First day on the road trip

June 29 – Another 3 days off!  The next work stretch is 7 days and it’s rough but we end up with an extra day in the long run since we only worked 2 and now get 3 off.  We better make the most of these 3 days!  We started by leaving the care of Molly for today and tomorrow with Rick and Joe and we were on the road about 10.  Over all we both had our ups and downs today!

First I dropped Bill off at the Bridgeport Bluefish stadium in Bridgeport, CT so he could see a guy play that helps them with their baseball players in his off season.  He plays for the Camden River Sharks.  Well the guy was there but he wasn’t playing today as he caught the last 6 games and was resting today.  They did get to talk and Bill got into the game for free but he wanted to see him play and take some photos.

Lighthouse I didn't see

While he watched baseball I drove on further south to Norwalk, CT with hopes of getting on a fast ferry out to Sheffield Island Lighthouse.  Not!  There’s only one ferry company that takes people out and it’s a 3 hours tour.  And everyone knows about those 3 hour tours!  You can go on the 2:00 trip and just ride out and back but not get off the ferry.  He does that because he has to get back for the 3:30 trip.  So I walked around the port side a bit and had a very nice lunch at The Ginger Man, a quinoa salad with feta, baby kale and honey vinaigrette dressing and grilled chicken.  I need to make a dressing like that.  I was only about 20 minutes from the stadium so called and left word for Bill that I was heading back but he never responded until after my 3^rd text and 3^rd call.  He couldn’t hear his phone.  A policeman allowed me to park and wait in front of the arena next to the stadium.

Dan Patrick building, we think

Bill was back at the wheel and we headed north to Milford:  Home of The Dan Patrick Show.  Being Sunday we knew we would not see Dan or the Danettes but we did find the building that they show on the opening of the program that is supposed to be where they work.  Bill wouldn’t go in the Subway and ask if they did the show upstairs but we did take some photos, just in case.  It’s located right on the town square and is in a very nice area of Milford with lots of little shops and nice restaurants and the park is very nice also.   

We got on I-95 headed to New Haven and I glimpsed a billboard that I thought said there was a PEZ Visitor Center at the next exit, so we exited and sure enough, we followed the signs and spend almost 2 hours in the PEZ building.  That was a big UP for the day for both of us.  Wow, the whole history of PEZ and how it started in Austria as a peppermint breath mint and evolved into what it is today!  There were 792 dispensers designed and only one never went into production.  I thought I’d seen a lot of different ones over the years but I had not touched the surface of PEZ dispensers.  They had an area you can watch them package them but only Monday through Friday.  That would have been neat too!  They have a BINGO game you can play by finding the years of the dispensers on the card in a BINGO row from all of the exhibits and you get a prize.  We both did it and won a dispenser with one pack of candy.  We wanted to find them all but gave up with 2 missing.  That was really fun and was not on our list for today.

One of the Yale buildings

We did make it to New Haven and drove around the campus of Yale University.  Now that was impressive.  The massive stone buildings that just don’t look like they belong in the city.  After we circled around twice on the one way streets Bill dropped me off on the corner to get a few photos but it was difficult because I couldn’t cross and miss him when

Shot I got but no stamp

he came back around.  Then we drove out to Lighthouse Point Park to see the lighthouse and they wanted $30 for us to enter with an out of state car so we said we’d just turn around, but I did get to see the top of the lighthouse and snapped a quick photo.  On exiting we looked for another way around the point via a 

neighborhood but it was a deadend!  Downer!

I had thought we’d try to spend the night in Guilford where there’s another lighthouse we could try in the morning since I’m currently 0-2.  We saw a billboard for the USS Chowder Pot in Branford.  Bill had read about it in AAA and that there was one in Hartford.  Our stomachs won out and we got off in Branford and had the BEST ever lobster bisque, so thick and creamy I could not believe it.  Bill even liked it.  Then he had the mac and lobster casserole and I had the Lobster pot pie.  I had huge chunks of lobster and a thinner version of the bisque with fresh veggies and a flaky top crust.  He said he didn’t get much lobster but it was really good.  Since there was salad and bread first he didn’t finish his.  He did upset his glass of water though and moved really fast to stay dry.

We got a decent rate at a Bayfront Inn right at the interstate so landed here for the night.  At least the wifi is good and we got a ground floor room with a king bed and hot breakfast so I think we are good to go!  We both agreed the best part was a really hot shower of pelting water in a REAL bathtub that you can move all over in!  Ahhh, life in a hotel!