Farewell Look at Our New England Trip

As you have seen over the past couple of weeks, we had a great trip to new England. It was bittersweet because we were only able to see people for very short visits – and missed seeing many friends and family altogether. But I’m happy we went!

We miss these guys!

Added More to Flickr

Hi all! Not much to say tonight – I’m tired and I’m going downstairs to watch a movie with Chris in a second :). If you’re bored you can check out the new nature photos I added to Flickr, just click here.

Flickr Update

Sorry, just a quick update tonight (I’m working at VBS this week so I haven’t had a lot of free time)! I have started adding the flower photos from our recent trip to my Flickr account. I still have a lot to go through, but if you want to see the ones I’ve uploaded so far (including pictures of some rare Ladies Slippers) you can click on my Flickr sidebar link or click here. Enjoy :)!

Wolf Den State Park

While in Pomfret, CT, we visited Wolf Den State Park with Gilly (Chris’ Mom), Rusty (Gilly’s dog) and Ashley (Madison’s dog).

The park is named after the former home of the last wolf in CT, which was killed by Israel Putnam  in 1742. You can hike to the old den and even crawl inside there like I did a bunch of times as a kid. But on this day we just took a short hike through the woods.

Gabe played with the dogs and Julia showed them how she sticks out her tongue ;). After the hike Gabe got to ride his bike at the campground.

Gilly blew kisses at Julia – I love this sweet photo of them!

She also taught Gabe the buttercup test, so he checked all of us with buttercups to see if we had the telltale yellow glow under our chins! It was a truly lovely day. My favorite part was right before we went home when Gilly brought me down another trail so I could photograph some rare Lady Slippers – I’ll share those pics later :)!

~Still More To See~

By this time in our travels through Connecticut’s Quiet Corner, we are getting pretty hungry. The best place to stop for lunch and hang out for a bit is The Vanilla Bean Cafe, a favorite with the locals, tourists and especially weekend bikers. Don’t let all of the Harleys parked outside scare you off, the atmosphere inside is relaxed and the crowd is very friendly. After lunch, head across the road to Martha’s Herbary, a truly lovely garden shop where you can browse for treasures inside and out. There are some nice gardens outside that I love to stroll around in, even in the fall.

Ok, the next set of photos is not from our trip along Scenic Byway Route 169, but I just have to share one of my favorite parts of our typical Autumn trips to New England: the fall festival at Buell’s Orchard. It is always held on Columbus Day Weekend and it has been a long standing tradition for Chris’ family to go every year. So for the past several years my family has joined in too, and we always bring my niece, Emma. Don’t be, fooled, the adults have just as much fun as the kids :). We pick apples, take a hayride to the pumpkin patch, check out the caramel apple factory in action and sample all kinds of yummy treats they have available. It’s a blast!