Fun Day in Bristol and Hartsford

So many beautiful horses

June 24 - Although we got up later than planned we were on the road just before 9  for  our  first  of  3 days  off.    We stopped at a place with   a   sign   for rhubarb,   but   they either were not in or didn’t answer the door.  We headed on to Bristol, CT, home the New England Carousel Museum and ESPN.  We had a super  good  visit  at   the  museum.   Our admission included a ride on a small carousel.  Bill gave up his ride to video me.  They had a small carving area where master carvers create new pieces for the museum.  There were old and new pieces as well as all kinds of animals, some dating back to 1890 or so.  Some had horse hair manes and tails and some were wood, some were fiberglass.  We took lots of photos and video.

After the museum we went to see the ESPN headquarters.  They have 2 facilities and the biggest one is huge and they have security that won’t let anyone in without a badge.  We couldn’t even get a picture of the sign but at the smaller place we could park across the street and get a photo.  Then I took one while we drove past the front.

Bristol is only about 15 miles from Hartford and we drove to

West Hartford to visit the Elizabeth Park Rose Garden where there are 15,000 rose bushes and all were in bloom.  There were arches and a gazebo and very ornately planted sections with roses of every color and size.  It’s a one way drive around it and we easily found a parking spot but it sure had a lot of people for a Tuesday.  There was a US Flag in flowers and lots of greenhouses I guess to get the roses ready for the spring planting.  There were quite a few people there with picnic lunches, too bad we didn’t think of that!

Oldest tourist at the oldest grave

After the park we drove into downtown Hartford and easily found a parking spot along the street within walking distance of where we were headed.  The Ancient Burying Ground on the property of the Center Church was the first cemetery in the city with the oldest headstone being 1648.  The gates on one side were closed and it looked like we would not be able to get in as there were workers repaving the walkways and signs up about the planned refurbishing of the cemetery.  A man in an office to the side where we were trying to photo through the fence came out and told us it was OK to go in but to stay clear of the walkways.  We took our photos and also saw the new marker for the mass grave of the slaves that were dug up and moved.

We walked past the Old State House building and took

Old State House

a few photos and down the street to City Steam Brewery that was recommended to us for lunch.  It’s in an old department store building and is 3 levels inside.  It was very nice and had a pool room in the back and pretty busy with several Asian groups for lunch.  Bill was non creative for lunch but I went with a roasted beet salad over arugula with feta cheese and grilled chicken.  It was huge!  I managed to slowly but surely finish it off.

Mark Twain House

The downtown area is both seedy and nice.  Apparently the main bus line intersects in front of the Old State House and there was an accumulation of derelicts, ladies pulling their suitcases up the street and high school kids looking for who

Harriet Beecher Stowe House

knows what.  We drove past the Bushnell Park where they have a carousel but it doesn’t open until Saturday.  We might have to go back for that some day!  The last stop was the Mark Twain house and the Harriet Beecher Stowe house which were on the same street.  His house was beautiful, even the back side that we could see from the parking lot.  After watching a brief movie about Samuel Clemens’ life and perusing a small display in the visitor center we opted not to pay for hour long tours of each house.  Instead we took to the street to get some photos and Samuel sure did outdo Harriet. 

On the way home we stopped at the Buckland Mall so I could run into Bath and Body Works and Bill was able to connect with an old friend of his, Pat, who he used to teach with in Florida.  She lives in Quincy, MA and we’re going to plan to see her and her husband some time after the 4^th of July.  Then we hit McD’s for some wifi and iced coffee.  Bill has become addicted!

Once we got home we had the last of our leftovers, it’s time to make a grocery run, and went for our evening walk.