Travel & Destination

Laura and I went into Madison once again yesterday to run a few errands. The vet, the food store, gas and the building supply store. In the supply store, I had to grab some parts for an upcoming hot water heater project. Some more Sharkbite and copper elbows and a Sharkbite ball valve. I used […]

We had to run into town again today. I suggested that we take the back way because the main road has a thick layer of ice on it that’s very jagged. It’s not even slippery anymore – it’s more like driving on gravel. Ever since we had that rain turned ice, the roads have been […]

It’s twice now I’ve tried to explain to Laura that I’m worried about the snow. “What if we didn’t go far enough North? What if we don’t get enough snow?” I’m not sure she’s too concerned about how much snow we’ll get and I’m sure she knows I’m being facetious. It’s just that the snow […]

I was talking to a friend this afternoon on the telephone. I mentioned that I had to go because I had to run out to the food store. I began thinking out loud, “Okay, I’ve got my hat, my neck warmer, my gloves, pea coat, boots…” He asked me what I was talking about. I […]

I keep telling Laura (as if she needs to hear it), if you walk into a vet and the office is huge and beautiful (over the top), turn around a walk out. There’s a portion of your bill that goes directly to making someone’s practice look really, really good. A few months ago, we went […]

Well, we finally made it to Maine. No easy task, I’ll tell you. The drive took longer than expected. I’m going to write this post, kind of for my own memory’s sake. I want to remind myself, if I ever choose to look back, how horrible it is to drive from the bottom of the […]

A few days ago, I was fortunate enough to visit Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, right here in Palm Coast. I was in the area, the stars were aligned and I had just come from the beach. The mood was ripe for some sightseeing at a park I had intended to visit promptly after arriving […]

I think it was Monday when we had a full moon. And I’m telling you – it’s getting pretty weird out there because it seems that every time I look up at a clear sky, the moon is full again. It’s tugging at my psyche. It started back when we were living in Connecticut. Every […]

I was thinking of my friend Rob this morning when I decided to jump on my bike for a nice long ride. During last night’s photo tour of Palm Coast, I passed a few canals off of Belle Terre Parkway. I remembered them this morning, along with the fact that Rob is in love with […]

I thought this would be thoroughly entertaining. No seriously, I really think if I start taking kind of like “photo tours” of the stupidest things on the planet, people would like it. I certainly would. Not that going to the grocery store is stupid or anything, and believe me, I’ve seen stupider things in my […]

Yesterday was a very good day. We did a lot and were surprised at what a spur of the moment activity like going to the bank could bring us. Around 5:30, I asked Laura if she’d like to come with me to the bank. I had a few checks sitting in my bag from house […]

On Saturday night, we decided it was high time to refill our reserves of “drink.” We’d consumed much of it in Hebron, in an attempt to lighten the load on the trailer. I suppose it helped a little, but as I mentioned earlier, the load was still way too heavy. At least we weren’t forced […]

I visited this area twice before, once in November 2012 to pick out a house and once in January 2013 to move half my belongings down here. Neither time did I particularly love this place. Both times, it was mostly cloudy and chilly and I didn’t get to see what the feeling was. I just […]

It certainly has been busy around here. For the past few days, we’ve been packing and cleaning, packing and cleaning. Sometimes, it feels like we’re getting nowhere, but every now and then I notice there is, in fact, less stuff laying around on the floor and on the counters. Upstairs is practically empty. Laura’s room […]

Yes folks, the long awaited final Hebron Maple Festival post has arrived. I apologize for the delay, but along with some other stuff getting in the way, this post has more pictures to it, coupled with five videos. Editing them didn’t take too long, but you know, uploading and all that..enough with the excuses. Our […]

This next stop was much shorter than the first. Since we had already seen what a sugar house was all about, we were pretty much only interested in differences between the two. The Wells Sugar House is very nice. It’s located up on Cone Road in Hebron – an area that we’ve never been before. […]

Today was an excellent day. The sun was (and still is) shining and the weather was warm at a brisk 31 degrees. I swear they said it going to be higher than that, but I’ll take the sun over temperature any day. So, we hit the Hebron Maple Festival for the first time ever. Now, […]

Many, many years ago, my brother and I made a very long trek almost across the entire country. The plan was to visit the California coast and everything in between, but somewhere around Idaho I opened my mouth. Jay: “So where did you want to go?” Jeff: “California…why, you don’t want to go there? Huh? […]

I have to apologize. I was going to write a big, long post about men who wear Crocs (not that there’s anything wrong with that). It was going to be awesomely hilarious and I was going to incorporate my recent visits to the Something Simple Cafe in Hebron, CT into it. But guess what – […]

Last weekend, we decided to take a quick trip to Palm Coast, Florida. On Saturday, we made all the reservations we needed and on Tuesday, we were in the air. Amazing what one can do with the internet these days. I want to give a quick rundown and semi-review of what we experienced during this […]

Well, we made it out to our sometimes annual apple picking event. This year, we went to Belltown Orchards in South Glastonbury, CT. Belltown probably has the nicest orchard I’ve ever been to. It’s clean, the apples are in great shape, there’s a large variety and the entire place is well run. We had a […]

Well, we made it back to Belltown Hill Orchards once more for our annual cherry picking. Last year was a bust because of the wet Spring. All the cherries split. This year, the cherries were perfect and we manged to pick $47 worth. That’s almost 10 pounds. I wrote about last year’s cherry picking, so […]

We made a visit to Chester, CT yesterday. There were a few events going on that we wanted to attend. First, the Maple & Main Gallery was having a clothesline sale. A clothesline sale is when the gallery hangs paintings, without frames, on a clothesline out on the front porch. The paintings are discounted because […]

A friend of ours had to take care of some business over here in our neck of the woods yesterday, so we said, “Hey man, stop on by and we’ll take you out to dinner.” He said, “Can I sleep over too?” We said, “Sure.” So he came over last night around six. We hugged […]

This was an unexpected dinner. We meant to visit Chester to simply people watch and wander the streets, but since there was space available at the River Tavern, we took it. I haven’t had a good Halloween like this since I was a kid. Running out to the street only to see groups of people […]

Yes folks, another post about Chester, CT. I’ll tell you that this is the last post for a few weeks – at least. We are going to be heading to the Halloween Pumpkin Festival and Parade, but that’s not until October 29, so we have some time. Okay, let’s go. A few weeks ago, Laura […]

Last weekend, we decided to head up to Vermont for Mount Snow’s annual Oktoberfest. We have had very good times at Hunter Mountain’s Oktoberfest in the past, but since we are now closer to Mount Snow, we decided to give theirs a try. The ride up was okay. Once we were past Hartford and Springfield, […]

I have to tell you, every time we visit Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison, CT, we are impressed. I think it’s partly because of the park’s beauty and partly because we keep arriving at the perfect time of day. When you look at the photos I posted below, you’ll see what I am talking […]

This is probably the fastest I have ever written a blog post after an event. It’s because I have been getting kind of lazy and they get piled up on me. This is the last one of the pile. After this, I have nothing to write about. Today was the day to go apple picking […]

A few nights ago, I enjoyed a surprise birthday dinner at Restaurant L&E in Chester, CT. It was a great time that gave me an opportunity to use a few phrases I learned during my three years of French classes from middle school. I was actually going to write a longer post about the dinner, […]

A few weeks back, my parents came up to visit. One of the few surprises I had for them was a trip to Martha’s Vineyard. Visiting Martha’s Vineyard has been on my mother’s wish list for a while and since I had never been to the island either, both of us were excited. Now, I […]

We went down to Chester, CT this morning for the market on Main Street. After that, we went to brunch. After that, we drove around a bit. I am going to write a separate post about the market, but I wanted to quickly show you a really cool picture I got of the train tracks […]

This is the last short post for today, I promise. As I mentioned in a previous post, we walked by the Chester Museum at the Mill this morning while visiting the Sunday market in the town of Chester, CT. We were walking up West Main Street and happened to stop at the museum. The reason […]

We just had the greatest day. Laura had an idea that led us to the Connecticut shore and then a few things afterwards. I will share those few things here and will save the shore adventure for the next post. Okay, you know those things you experience that you are positive you will remember forever? […]

I have one regret about writing this post. It’s that I didn’t take any pictures this afternoon during lunch. It’s so much easier to write a blog post around a photograph, but since that’s not going to happen, I’ll try to make up for it another way. We’ve been on a bit of a lunch […]

A few days ago, I was a bit depressed. I was all sorts of feeling sorry for the state of affairs in the world. I do a lot of reading and watching a wide variety of videos online and pretty much came to the conclusion that we are in disarray. I won’t even tell you […]

Well, we ended up back at Belltown Hill Orchards in South Glastonbury, CT yesterday for some more berry picking. We actually intended on picking some peaches and plums, but they weren’t ready until today. We settled on picking some more blueberries. I have to tell you folks, the blueberry season is almost over. This was […]

Okay, this was a mistake on my part. Let me explain. Last year, we visited Newport, RI. On our way there and on the way back, we drove through a town called Exeter. I thought this was a dandy little place, but what really caught my eye was this huge tree and plant nursery on […]

We have been discovering the most amazing places lately, and believe me, I don’t use the word “amazing” very often. When I hear that word, I usually think of a twenty something responding to a question like, “How to you like your new job?” “Oh, it’s AMAZING.” Or something like, “Do you like the new […]

Up until a few weeks ago, I had no idea how cool rail trails were. I also didn’t know how popular they’ve become. We have been walking in the general vicinity of the house we live in for about three years. It’s a great place to walk and we have really awesome trails right in […]

Last week, we visited Devil’s Hopyard State Park in East Haddam, CT. We had family visiting from North Carolina, so I figured that some waterfalls and hills would be very enjoyable. Where they come from, there are no hills. Waterfalls…none of them either. They loved it. We visited Chapman Falls, walked around in the river […]

I drove to Virginia a few weeks ago to attend my brother’s wedding. It was really great and I’d like to say a few things about it and share the pictures that I took. First, I’ll say what I have to say. If I post the pictures above the text, people will just look at […]

I’m going to be straight with you right up front. This story has an unfortunate ending. You’ll see by the last picture. Guess what today is. That’s right, it’s opening day of cherry picking at Belltown Hill Orchards in South Glastonbury, CT. We wait for this day all year and when it comes, we hop […]

Today was the day I needed to get out of the house. After working for what seems like years, I felt that a break was in order. It’s been kind of hectic lately. I have been wanting to hop in the car for a road trip for some time now. It’s almost Summer and we […]

Back to Wadsworth we went. This time, we were on a new mission. Modern Art and the Renaissance is what we were after. The museum shifted some collections around and had some rooms closed off, but what we saw was really great. Much of what was there has been there for a while, but we […]