It may be Columbus Day weekend but I have a
summer post I haven't gotten around to sharing, so press
PAUSE on autumn for
a moment and come along on a little end-of-summer adventure.
I've featured Essex, CT in my blog before, a few times in fact, but I have a couple of new Essex treasures to share, ones too good to miss. Essex is a pretty tiny vacation destination, but it is the perfect destination for a short getaway. Just three hours from the Capital Region, Essex is a quaint smalltown-America town seated on the banks of the Connecticut River.
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| Is this not the perfect Colonial town? |
Even though Essex is tiny, it's loaded with great places to eat, sleep and be entertained so when John and I were looking for a quick, two-day getaway....it was a no-brainer that Essex was just the place! Since it was off season, (we went mid-September) we were able to get a room at our favorite Connecticut B & B - the Copper Beech Inn, located in Ivoryton, CT. I've featured this beautiful B & B in the blog before so you can read more about it later (link will be at the end of this post). We loved it last year and we love it still. My first thought when we checked into our room was, "We can't just stay one night!!!". This room, located in the Comstock House, beckons you to stay, and stay. Guests at the Copper Beech can either stay in the Main House, the Carriage House where we stayed last year, or the Comstock House.
The only thing better than the accommodations at the Copper Beech is the food. In all my years (and that's many) I've never had better scrambled eggs. You're probably thinking eggs are eggs, but trust me....these are not just eggs. I don't know what the chef does, but these eggs are fluffy and flavorful. I tried to get his secret, but even the manager can't pry it out of the chef! Whatever you're doing, Bravo! I'll forever be disappointed in average scrambled eggs!
If I lived in the area, I'd be there weekly just for breakfast. I hear their dinners are out of this world too. Our bed was comfy and the Inn quiet - just what you want on a getaway retreat.
We were really hoping to take a cruise on the Mary E Schooner but unfortunately since it was off-season and a weekday, not enough passengers showed up so the Mary E didn't sail. That was a bummer. Lucky for us the Mary E is part of the Connecticut River Museum so to ease our disappointment (since we'd called before coming to CT to see if the Mary E was sailing), we were given complimentary tickets to the museum. We hadn't visited the museum on our previous visit and Trip Advisor rates it very highly, so we were more than happy to check it out. It was easy to see why it has great reviews. Here's a peek at a little of what's hidden inside:
Click on any photo to view in a larger format. Just hit your 'back' button to come back to the blog.
Two of the big attractions for tourists to Essex are the Essex Steam Train & Riverboat Ride - which I wrote about in a previous post, and Gillette Castle, also in a previous post. While we really loved both of these, we'd just done both a year ago so we were looking for something new to do. After enjoying dinner at our favorite local eaterie - Lenny & Joe's Fish Tale (where the fried shrimp is the best you can find), we asked our waitress where to go to catch the sunset. You probably know I'm a sucker for a good sunset. She asked another waitress who is into photography and she suggested we go down the road a bit to Hammonasset State Park. Well, photography a factor or not....that suggestion hit the jackpot. What a beautiful place! Because it was post Labor Day, admission was free - nice perk, combined with the fact that it was a weekday evening which meant the beach wasn't crowded. It was early but this was indeed the perfect sunset location, so we waited. While we waited we met a lovely gentlemen who was also there for photo ops. We got to chatting and it seems our new acquaintance, Terry Wild, is a professional photographer who has been in the business for many years and actually sells and licenses his work in the stock photography market. You can check out his work at
www.terrywildstock.com We had a great visit once again proving this blog has introduced me to some great people I would not have otherwise met. The sunset was no less exciting and Hammonasset State Park is definitely on our list of stops for every future Essex visit. Here's a few photos ....
The next day we tried again to go out on the Mary E and again - not enough passengers - so we explored around town and got lunch at our favorite deli - Olive Oyl's. We drove back to Hammonasset and found that about a million other people had the same idea so parking was a challenge. We headed down the coast and came upon Guilford, CT and the Henry Whitfield House, built in 1639. There's a lot of history in New England.
From one era to another, we came across this not-so-historic home,
built by architect Wilfred Armster...
You might imagine a place like this stirred up a little controversy in a quaint colonial town and it did. Read about it in this article:
http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20141011/30-years-later-guilford-architect-reflects-on-controversial-spaceship-design
Also in Guilford.....
If you're looking for a great little place for a quick getaway for two or three days, head on over to Essex, CT. Book yourself a room at the Copper Beech Inn and spend a few leisurely days checking out this beautiful area. I know you'll love it and will want to go back again and again. For more information on the Copper Beech Inn and the Essex Steam Train, Gillette Castle and the village of Essex, check out my previous blog posts, links below.
Thanks for reading and letting me share my Life As I See It.
http://www.lifeasiseeitphotography.net/2015/07/trains-riverboats-and-castles-summer.html
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