Connecticut Part 3 (Boston)

Continuation of "Connecticut Part 1" and "Connecticut Part 2"

Boston! Only two hours away from "Old Man House." I went up to Boston twice while we were staying in Connecticut; once with Melinda for a YSA conference one weekend and the other just to meet up with a friend from back home for brunch.

The YSA Conference was fun because we got to meet a lot of people and make new friends while also being in a great city.

The conference was at MIT and so we felt very smart walking around campus and sitting in classrooms listening to speakers.

The evening activity of the conference was a 20s themed dance at the Boston State House. (Yay for connections with Governor Romney) This was by far the best dance I have every been to; most likely for two reasons. 1- Melinda makes an awesome dance buddy and 2- We danced as if we didn't care what people thought and we couldn't have been happier.

Sunday after church we stopped at Walden Pond on our way home to Connecticut. This was a beautiful stop! Walden Pond is famous for the writer Henry Thoreau who lived their for 2 years and wrote a book about his experience. As we walked around the pond we pulled up quotes by him and read them as we walked around the pond; which gave us a laugh but was also fun to do.

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the live which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours" - Thoreau

"This world is but a canvas to our imagination" - Thoreau

My second trip up to Boston was a quick day trip to visit a friend, Beth who I danced with growing up, while Melinda was at work (haha, we were such a "married" couple). I met up with her at Boston Commons and we found this great breakfast place, Paramount Restaurant. It was one of those hole in the wall places where they had a way too many tables and people in a place meant for a group half that size but I loved it and the food was great. We ate so much, at such a great price, that we had to walk around Boston Commons and the Public Gardens afterwards to walk the food off a little bit.

After Beth left to head to work, I threw on my running shoes and clothes and went for a run around Boston. Such a great decision. I got to see some fun neighborhoods and it was the perfect fall day that it was not too hot. I wish I made time to go for a run on more of my trips.

What is a "Smoot?" you may ask. Well I will tell you. In the 50s there was a fraternity during rush week that had a pledge who after getting quite drunk they used him to measure the distance of the bridge that connects Harvard and MIT; his name was Oliver Smoot. Basically he lay on the ground and they marked on the bridge where his head was (this equals one Smoot) and then he would get up, put his feet on the mark and lay dow again and they would mark the bridge again. It became a popular thing to refer to things as "smoots" and it stuck because today you will hear people refer to distances in "smoots."

Smoots = Five feet and Seven inches

Connecticut Part 2 (New York City)

Continued from Connecticut Part 1

The great thing about the New England area is how close you are to so many great cities. Besides spending our time exploring Connecticut we also took some weekend trips to nearby cities. The first being New York City.

We took a two hour train from New Haven, CT to Grand Central station in New York City.

When we arrived at Grand Central station, Melinda had arranged for a surprise. A friend of ours from high school, who is attending law school in D.C., met up with us for the weekend and I had no idea until I turned to Melinda and said, "Haha, that guy looks so much like Doi... wait... that IS Doi!".

For dinner our first night there we went to the Stardust Diner. Now this just isn't any diner. Nope. But then, NYC is not any other city. This is a diner where many people who are working while trying to catch their big break into the entertainment system (especially onto Broadway) are the servers. AND what better way to get people to discover you than to be singing and dancing while serving customers. While here I got the Coney Island Burger (the bun was made out of pretzel dough) and it was SO delicious.

Night time stroll and fun across the Brooklyn Bridge

NYC Subway: I'm weird but I get excited when I smell that terrible awful sweaty-pee-etc. subway smell because I know I am in a big city and I love it.

I love Broadway! Nothing can beat the talent that you get to see in New York City. I always try to see a show whenever I am in NYC. This time was saw Phantom. Sadly, I have to admit, of all the shows I have seen on Broadway, this was my least favorite. Don't get me wrong, it was great because anything on Broadway is great; I've just seen and enjoyed better when attending a show on Broadway.

We were going to do a quick walk through Central Park when we passed one of the ponds and saw that they had remote control sailboats to drive. Well, Melinda and I couldn't say no to that. It actually was really hard because you actually had to turn the sail just right to catch the wind so that the sailboat would float in the direction you wanted. Once we got the hang of it we MAY have purposefully kept running into other's boats (but mostly each other's) and started a whole game of bumper boats.

Walking the Streets of New York City

Fire hydrant in Little Italy

Our last night there someone suggested we took the Staten Island Ferry at night to see the city line all lit up. I had never thought of this before. I've always used the Staten Island Ferry during the day as a free and easy way to see the Statue of Liberty but I had never considered it at night and I loved it. It was beautiful.

I have probably visited this city too much but every time I go I always end up doing a few new things besides repeating the things I love. I love that this city has millions of things to offer.

Connecticut Part 1

In October last year I went and lived with a friend in Connecticut for the month. I was still enjoying my "retirement" from work and traveling. My friend was doing rotations for PA school and needed a roommate and thus began our adventures in the state of Connecticut as well as the neighboring states.

We lived in a house in Torrington, CT which we names the Old Man House... because it WAS an Old Man House. It smelled like an old man house, was decorate like an old man house, was cleaned like it was an old man house... it was an old man house but we loved it. Now if you are reading this blog post for advise of what to do in Connecticut, I would not suggest starting in Torrington... nope... probably skip right over it. We may have a little special spot for it in our hearts but the truth is, Torrington was an arm pit of a town and if what we were seeing with our actual eyes wasn't enough evidence, the looks on everyone's faces when they asked where we were staying was enough. Keep reading to see the amazing about this state.

Old Man House

An antiques store in Torrington... apparently Tom and Debbie are not longer together.

Besides the fun bonding time we had in the old man house, we also did our best to explore the state. Here were some of the many things we did while in Connecticut (we also listened to some podcasts about Connecticut to get ideas of things to do and see):

Peipe's Pizza

Frank Pepe Pizzeria

Pizza is a BIG thing on the East Coast and who's is the best... MATTERS! Peipe's Pizza, found in New Haven, was voted the number one pizza in America in 2013 while we were there.

Mystic Beach

We learned about Mystic Beach in the podcast and had to see if it was as beautiful as it made it sound... it was better. Even though it was October, cold and windy I loved it and thought the scenery was breathtaking and perfect.

Craig's Castle

We were driving on the freeway a couple of times when we saw up on the "mountain" a brick pillar poking out through the tree tops that looked like it was attached to a castle. Finally one day we decided to get off the freeway and find our way to it. After several U turns we made it to Craig's Castle which actually was a singular pillar that looked liked it should be attached to a castle that looked out over the area. Even though we laughed at the anti climatic finding of Craig's "pillar" the mountain was beautiful and looked like it had several hikes to go on. Something to go back and do.

New Haven and Apple Picking

We made a group of friends in the New Haven area and had fun exploring the area with them. Apparently a big "New Englander" thing to do in the fall is to go apple picking and that is what we did.

Because we went apple picking a little late in the season, there weren't many apples available at the bottoms of the trees. We had to get creative about how to pick the apples at the tops of the trees.

The Fall

If nothing else, I would tell anyone to go to Connecticut in the Fall just to enjoy the incredible and everlasting colors of the leafs.

Yale University

I love to visit university campus'; they are beautiful, historic, sophisticated, full of possibilities... and Yale was no exception. Even though it was a beautiful campus the only pictures we took were these two. These two pictures show evidence of us stealing sandwiches from a conference going on and us running/escaping through a tunnel that went under the street and connected to another building.

Connecticut State Capitol

Greenwich, CT

Greenwich, one of the highest price in realestate in the US. An area close to New York City filled with giant homes on the coast. We spent an afternoon driving around ooo-ing and awwww-ing at the homes and finished the night watching the sun set while we ate ice cream.

Things to do next time:

We spent an entire month in Connecticut but I still have a list of things I want to go back and do.

Candlepin Bowling: it is an old fashion type of bowling with a small ball that is still played in the New England States. We did go regular bowling with a group of friends but I still want to try Candlepin!

Visiting Gilmore Girl type towns

Exploring the Pirate Ship from Calendar at the Connecticut River Museum in Essex, CT.

I loved my entire month in this state and besides living with my friend for a month, I loved having the opportunity to explore and take time for some of Connecticut's hidden charms and gems.

Swim with the Dolphins

Designed by Bree Morris

I went on a cruise almost two years ago. I invited two friends and then one of the friends invited a fourth person to come so that we could have a full cabin.

One of the friends and I wanted to do everything we possibly could on the cruise and were constantly on an "adventure." The other two wanted to lay around, which was fine, everyone is different. Well it came time to go on some shore excursions and my adventurous friend and I wanted to do different things than the other two. BUT the other two really wanted us to all do at least one excursion together, which is fair, and so we had to figure out what that would be. The problem was that the other two only wanted to pay for one excursion, again which is fair, and they REALLY wanted to do the dolphin excursion. Well, my adventurous friend and I really didn't have an interest in the dolphins but we decided to go with it.

When it came time to pay there were two packages: 1) Stand in the pool and let the dolphin come up to you and you could pet, hug and kiss it. OR for $10 more you could do all of that plus swim with the dolphins and hold on to its fin as it pulled you around and much more. To my shock the two girls did not want to pay they extra $10. TEN DOLLARS. We went with package number one. I guess I can at least say that I kissed a dolphin on my 25th birthday.

Ever since then I have taken on this personal motto of just, "Swim with the Dolphins," as a reminder that it is worth it to pay a little extra more or put in a little extra effort in order to have a much more amazing experieince. I mean, come on, we only live once. While I was in Peru last year, every time my friend and I would be trying to decide if it was worth it to spend a little more or walk a little farther I would just say, "Let's Swim with the Dolphins." It never failed us.

I teach a class to a student leadership group at an university and I taught them one day about going the extra mile in their lives whether it be in school, careers, personal life, etc. I told them about this experience and my motto and I even asked my sister-in-law to design me a logo so that I could give my students stickers that said, "Swim with the Dolphins." I taught them that in life they should strive to put in a little extra effort, a little more time or even a little more money to get a much better outcome or experience and that it is worth it. I now often hear them telling each other to "Swim with the Dolphins" as motivation (and sometimes peer pressure... oops).

So, go swim with the dolphins in whatever you are doing. AND Swim with the Dolphins when you travel. I'm all about being smart with money but don't cheat yourself from an incredible experience because it saves you a few dollars. That's the great thing about travel; getting out of your comfort zone, seeing things you will never get to see with your own eyes again, experience adventure, etc.

Swim with the Dolphins

Travel Words

I don't know about you, but just hearing any of these words or phrases from the list below get me excited for travel and the excitement increases with the use of more words from this list!

Explore

Wander

Discovery

Airport

Are You Packed?

Passport

Suitcase

Journey

Tourist

Are we there yet?

Sight Seeing

Bon Voyage

Out and About

Road Trip

Destination

Get Away

Escape

Around the World

Travel Buddy

Excursion

Where to Next?!

Going Places

Getting There is Half the Fun

Adventure

We Were Here

Detour

Freedom

Travel