Saturday, October 14, 2006

Fall Vacation: Day 7 (Connecticut)...

On our last full day in New England, we started off by visiting Mark Twain's house in Hartford, CT. It was another excellent tour. Our guide, Jason, was top notch. And the house was very interesting -- both historically, and visually. As was the case with most of the tours we took, no pictures were allowed inside; but I did snap a few of the outside of Mark Twain's house. The accompanying museum was pretty good. I especially liked the way they had some of Mark Twain's quotes etched into the walls inside the museum hallways. Nice touch. The opening picture is one of the quotes, which I thought was appropriate at the end of a week of travelling.

Next, our final touristy thing was a Steam Train ride along part of the Connecticut River, followed by a boat trip along the same river. The train ride was a bit of a let down, honestly... it was too short -- only about 45 mins, round-trip. Actually, only about 20 mins of that counted, since the return trip was along the exact same strip of track, just going backwards -- so, no new scenery opportunities on the way back. And the scenery that was visible from the train, wasn't terribly helpful. Most of the trip had trees on either side of the tracks, blocking any real views. Much like you'd see driving on the interstate. It was pretty, but not quite what I thought it might be, scenery-wise.

Next, we off-loaded from the train, and went onto a boat to get a river's-eye view of the Connecticut River. This was better than the train, as far as scenery, even tho the colors hadn't peaked yet. Looks like we were either a week too late (up north), or a week too early (in southern New England). But, mother nature doesn't operate on a fixxed schedule.

And, all in all, everything we saw and did was pretty much excellent. Everyone was helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable. The tours we went on were all very good, and our week in New England was great.

Lastly, and most important of all -- a HUGE thanks to my brother for putting it all together, and doing all the driving -- no way I could've planned it as well, or got us to where we needed to go w/o getting us hopelessly lost. He really did a GREAT job getting it all laid out & organized, which made it really effortless & relaxing for me. I had a really great wk -- saw alot of really awesome things that I will never see again, I'm sure. And, most of all, had a really great time all week long.

Though travelling and seeing new things is always fun, and interesting, it is always nice to get home again. Which is what I'll be doing for most of the day on Sunday, October 15th. So, no blogs for tomorrow. But, I will try to post some final thoughts & impressions, and a few more assorted pictures of the trip, either on Monday or Tuesday.

Feel free to check the archives (right hand side of the page), and take a gawk at each day's entry. In addition to Saturday's posting, I also just finished posting our adventures of Friday, since I got in too late on Friday nite to have a chance to publish that entry. So, take a look. Anyway, each day is posted.

I hope you all enjoyed sharing my vacation with me. It was a really good time, but I'll be glad to sleep in my own bed, under my toasty electric blanket again, on Sunday nite!

Until my next posting... Peace. Out.

2 comments:

  1. I noticed in a couple of your posetings you said that you were not able to take pictures inside. What is the reason for that or did they tell you? Again I can not thank you enough for showing your vacation. Simply beautiful views.

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  2. Thanks, plain, for the wonderful trip through New England. I lived in Boston for 10 years, and I remember autumn as being my favorite season there, by far.

    That's a great pilgrimage to Mark Twain's house. Great man. We need another Twain.

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