Category: Weekend Update!

This weekend Jen and I took a ride on the Essex Dinner Train. This adventure, like so many others this summer, spawned from our Connecticut guide book.

The evening began at 4:30 when we arrived at the train station. We boarded the train and were greeted with some fresh vegetables and some tasty dip.

At 5:00pm promptly, the train began racing along its route at a fierce 10mph. Honestly, anything more would have resulted in a mess of tableware and spilled beverages. The train ride was two and a half hours long and included a salad, warm rolls, dinner (choice of stuffed chicken, prime rib, seafood something or other, and pasta primavera), and a dessert of chocolate cake and coffee.

The ride took us mostly along the Connecticut River going North to Hadlyme and turning around just past the Goodspeed Opera House.

I strongly recommend this adventure. It’s a bit pricey at $75 a head, but massively fun!

Oh Dang! I got food poisoning last week! It was really gross!

But to continue with the previous story, last weekend Jen and I hit up some ziplines. We purchased the tickets the day before the event and unfortunately the only time slot available was an 8:20am departure. This was extra annoying because the zipline headquarters in Deerfield, MA is 90 minutes away.

Amazingly, however, this turned into a huge benefit. While the normal zipline group is 8 persons strong, no one else had signed up for this 8:20 slot. Jen and I got a personal tour! This included a few opportunities to re-do some of the extra fun zip lines and a lot of fun chatting time with our guides.

If you’re curious about my helmet name-tag, they asked if we wanted secret names for this event. I asked to be Sting.

Something I didn’t expect about Zip lining: it’s really not that intense. I don’t mean that as being a negative, it’s mega fun! But, it’s hardly an adrenaline infused event at all. That said, this place’s longest zipline was somewhere in the 700ft long range. Our fastest speeds were around 35mph. I’m sure a mountain top zipline might be a bit more extreme than our canopy tour in the Berkshires.

Cost: ~$100 per person.
Event length: 11 ziplines and a few rappels.
For a normal group time = 3h. two people: time = 90min

I checked out a Red Sox/Yankees game at Yankee Stadium this weekend. It wasn’t the game that was the most impressive, it was this picture taken with a smart phone.

I applaud the photographer’s skills. He led the jets knowing the rough delay time of his camera and everything turned out great!

This had me thinking: Jets are pretty sweet… but aren’t they a little cliche?

Wouldn’t it be awesome if you never knew what was going to buzz the field? It’d be another whole element to the game anticipation. One of the guys at the game said he’s seen apache helicopters buzz the Patriot’s field. Still… I bet they could get more creative.

747s, hot air balloons, hang gliders, a swarm of remote control short range bi-planes, blimps, skydivers, Unmanned Predator drones, a pedal powered ornithopter, paragliders, wingsuit divers…

Way more awesome.

I recently received in the mail my very own copy of Eric D Lehman’s “Insiders’ Guide to Connecticut.” I heard it being talked about on the radio and thought it might be fun to explore in greater depth the place where I live.

For a very long time I have disliked Connecticut. There are all sorts of things going against it. I think it lying between New York and Boston lessens the need to have a local cultural hub here. Public critics frequently point to the state’s high taxes as reasons younger folks abandon this state (remember this MikeDiDonato post?). And it’s natural strength pales compared to its neighbors (mountains? NH. Skiing? VT. Beaches? RI and MA) All in all, sometimes it feels a bit drab here.

Still, Connecticut is growing on me. And Lehman’s book is going to most certainly tip me over the edge into the Connecticut fan-base. This past weekend at Eric’s recommendations Jen and I checked out the Hill-stead museum, Shady Glen’s hamburger joint, Roaring brook falls, and Sweet Claude’s Ice cream joint. There were gardens and hiking trails and delicious eats! All within 20 minutes of our abodes! Who knew?!

Obviously, Jen and I have started an excel spreadsheet. The highlights will be shown here.