Until We Meet Again, Connecticut

Posted on January 8, 2012 by LifeAbsorbed

Alas, my two weeks was up and like all vacations, it had to end. It was so great seeing friends, family, museums, art galleries, hikes, shops, on and on. It was definitely a full two weeks and yet I still have a long list of places I need to see when Im back, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Around 3:30p last night, my parents took me up to Bradley International Airport in Hartford. It was as the sun was setting so it made for a beautiful drive.

After checking in at the airport, I got to take a peak at their puppet display. All these puppets are from the Ballard Institute + Museum of Puppetry in Storrs, CT (aka UCONN).

They were a little creepy, but reminded me of the tv show “Mr. Rogers”.

Once my dad parked the car, he joined me and my mom and we walked over to the Sheraton Hotel that is connected to the airport. They have a great little bar/cafe space called Cloud Nine Bar, and we love to stop in and chat and eat before having to say goodbye to guests (me in this case).

Since the bar started carrying craft beers, I had to indulge. I ordered the Smuttynose Robust Porter which was super smooth and delicious.

I had to share the above picture with you. After finishing our food we walked over to security where we bumped into this bad boy. It’s a lego replica of the Mark Twain House, which seems fitting given my recent visit there (see that post HERE).

So what’s left for my next trip to CT? What didn’t I accomplish? Why, I’m glad you asked!

- The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center (in Hartford)
- East Rock (in New Haven)
- Sally’s Apizza (in New Haven)
- The Connecticut Science Center (in HArtford)
- Drive along the coast and visit the cute “downtowns” of all the small coastal towns.
- Walk around Yale more! See the Yale Art Gallery.
- The Wadsworth Atheneum (in Hartford)
- Catch a show at the Yale Repertory Theatre, or the Goodspeed Opera House, or the Long Wharf Theater.
- Visit Mohegan’s Museum (my parents spoke so highly of it)

New Haven Part III: Pepe’s Pizza

Posted on January 8, 2012 by LifeAbsorbed

After leaving the Yale Center for British Art (discussed HERE), we continued on to get an early dinner. New Haven is known for their pizza places. Just the other day I tried Modern Apizza (see that post HERE), which was my first taste of New Haven pizza. We decided to try Sally’s (or Sal’s as it’s also called.. at least by me and my friends) Apizza on Wooster Street. Sally’s only downfall is that she didn’t open until 5pm on Friday, and as we had a jam-packed schedule, we needed to eat before then. So we continued down Wooster St. past Sally’s where we hit Pepe’s Pizza, which s one (if not the) most famous New Haven pizza place. Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Robin Williams, Bill Murry, Danny DeVito, and even “The Fonz” have enjoyed Pepe’s Pizza when they’ve stopped in New Haven. If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for us! Check out this article to learn more about the pizza places in New Haven.

Pepe’s doesn’t have a huge amount of seating so it’s typical to have to wait to eat, but come in at 4pm on a Friday and you get your pick of seating. From our both we could see them loading pizzas into the GIANT oven.

We ordered a large pizza for three of us, knowing there would be leftovers for our fourth person (Jess) who had to work on Friday. We decided to do half cheese, half veggie, which was an awesome selection. The standard cheese side was so yummy and the veggie side was loaded with all types of veggies. They didn’t scrimp on the toppings.

They carry Foxon Park soda (which is made in Connecticut) so I had to indulge in a delicious cream soda. It just felt right. I have to say, I liked this pizza more than Modern. Don’t get me wrong, Modern was tasty but there was something in this pizza that made it really awesome. That ingredient is probably more fat (haha) but still, if you’re gonna do it, do it right.

The reason we ate so early is because we needed to leave New Haven and drive up to South Windsor for Jess and Lexy’s hockey game. That’s right, my two tiny Asian twin friends play hockey and are AMAZING at it. They are both working full-time in the medical industry until there is a major woman’s professional hockey league (which they would dominate at), in the meantime they just save lives. Yes, you could call them superheroes and that would be accurate.

I had to include photos from the game, because they played so well. The above photo is Lexy who scored 1 goal.

The above picture is Jess, who scored three goals. The overall score was 6 to 0, with the twins scoring 4 of the 6 goals! How impressive is that?!

I also need to include this photo. Lexy would be the one sitting in the penalty box (or the naughty time-out chair, as Mike and I called it). We all weren’t sure why she ended up in there (for being a hockey badass? Is that a crime?).

New Haven Part II: The Yale Center for British Art

Posted on January 7, 2012 by LifeAbsorbed

After we finished in the Cushing Center (see post HERE) our New Haven expedition continued..

We walked around Yale some more (hoping to happen upon a secret society of course). The above picture is of the Yale Repertory Theater where many great actors have performed while honing their craft.

We also passed the Yale Art and Architecture Building (designed by Paul Rudolph in 1963). This was a nice contrast for my recent trip to Harvard where I got to see their Architecture GSD building.

We decided to pop into the Yale Center for British Art which is FREE. Their other art museum across the street is also FREE. My next visit will involve a trip to this museum. It will also involve more Yale/New Haven exploring because there is so much to see.

Photography was probably not allowed (and there were guards EVERYWHERE) but I still snagged a few shots.. cause I’m badass as you already know.

We were running tight on time, so once we explored the 4 floors of the museum it was time to move on. I enjoyed the building more than the art (designed by Louis Kahn), but I’m more of a modern art lover so I knew this wasn’t really my genre going into it.

We continued with a quick stop to the main Yale Library (very Hogwarts) and then looped back to the car. We walked through the New Haven Green where Occupy New Haven/Wall Street was in full force. These campers are in it for the long haul, and clearly New Haven Police haven’t made them move yet like in other cities. The Green has public restrooms which makes it much more sanitary than in other cities. We passed what looked like Yale student journalists interviewing members of the camp. I liked the waving flag in the campsite.

New Haven Part I: The Yale Cushing Center (BRAINS!)

Posted on January 7, 2012 by LifeAbsorbed

I hope you will pardon that there was no Weekend Guide posted on Friday. Since I am still on vaca, I’ve been out exploring and I’m a little behind on the times. But don’t fret, I’ll be back on the horse (that’s an expression right?) for next weekend. I’ll be back in LA tonight and back to my usual shenanigans. But before I head back, I need to update you on the rest of my Connecticut trip. On Friday I went to New Haven with my friends Mike and Lexy and it was so epic, I’ll need to spread it out over a few posts. So here’s part 1!

We started by walking down College Street to get to the Yale Nursing Library. New Haven isn’t big on food trucks (that I saw) but they do have a lot of food carts. You can see in the above picture, all the vendors line College St. waiting for the hungry Yale students to get a break from class.

This is the front of the Nursing School Library. Unfortunately, you have to be a nursing student to get in so you can’t just stop in. But thankfully my good friend Mike is a student and hooked us up.

I’m not sure what room in the library this was, but it was completely silent in there and it had the quintessential Ivy League look. Very Hogswart (for you Potter nerds).

As we descended down to The Cushing Center (aka. the BRAIN room!) we got lower and lower in the building, even passing a skeleton!

It was very quiet and we were alone as we entered The Cushing Center.

This dimley lit room was filled with brains! Jars with brains lined the entire room with 3 or 4 rows. It was so cool/creepy.

This was like something out of a movie and it was awesome. Better than any secret society we could’ve stumbled upon.

Hubbard Park + Castle Craig

Posted on January 4, 2012 by LifeAbsorbed

Despite the extremely cold day, me and my good friends Jess and Mike ventured out on a hike. It was fun but coooold (I’m still regaining feelings in my fingers). I didn’t really know about Castle Craig’s existence until I went to Hubbard Park on Christmas day to see their Christmas light display (which I blogged about HERE). Get ready for a ton of pics!

After doing a little online sleuthing, I found this MAP to the trail that I took. So we met in Hubbard park and followed the white path (as we only had 2 hours to spend here) on a pretty low-key hike. Only a 700 foot stretch up to the castle was steep, the rest was a pretty graceful incline. No hiking boots necessary and great for the family.

We began by watching the ducks in Mirror Lake. I love the mini-Castle Craig model in the middle of the lake (it’s a duck palace!)

A lot of the hike is woodsy like this image. It’s a fun change for me, especially since you can tell by the photos that it’s frigid out there. The white trail is also heavily marked, so no need to worry about going off on the wrong path.