The Best of My Fall Photos...In Connecticut!

I can only describe the beautiful foliage in my neck of the woods so much.  As fall comes to a close is Connecticut, I find myself celebrating over 150,000 views of this blog.  I also find myself in the middle of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and being diagnosed with breast cancer.  If you are one of my regular readers, know that I will write when I can.  I have to have some things done, and I will be excited when I can get back to my blog.

In the meantime, I thought I would post some of my best foliage shots from this amazing fall that was actually enhanced by a drought.  Life is strange.  No water, but great foliage and warm, sunny weather.  The above pictures are from Apple Hill Trail at White Memorial in Litchfield, Connecticut.  This is a non state funded land trust with dozens of trails, lakes and ponds, a museum and nature center.  Programs for the kids and conservation happen there as well.  White Memorial has some really great trails, but Apple Hill is my favorite.  You can stop in at the main park and get trail maps pretty much any time of the year.  Fall is my favorite though.

We went to Bethlehem's Garlic Festival and Riverton's Country Fair this year.  Bethlehem is one of Connecticut's tiny towns where there are a lot of festivals, a great flea market, and huge lines of people mailing their Christmas Cards in December.  There is nothing but cute in this little berg and a bunch of friendly people to make your visit great.  Their country fair takes place the weekend after Labor Day and the Garlic Festival takes place every Columbus Day Weekend.  They are two of my favorite local events.

Riverton is a historic town, and if you've ever heard of Hitchcock Furniture; that's where it comes from.  Riverton holds it's country fair every Columbus Day Weekend, and it is one of the smallest fairs in the state.  It's still a great time, and the town adds craft fairs and community theater as part of the attraction.  If you've ever wanted to take the weekend, stay in a historic inn, eat some great food and homemade ice cream, go to a fair, shop a craft fair and just relax; you need to spend Columbus Day in Riverton, Connecticut.  The foliage on Columbus Day is very dramatic as well.

Another jaunt that I took was to Meriden and Hubbard Park and Castle Craig.  I've mentioned this place before, but in mid October they put on a carnival and food truck festival in Hubbard Park to celebrate fall, and the cliffs above around Castle Craig are some of the most beautiful spots in the whole state.  I love to look at the foliage from up there.  Can you blame me?  The park is also one of the most beautiful city parks in the state, and Meriden is a friendly community with a lot of theater, food and their mall is mostly a discount place.  That's great because I can afford to shop there.  In the winter, come and see the amazing drive through Christmas Light display in Hubbard Park as well.

It's Collinsville, Connecticut.  This is my favorite little hidey hole in the whole world I think.  I love to got to Collinsville to rent a canoe and take it on the river, see some theater, shop for antiques, walk along the amazing river walk, take pictures, and eat at Lasalle's.  This is the quintessential small town full of quiet people and hipsters.  The scenery is some of the best around, and in the fall it is simply off the charts.  It's close to Canton and Avon where there is plenty of shopping and restaurants as well.  It's one of my favorite places to take pictures.

Haystack Mountain is one of the prettier state parks in Connecticut and sits in Norfolk.  There are several state parks in and around that town, which I discussed earlier this summer.  Check the blog entry about Norfolk to read more.  I finally got a chance to hike to the top of this amazing mountain, and found a great tower built in 1929 to celebrate Connecticut's lands above 1,000 feet in elevation.  The tower has stairs up the inside that go to an amazing observation area and the views of the surrounding areas is fabulous.  I always wondered where the aerial views of Norfolk came from.  I think they just come from that tower.

So, the area that I live in is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.  Especially in the fall.  I hope you get a chance to enjoy it some time like I do.  I will leave you with some shots that I also took in Mass this fall around the Bridge of Flowers in Shelbourne Falls.  I hope to be back soon.  Wish me luck!

Have a great fall and Enjoy!

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Fall in Lake George New York

It's fall, and those in the know come to the Northeast to look at the foliage.  We have it all out here when it comes to color, but as I've said many times, we also have activities.  Lake George is a great stop in the fall.  You would think that after Labor Day, things would slow down, but not so.  There are still a lot of things to do here in the fall and it goes until sometime in October.  The leaves are really the judge of that.

It's true that my latest visit to the Lake was dreary, so the pictures aren't perfect, and it's true that I was working; but it was gorgeous.  The boats are running, there are festivals every weekend, the activities in Lake George Village are still up and running, and the leaves are beautiful.  It's important to remember that even if the resort town of Lake George doesn't get your motor running, then the rest of the area might.  Lake George is just the gateway to the mighty Adirondack Mountains.  This is one of the most scenic mountain ranges anywhere.  The granite peaks are outstanding, and a lot of them are accessible without the overnight hike.  There are tons of places where you can enjoy their splendor by tram, train, gondola, or road.  There are fabulous places to visit like Ausable Chasm and Lake Placid.  Then there are the lakes like Lake George, Lake Luzerne, Lake Placid, and Lake Champlain.  If you love nature, you shouldn't miss this show in the fall.

Then there is the history.  There are two forts in the Lake George area.  There's Fort William Henry which is right along the waterfront in Lake George Village.  They have live history for you and they even fire off their cannon.  That fort also comes with a resort hotel that has great prices in the off season.  It leaves you just up a set of stairs from the waterfront and downtown and makes your parking a lot easier.  But, for my money, the fort to visit is Fort Ticonderoga.  Sure, you have to drive to the other end of the lake, but it's one of the most scenic drives in the northeast and the Fort is fabulous.

This behemoth of a fort operated in the 1750's.  It's huge, it sprawls all over and it has a great view of the north end of the lake.  There are all kinds of demonstrations on the weekends through October.  They have cows and chickens running about and when we were there they also had horses and alpacas.  They have festivals into October and it's fun.

There's a myth that the north just shuts down and freezes over after summer.  But at Fort Ticonderoga and most of the northeast, the vegetables are still growing, the formal gardens are still blooming and the people are still celebrating the season.  The horse festival at the Fort even had live entertainment.  It was a really good time and well worth the drive for any number of reasons from the view to the great little restaurants along the way, the Teepee Gift Shop which I love to peruse and some outdoor stuff as well.

The town of Ticonderoga has a great city park with covered bridges and gazebos and such.  It looks particularly pretty this time of year with the foliage kicking in, but it also has some fabulous.  It has a great waterfall.  For any of you waterfall hunters out there like me, this is one worth going to see.  I really enjoyed it.

There are a million things to do in the Adirondack Region in the fall, and it should not be missed.  I didn't really care about the weather, although I did want more pictures.  But, the food is good, the live entertainment is still going, the House of Frankenstein is still going.  A & W Root Beer is still open.  All the mini golfs are still open.  They have a haunted house that's open all the time, so Halloween is great around there.  You can still ride all the boats and eat on all the decks as well.  It's a great time to go and see the trees, enjoy the discounts, and have some fun before winter really does come and shut it all down until spring.  Don't miss Columbus Day Weekend here.  It's truly about the last bash of the year, and the trees are the stars of the show.  Enjoy!

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Hubbard Park and Castle Craig...Welcome to my indepth look at CT in Meriden!

It's Castle Craig.  It's the very first tourist attraction that I visited on my very first visit to Connecticut.  It was one of the reasons that I fell in love with Connecticut.  It sits above Hubbard Park in Meriden Connecticut.

Walter Hubbard donated the castle and the land of the park to the city back in 1900.  As the marker says, no one know as much as they would like to about the castle that is more of just a turret.  What it does is give you an amazing view off the top of the mountain, and on a clear day you can see Long Island Sound.  You can also see many other things.

You can see the city, the park below, the highway going by, and the rest of the park which includes a reservoir, trails, roads and the whole top of the mountain.  It's an incredible spot, and in the fall it becomes truly amazing.  I was there a little early for the peak season foliage, but it was still gorgeous up there.  You can climb the metal stairs to the top for an even more spectacular view.  It is a well visited park, and just like every other well visited spot in Connecticut, it has had it's issues in the past.

The entrance to the mountain and the Castle is directly under I-691 in Hubbard Park.  Hubbard Park is exit 4 in Meriden off of I-691.  The entrance is gated and closes at 4:45 pm every day.  It opens at 10 am every day.  This is strictly enforced because of safety issues that have come up in the past.  If you try to drive to the top of the mountain after 4:45, park officials will run you down and ask you to leave, because they are about to close the gate for the night.  It happened to me once.  Oops!  But, during the day, you can't beat the view.

That being said, the rest of Hubbard Park is spectacular as well.  They have an outdoor pool for summer, they have an amphitheater for concerts, they have one of the best playscapes around, they have an amazing lake with fountains and a house for the ducks and geese to use when it's cold.  The park is beautifully designed with pretty buildings, bridges, ponds, waterfalls, fountains, pavilions, and trails.  Just driving through the park on it's many little roads is scenic and peaceful.  It is my favorite city park in the state.  In the winter they have one of the best drive through Christmas light displays that I have ever seen.  I rarely if ever drive to a city more than one time to go to a park.  Aside from Central Park in New York City, Hubbard Park is the only park that I revisit any time I get the chance.  It's all worth the visit over and over again so check it out.

That's the official word.  That being said, when you drive the road to the castle, there is a point where it splits.  The left goes to the castle, and the right goes to the utility towers on the other section of the mountain.  You need to visit that part.  If you like a great view, this is your best spot.  The views from the unofficial trails next to the utility towers provides the best views off the mountain.  The cliffs are dramatic and this spot is not for the feint of heart. It's a long way straight down.  But, if you like landscape shots with your camera, you can't miss this.  None of the trails are long, and it's like nothing you'll see anywhere else in Connecticut.  I highly recommend these trails, especially during foliage season. It is all part of the same road, however, and that means that you need to be out by 4:45 pm.

So, the town is Meriden.  Not far from the park is a discount mall with great shopping.  Meriden has great restaurants and is an Amtrak stop if you want to take a train.  It is a working man's city with beautiful old churches and big old factories, but the park is where everyone gets away from it all.  Hubbard Park and Castle Craig is one of the great spots in Connecticut to get out and not spend a dime.  There is no entrance fee to the park or the castle or the rest of the mountain or the drive.  It's the perfect place to come, relax, have fun with the family and enjoy the view.  If you feel the urge to walk right over a major interstate or hike to the top of the mountain, there are trails that do that too.

So, whether it's a drive or a walk, a picnic or a swim, a Christmas visit or a stop to feed the birds; Hubbard Park and Castle Craig is one of those places that you just shouldn't miss.  It's my personal oldest attraction that I've visited in the state, and I keep coming back.  Enjoy!

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When You've Had Enough Beer at Oktoberfest, Get Out of Munich and See Some Castles!

It's coming up on October, and that means one thing around the world.  It's time to have a beer and celebrate Oktoberfest.  And, there's no place quite like the origin of the festival to celebrate; Munich, Germany.  More than a million people visit this festival every fall however, and it gets a bit rowdy and crowded.  It's great to party, but sometimes it's good to take a break and go to see something else.  I mean, you've gone all the way to Germany, you should take in some sights.

There's a museum in Hohenschwangau that tells you what you need to know before you go out to see palaces and castles.  The Museum of Bavarian Kings tells you all about just that.  From Medieval times to the early 1900's the family Wittelsbach ruled Germany, and the most notorious of kings was Ludwig II.  Why might that name ring a bell?

Ludwig II was known by many nicknames, but the most famous one was the Mad King.  Ludwig II is infamous for building Neuschwanstein Castle.  The castle was designed to be something right out of a fairy tale.  He succeeded.

Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the most famous castles in the world.  There are more pictures of it on postcards and puzzles than any other castle.  It wasn't ever fully finished and it was still being built when Ludwig died.  Today it is a famous tourist attraction, and a great day trip from Munich.

Linderhof was another one of Ludwig's palaces.  I bet you didn't even know the guy had more than one.  This one is smaller than Neuschwanstein and easier to get to.  It has a fabulous fountain and a grotto.  What it isn't, is finished.  Ludwig was the last of the kings and the one who spent all the money.  So it goes.  But, the palace here looks finished.  It's just that the original design called for a much bigger palace.  You will enjoy the grandeur though and the elaborate decor as well.

Just like the French palaces, Ludwig made each room a showpiece, including the bedrooms.  Linderhof is another great day trip from Munich.

If the fact that Ludwig II had two palaces built isn't enough of a surprise for you, there is Herrenchiemsee or the new palace.  This one was modeled after Versailles.  The French set the standards in Europe for palace building up to and including the 1800's.  Ludwig II wanted to keep up.

Once again, this palace isn't quite finished, but what is is amazing.  The staircase is one of it's best features.  Once again, the bedrooms are also out of this world and the ballroom is outstanding.

So, Munich is home to the world's first and most famous Oktoberfest.  Second, you can only drink so much beer and endure so many crowds of rowdy people.  Third, Bavaria is home to some beautiful Alps and amazing people, so you should get out and see it all.  Fourth, Ludwig II aka the Mad King made some incredible castles and palaces.  Fifth, you can include a trip to Oberammergau while you're out and if you get to go on a decade year like 2020; you will have a chance to see the Passion.  That's the reenactment of some of the passion of the Christ.  They only do it every ten years, so if you aren't going in 2020, you won't get to see the play.

There are a ton of things to do in Bavaria.  It seems like a shame to miss it if you've come all that way to go to Oktoberfest.  So, make sure you save a little time to get out of Munich and see the countryside.  Europe is full of castles and palaces.  This is a really interesting cluster of them and their history is something that fairy tales come from.  So, take the time to check out the fairy castles of Ludwig II and the history of the kings of Bavaria.  Enjoy!


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