Connecticut &
New York State
What does an
African elephant, puppets, midgets and a child adventure writer all have in
common? Well, all you have to do is go
to Connecticut and New York State to find out.
When we
drove into Connecticut from Massachusetts we didn’t see much difference in
landscape. We saw green trees, green
grass, green everywhere, dark lakes, miles and miles of country roads and
interstates with little towns or villages dotted here and there. When we drove into our campground in upper CT
we felt like we were back in CO with pine trees and lakes and rolling hills.
Our first
trip was to see the capitol of Connecticut, Hartford. To see the State Capitol was such a surprise
to what I expected. This was such a
huge, impressive structure that sat upon a hill overlooking the city. We decided to go inside and explore and we were
shocked to see the creativity and designs that went into this monument of a
capitol. It was built in 1878 in a high
Victorian Gothic style and is a National Historic Landmark. The marble floors,
fountains, custom tiles, statues, designs on the walls and woodwork were all
amazing. The state’s hero and native
born to Connecticut is Nathan Hale, “I only regret that I have but one life to
lose for my country” guy and there is a huge statue of him at the entrance to
the capitol. I have to put this capitol on the top of the ‘best state capitol
building’ in the USA, so far.
Next, it was
off to the Barnum Museum which housed a lot of the famous circus’s memorabilia. As we pulled up to the building which was located
in downtown Bridgeport, CT, I was not disappointed by such a different, red
sandstone majestic building. The only
thing that disappointed me was they had a tornado hit the building (yes, a tornado
in CT) in 2011 and it did so much water damage to most of the stored and displayed
items and to the structure of the old building that they haven’t been able to open the
museum up to its full capacity (lack of money) since.
Picking up my disappointment off the floor we were then escorted by a young volunteer showing just a few items in a small section of the museum. We were able to see Tom Thumb’s personal horse carriage, chairs, sofa, circus wagon, etc. Then there was Mrs. Tom Thumb’s wedding dress, some of Mr. Barnum’s personal furniture, pictures of Jumbo the elephant (after he died he was stuffed).
Mr. & Mrs. Tom Thumb's small sitting chairs
Tom Thumb's walnut carriage
We put our money into the donation box and hoped that the museum would be restored in the near future. We walked around downtown Bridgeport for a little while but weren’t impressed with Bridgeport at all. It was old and not in a good way, very depressed city that had better days as a major seaport city. After a nice lunch in an Italian restaurant we were off to downtown Hartford.
Picking up my disappointment off the floor we were then escorted by a young volunteer showing just a few items in a small section of the museum. We were able to see Tom Thumb’s personal horse carriage, chairs, sofa, circus wagon, etc. Then there was Mrs. Tom Thumb’s wedding dress, some of Mr. Barnum’s personal furniture, pictures of Jumbo the elephant (after he died he was stuffed).
Mr. & Mrs. Tom Thumb's small sitting chairs
We put our money into the donation box and hoped that the museum would be restored in the near future. We walked around downtown Bridgeport for a little while but weren’t impressed with Bridgeport at all. It was old and not in a good way, very depressed city that had better days as a major seaport city. After a nice lunch in an Italian restaurant we were off to downtown Hartford.
We wanted to
see Yale University while we were there, so we drove around the college and
just took pictures of the buildings.
Next we parked the car and walled around old town Hartford to experience
the flavor of this college town. What a
delightful town, lots of shopping, food and upbeat attitude. No I didn’t buy a “Yale” tee shirt, just
felt it wasn’t me….I’m more of a MIT kinda gal…sure!
One of the
places George really wanted to go to was the Mark Twain House. We found out that his house and Harriet
Beecher Stowe’s house are right next to each other, so we bought the ticket to
see both. Mark Twain is such an American
icon and so I was excited to see his custom house. What a surprise. It started off at the entrance to the museum….there
stood a six foot replica of Mark Twain in Lego’s.
Lego Mark Twain
Next it was a short film by Ken Burns talking about Samuel Clemens’ life. He was quite the traveler and had many jobs (riverboat pilot, printer, journalist and prospector in NV) before he settled down when he was 34 with his new wife Olivia Langdon. They hired a famous architect to design this amazing home. What impressed me the most about the home was Samuel’s comment about it. He said he was the happiest when he was in the house writing and raising four children in that house, he felt it had a heart and it welcomed them to live there (my feeble attempt to remember what was actually said). Unfortunately he lost the home after only nine years because of investing heavily in a type setting machine which didn't make it big on the market.
One of my favorite stories about him living
there was the fact that he would have his daughters (he lost his son as a
toddler) come downstairs in the library before bedtime and he would start
telling them a story and then use everything laid out on the mantle (the
servants changed up the various vases, statues, assorted memorabilia daily) to
embellish the story. He also would
pretend to be an animal and chase the girls in the glass atrium that held a
small pond and lots of plants and trees.
He sounded like he really enjoyed his children and was a good father.
Lego Mark Twain
Next it was a short film by Ken Burns talking about Samuel Clemens’ life. He was quite the traveler and had many jobs (riverboat pilot, printer, journalist and prospector in NV) before he settled down when he was 34 with his new wife Olivia Langdon. They hired a famous architect to design this amazing home. What impressed me the most about the home was Samuel’s comment about it. He said he was the happiest when he was in the house writing and raising four children in that house, he felt it had a heart and it welcomed them to live there (my feeble attempt to remember what was actually said). Unfortunately he lost the home after only nine years because of investing heavily in a type setting machine which didn't make it big on the market.
Mark Twain's home - couldn't take interior pictures...not permitted
Then it was
off right next door to Harriet Beecher Stowe's home (she wrote ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’). It was a smaller home which was built much
earlier than the Twain House. One thing
I learned from the house tour was she was an artist and there were many
painting of her's throughout the home. After
seeing the house I tried reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin and just couldn’t get
through it…???
Harriet Stowe's home
We have seen
and experienced so much while on the east coast that I feel like I could teach
a college course on the subject! One
thing we laugh about is no matter how fast we go (as much as 10 miles over the
speed limit) the cars in the back of us always act like we are at a snail’s
pace. I guess the speed limit is ‘just a
suggestion’ in CT, NY and MA.
Happy
traveling,
Peggy (+George & Coco)
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