The Things You See Along the Way…

Today, Greg and I braved the weather and made our way down to Griswold, Connecticut, to Buttonwood Farms to see the sunflowers.  We had to go today because tomorrow we are leaving for Ohio to visit relatives and when we get back, the sunflowers are going to be cattle food.

 

On the way down to Connecticut, we went through North Grosvenordale and saw this very beautiful, old mill tower that was built in 1872.

A little further down the road, I saw the bumper sticker of the day:  “Driver may be singing.  Exercise caution.”  Good advice, especially if I am driving and singing!

Once we got to Buttonwood Farms, it started raining really hard so we had to sit for a while and wait.  Then once it let up, we decided that going on the hayride was a smart thing to do just in case it started to rain again and here’s what we saw along the way:

And aren't these kids adorable?

Life being short, we had dessert first.  Mine was Sunflower Ice Cream, which contained caramel swirls, sunflower seeds, honey and some kind of crunchy almond confection.  Yum!

Then we met this distinguished fellow:

On the way home, I noticed this sign at one of our regular restaurants.  They have it right!  It's what's necessary in a summer like this. 

I may see you along the way while we are in Ohio.  If not, take it easy!

The Life and Times of Olive the Pug: Three States Edition…

Sometimes when a dog is just lying around sleeping and minding her own business, her dreams come true.  That happened to Olive the pug the other day.  In the midst of her morning siesta, someone said, “Who wants to go for a ride?”  Because the word “ride” always gets a dog’s attention, Olive is at the alert and ready to go in no time.

For that 15 seconds or so before a dog gets settled into the back seat of the car and falls back asleep, her imagination goes wild.  After all, it wasn’t all that long ago that she fell asleep in the back seat and woke up in Florida.  She doesn’t allow herself to remember that last week, she fell asleep in the back of the car and wound up at the groomer.  A dog is more optimistic than that.

This time, we're heading out on the back roads of Connecticut to one of our favorite places that, on nice days, will allow dogs to have lunch with their humans…The Vanilla Bean in Pomfret.

 After lunch, the male human decides that a little ice cream for dessert would be just the ticket on a beautiful spring day such as it was.  And the wanderings began.  It seems that most of the usual places for ice cream in Connecticut aren’t open yet…people being far less optimistic than dogs.  So we cross over to Rhode Island in search of the illusive dish of ice cream.

 

More disappointment ensues, so we head for home.  “Wait!  Maybe Rondeau’s Dairy Bar is open,” says the man.  Off we go to Palmer, Massachusetts, where in the end a dog gets to lick the bowl.

  Can a day get much better than that?

The best laid plans are interrupted by metal thieves…

Yesterday, both of my kids were available for an outing.  We planned to go to Hadley, Massachusetts to the Skinner State Park because I had heard that on the top of Skinner Mountain there are excellent views of the Connecticut River Valley.  That sounded like a nice photographic opportunity to me.

So Evan and I went to Northampton to pick up Carrie and off we went.  When we got to the turn to go up the hill to the park, there was a Ranger waiting out in the road.  He told us that there had been “an incident”, the park was closed and we should come back in an hour.  Of course, that got our imaginations working.   Was it a car accident?  A UFO landing?  Carrie was sure someone had been mauled by a bear.  What else could it be?? 

We took the Rangers word for it and found an ice cream stand and enjoyed a soft serve, sat around and talked and then we went back.  There was a different Ranger standing there at that point who said it would probably be another 30 to 45 minutes and to come back then.  Well, unfortunately, we couldn’t wait around all day and we decided to go up the mountain on another day.

We headed back to Northampton, dropped Carrie off and headed for home.  We were informed later that evening by Carrie that it wasn’t a car accident or a bear mauling but a couple of metal thieves who got caught stealing copper tubing and such out of a guy’s house.  The homeowner caught the robbers in mid-thievery and being caught, the robbers did what any reasonable robber would do.  They ran over to the state park to mess up our plans. 

They eventually caught these guys but it wasn’t until another couple of hours after we decided to call it a day.  Well, looking at the bright side, I got to spend an absolutely beautiful day with my kids and got a nice soft serve ice cream cone to boot.  Skinner Mountain will still be there next week.