Back To Essex And New Hartford, CT

Boy, what a weekend.

Laura’s brother and girlfriend came over for a weekend visit. They arrived yesterday and left today. Their visit was tentative, so when they said there were going to make it, I was a happy boy.

Since they showed up in the late afternoon, there was only one real thing to do…bring them down to Essex, CT for dinner. I bet you couldn’t figure that one out. Man, what an awesome night.

When we got to Essex, the sun was going down. We parked and walked around and bit and looked at the sights. I showed Laura’s brother and his girlfriend the town green and then we went down to the water. Oh yeah, just for your information, Author Norman Crampton named Essex as the best small town in America in his book, “Best small towns in America.” It’s that neat?

Last night, just like the night we visited two weeks ago, there was a wedding on the lawn at the Connecticut River Museum. It’s exciting when this happens because that means liquored up people and loud music. I dig it.

Before we made it to the water, I thought it would be a good idea to pop into the Griswold Inn to make dinner reservations. I didn’t know what kind of crowd was going to be there so I figured better safe than sorry. As it turned out, the place was pretty busy, but we could have done fine without the reservations.

Okay, so we hung out a bit at the water, then walked back up Main Street for some dinner. We ate dinner and went back down to the water. This is why I love this town. It’s a walking town and there seems to be stuff going on. I like the way that you just need to park and forget about it…then walk around all night doing all sorts of stuff.

As we were walking down to the water again, Laura’s brother happened to see fireworks going off in the distance. I guess there was some sort of fireworks show going on way across the river, maybe in Old Lyme or something like that. By this point, we heard the music from the wedding, along with people talking loudly. There was a real party going on down there. When we made it to the water, we saw everyone dancing like dancing people do. I luckily didn’t hear the chicken dance or one of those cheesy songs. They did choose “Faithfully” by Journey as their “Song.” I thought that was nice because I am a Journey fan. It also added some romance to the air and we all know how much I am into romance.

So as Laura and I were standing out on the dock in the dark, I thought to myself that a “move” was in order. These moments don’t come along too often these days, so I took the opportunity to give my lady a nice kiss. I think she liked it. The funny part is that as I was doing this, the drunk guys at the wedding caught a glimpse of it and started yelling, “WOO WOO WOO.” I got a little embarrassed, but handled myself well by smiling and waving at them. It was a funny scene. Hey man, you gotta do what you gotta do. I’m not going to let the drunk dudes stop me.

After that, we were looking out on the water at all the boats cruising around, when we noticed a big sailboat pulling in. I saw a sign that was half folded over, but I believe it said something like, “Come sail with us.” I got excited and needed to check it out. We walked over to the entrance to the Connecticut River Museum and saw a sign for daily schooner cruises. I think they go for about an hour and a half out to the Sound. I took a picture of the sign and have a little plan to go on one of these very cruises next week.

That was an awesome night.

Today’s plan was to head back up to New Hartford, CT and the Farmington River to do a little more canoeing. Since we had two more people this time, it was going to be even more fun than we had last time. The only problem was that the weather people were calling for rain all day. Funny, as I sit here and write this at 8:06PM, it hasn’t rained yet. Good thing we didn’t listen to them.

After a bit of indecisiveness, we got in the cars and left. They took their car and we took ours. Since they came from NY, it would be easier for them to get back home from where we were.

This time, we got dropped off four miles further North than we did last time. There were supposed to be more rapids up in this area of the river. Also, since the water was so high today, it was moving faster. I was all set for some serious canoeing. I really wanted to go for the full twelve miles, but there was a little fright in some of our friend’s eyes, so we decided to stick with the ten mile trip. It didn’t disappoint.

Since the river was higher (the highest level before they don’t let you go on it), there were many more opportunities to get splashed with water from the rapids. Again, Laura sat in the front and got hit the most, but I enjoyed my fair share of water in the lap. It was a good trip and I’m glad that we got to show her brother the river, because he was psyched to go down it.

So those two events took up most of our weekend. I am starting to notice that the good ‘ol state of Connecticut is pretty fun. There are just a ton of things to do and people around here love outdoor activities and nice little towns. Looks like I am in the right place. Now, if I could just get my hands on a nice old house on the water…okay, just kidding.