What a weekend. My sister came to visit for a mini-vacation sans her family. She needed a little R and R given all the excitement that she has had this past year; packing and moving your family to another state can be very stressful. It was a good time for her to visit given that October is her birthday month, Halloween is her favorite holiday, and it is also peak foliage season in New England. She flew in on Thursday and I picked her up in New York. We celebrated her birthday that night with a jack o'lantern cake that Ross made. It was cute and tasty. He also made coq au vin for her first meal here-it was mighty delicious. We were all stuffed afterwards (which given how much we ate this weekend it might as well be its unofficial theme).
We started Friday with a tour of the property and afterwards headed to breakfast at the local diner down the road. Next we had lots of fun; Ross and my sister went shopping on the Litchfield green while I went to a dental appointment to fix one of my crowns (note to all kids out there-take care of your teeth because having dental work done is not fun and is not cheap). During their shopping excursion my sister found a couple of small knick-knacks the she bought in one of the antique stores. Happy birthday to her! After my appointment we met up for lunch and then checked out the sights. We stopped at the local potter. Amazingly I left empty handed although there was something there that I wanted; for once my self control kicked in (I can control my addiction I swear). We also took her to the Averill apple orchard in Washington to get some apple cider doughnuts which were yummy. It was a chilly and blustery day so we headed home to warm up. Ross filled our bellies with beef goulash. We had a relaxing evening before hitting the hay.
I had a couple of events planned for Saturday. The first was a ride on the historic Naugatuck Railroad. We took a 75 minute ride in a circa 1920s railroad passenger car along the Naugatuck River. It was fun and a nice way to see the sights and get some historical information about the area. There was a little boy about to turn two with his grandfather next to us. The boy was dressed in all his Thomas the Train gear. I think he lasted about ten minutes before the rattling of the car caused him to fall fast asleep. He woke up as the train pulled into the station. It was so cute. I could understand because the train made me feel the same way.
After the train ride we went looking for a place to have lunch. I will say that this was more of a chore than I expected, and I have crossed one local eatery off my list for good due to poor customer service (when you tell me that I can't be served at 2:55 PM because the deli closes at 3 PM at least try to tell me nicely and not act like me trying to spend my hard earned money in your establishment is such an inconvenience-cough, cough Nine Main in New Preston, CT). After finding a place to eat we headed to a local rustic, country shop where my sister was able to purchase an herb drying rack. She really liked ours so we took her to the source.
We spent Saturday evening visiting the Glebe House in Woodbury. This is a historical house, now museum, that had a special Halloween tour (I believe one guide said it was the ninth year for this event). The house was candlelit and they had actors in each room. This was not a fright-fest but more an educational endeavor. The actors portrayed the ghosts of early residents of the house including the first owners. It should be noted that this house was where the American Episcopalian Church was founded, so making it a haunted house would have been in poor taste. After the house tour we went to the nearby cemetery where there where more actors who portrayed some of the more famous and infamous characters in the town's history (in most cases right next to where the residents were buried). It was a beautiful night with luminaries leading the way and a full moon hanging brightly in the sky. The actors did a good job too. I would recommend going to this next year if you can make it to the area and like historical tours and such.
My sister left today so we had a quick breakfast this morning, loaded up the car, and headed back to New York so she could make her flight. All the driving really took the wind out of my sails; I ended up taking a 2 1/2 hour nap once we got home. We had a lot of fun, and it was nice to get some one-on-one time with my sister. And now, I should probably go and make sure Ross is awake since I haven't heard him stirring in a bit. I think he might be curled up with Bootsy on the couch.
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