weekend drive

Ever since we moved to the east coast we've wanted to go on a fall foliage tour but the timing was never right until this year. We decided if we didn't get away this weekend then we would miss the peak season and we wanted to make sure we were seeing the leaves at their best. After reading several fall foliage tips and some recommendations from friends we planned our route. We knew we would be doing a lot of driving and I know roads can get a little confusing out here in New England so I was worried about getting around. There are only so many different directions you can print off from mapquest, so we decided to splurge and purchase a TomTom (GPS). I must say this is probably the BEST purchase we have made in a long time. We felt that TomTom wasn't a good name for the device seeing how it was a women speaking to us, so Jason went ahead and renamed her Vicki, and she quickly became our new best friend. Usually it's me telling Jason where to go and then I forget to tell him to turn and then we are both mad at each other, but with Vicki telling us where to go, we were able to sit back and enjoy the ride.

I can't begin to tell you how much I loved this trip. I know it was just driving through New England but I can honestly say that it is at the top of my list. The trees were AMAZING. Just driving down the freeway got me excited so you can imagine how I was when we started driving through all the quaint little towns. We were going to go apple picking but then we found the Danbury Railroad Museum that takes you on a train ride to a pumpkin patch and we thought that would be fun. The trains were cute and we got to go on a turntable but the pumpkin patch was nothing special.

We then continued on through New Milford, New Preston, Kent, West Cornwall and Litchfield. As we passed through each little town there was always a cute little church in the center and after a while we began using the steeple as a landmark to reach the center of each town. As we were driving through New Preston we found Lake Waramaug and stopped to take a look. It was breathtaking. The vibrant colors of the trees looked amazing as they reflected off of the glass lake. As we drove around it the weather was perfect and we were able to roll down our windows and enjoy the breeze. For some reason I really wanted to see a covered bridge. I don't know if it's because of the movie Bridges of Madison County, but I've always wanted to see a covered bridge. Jason didn't share my enthusiasm but his attitude soon changed when we drove through it and into to the cute little town of West Cornwall.

After taking several pictures of the bridge and surrounding homes we got back into our zipcar and let Vicki take us to the village of Litchfield. I had read so much about the beautiful Litchfield Hills and couldn't wait to see the leaves. Before we left I made sure I had meals planned ahead and had read about the West Street Grill in Litchfield. It was right on the cute little main street so we stopped and shared a bowl of none other then ... New England Clam Chowder (so appropriate). Litchfield is also home to the first law school in America, Litchfield Law school, which would have been fun to see, but I realized we forgot to see it as we were half way to Bristol. In Bristol we were going to go to the Haunted Graveyard but it looked a little childish so we decided to head back to our hotel and rest after our eventful day.

The next day we drove down to Westport and enjoyed a wonderful brunch on the water as we watched the local fishermen make their daily catch. We then drove up through Weston and Jason was able to see where I nannied. I wouldn't let him drive right up to the house but I showed him where I took the kids and where I did the grocery shopping and he couldn't believe that this is where I lived. We continued on to Greenwich and drove down their cute little main street with it's many shops and restaurants and then headed on to the creepy village of Sleepy Hallow. It's not really creepy but rather cute and very Halloweeny. Can you imagine saying that you attended Sleepy Hallow High? Here we saw the famous Old Dutch Church, saw Washington Irving's grave and crossed the Headless Horseman Bridge. We had planned to take the tour of Kykuit but all the tours were sold out for the day so we'll have to save that for next year.

I don't know if it's God's way of giving us a big bouquet of beautiful colors but the rolling hills of Connecticut are beautiful this time of year. Some of the colors were so vibrant and it was amazing to see sometimes one single tree with three or four different colors. At first I said I missed the beautiful mountains of Utah but after this weekend, I think I will be okay giving up the mountains for all these beautiful trees.

Danbury Railroad Museum




Lake Waramaug





Whistling while enjoying the beauty




The Church Steeples



West Cornwall





The many colors of fall






Sleepy Hallow



And we can't forget good old NYC