits and great schools for their children paid for by out-of-towners. Seemed like a good deal to me. There were some really nice houses up here in this area…
On the way out of the lake area, we noticed a really interesting restaurant called “West Main.”
This really has nothing to do with our trip, but thought it would be cool to show you what you can do with an old school house looking building.
After spending some time in Lakeville, we started to head home taking Rt.41 into Sharon, CT and through Amenia Union, NY on to Rt.22 South.
If you decide to take a trip like this, make sure you bring your camera, plenty of food and a good map. It will most likely take all day, but will be worth the drive!
Related posts
Posted in Travels | No Comments »
