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Is anyone in CT?


MEmama
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We'll have an entire afternoon after touring UConn and I’m looking for ways to spend our time. I don’t know Connecticut at all and would love some ideas of things to explore, preferably nearish the 84 or 395 since we'll be at WPI the following day. We love history, the outdoors, and new-to-us cities. And tacos. Bonus points for great Mexican (modern New England style totally counts).

We don’t have little kids, just the college bound teen. 🙂

 

Edited by MEmama
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Hmmm -- I can't think of much in CT directly on the route between Storrs and the northern edge of CT.  Both Sturbridge (definitely good for ~2-3 hour stop) and my favorite used book store cafe in New England are right the intersection of 84 and 90 shortly after you cross into MA (you literally see my cafe up on the hill coming up 84).

If you're willing to detour a bit, Mystic (Charles Morgan, aquarium, super cute town) to the east, or Rocky Hill State Park to the west (actual mudflat with actual in-situ dinosaur prints, I've never seen anything like it anywhere else), or Mark Twain's house and the Wadsworth in Hartford, or Hill-Stead in Farmington (completely implausible impressionist collection smack in the middle of nowhere) are all worth seeing. Skip Hartford's science museum -- y'all have Boston, much better.

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Definitely Old Sturbridge Village  (near the intersection of 84 and 90/aka the Mass Pike). I can spend a better part of a day there. If you like history,  that one's a must.  Living history site set in 1830s.

Our favorite pit-stop along 84 when heading toward Hartford is Rein's Deli, which looks to be a bit south of UConn, so in the wrong direction, but only by about 10-15 min, looks like.

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Mansfield Hollow state park is a pretty place to hike. Mansfield borders Willimantic/Storrs so it would be close.

If you make the drive to Mystic you could get Mexican at Margaritas. It’s one of our favorite places to get Mexican. 
 

You won’t find much to do along 395 really. We’re mostly small towns and farm land over here with a couple of very small cities to break it up. Our biggest attractions (and about 30-45 minutes south of UConn depending on traffic) are Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun Casinos. Which do offer some great shows if you were interested in that. Actually, now that I think about it, Foxwoods has a fascinating museum that my kids have enjoyed. The Mohegan Pequot Tribal Museum isn’t too big and can be done in a couple of hours but is well done and never crowded. If you wanted to do some light hiking Lantern Hill is just around the corner or the Preston Farms Corn Maze down the road is a lot of fun. I’m sure you could find some great Mexican in the Casino. 

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I’d like to go to Mystic, but it’s way out of the way for us on this trip. We'll be doing plenty of driving as it is, and because we have various commitments our time available is choppy. 

I'm afraid I lost my opportunity for Old Sturbridge Village by not taking DS when he was younger. It always seemed just that much too far for us for a day trip, and now he won’t be interested. 

I'll keep my eye out for the bookstore cafe. Good coffee is a road trip must. 🙂 Delis are good—I don’t think we have real ones in my area—if tacos aren’t available. 🙂

Mansfield Hollow sounds like it might be a good place to hike and clear his head. 

Is Hartford worth a few hours of wandering around?

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re Hartford - I don't know when you're going... I think it's quite fun to visit when the legislative assembly is in session (starts Feb 5) -- the hearings are all open in the Legislative Office Building so you can just show up, take a look at the board of what's being discussed where, and wander into the hearing rooms and listen.  There's an underground walkway that connects the LOB to the Capitol (usually packed with lobbyists and issue groups wearing sprightly colored T shirts), and then the Capitol itself has cool exhibits.  ETA the League of Women Voters gives free daily tours when the assembly is in session, I think at 11:30.

Mark Twain's house is definitely worth seeing if you like Mark Twain.

And Hill-Stead is DEFINITELY worth seeing and nobody's ever heard of it; one of those wholly unexpected pleasures. Farmington's only another ~18 minutes once you've made your way to Hartford.

 

(Overall, though... New Haven's got more going on, art and culture wise, than Hartford.)

Edited by Pam in CT
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WPI is in Worcester?  OK, so, then, your second day in MA:  the Lowell National Historic Site (really great on textile Industrial Revolution history; and also Walden Pond.  You can actually circumambulate the whole thing musingly in about 40 minutes, pretending you're Thoreau, and then hop right back onto 395. Very efficient.

( I :wub:  college visit road trips.  I should write a book about all the bits of America I've seen with surly teenagers in eyeroling tow, lol... one more to go...)

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10 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

WPI is in Worcester?  OK, so, then, your second day in MA:  the Lowell National Historic Site (really great on textile Industrial Revolution history; and also Walden Pond.  You can actually circumambulate the whole thing musingly in about 40 minutes, pretending you're Thoreau, and then hop right back onto 395. Very efficient.

( I :wub:  college visit road trips.  I should write a book about all the bits of America I've seen with surly teenagers in eyeroling tow, lol... one more to go...)

Yes, Worcester. I think with our afternoon after UConn we'll just head up that way and hopefully find something in the city to explore. We've only driven through. 

Great suggestions—thank you! 

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12 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

WPI is in Worcester?  OK, so, then, your second day in MA:  the Lowell National Historic Site (really great on textile Industrial Revolution history; and also Walden Pond.  You can actually circumambulate the whole thing musingly in about 40 minutes, pretending you're Thoreau, and then hop right back onto 395. Very efficient.

( I :wub:  college visit road trips.  I should write a book about all the bits of America I've seen with surly teenagers in eyeroling tow, lol... one more to go...)

If you do any of this, pm me if you want and we can have coffee or something (but both of these are near 495, not 395 which is nowhere nearby - but wouldn't you have to go up 495 to get back home to Maine? So might work for on your way home?)

I was also going to ask - whyever do you think your ds would have outgrown Old Sturbridge Village?  It's in no way just for kids, definitely for all ages. Dd worked there for a year in high school as,an intern - got to dress up old-timey and everything. 

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4 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

If you do any of this, pm me if you want and we can have coffee or something (but both of these are near 495, not 395 which is nowhere nearby - but wouldn't you have to go up 495 to get back home to Maine? So might work for on your way home?)

I was also going to ask - whyever do you think your ds would have outgrown Old Sturbridge Village?  It's in no way just for kids, definitely for all ages. Dd worked there for a year in high school as,an intern - got to dress up old-timey and everything. 

Maybe it’s not that he’s outgrown it, but it won’t be the right trip. I love that kind of thing and have wanted to go for years—eventually I’ll get there! 🙂

We drive by Lowell and Walden Pond all the time, but it seems like we are always in too much of a hurry to stop. Unfortunately this trip won’t be any different. Bah! Teens and their agendas! Lol

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2 hours ago, Dotwithaperiod said:

My son’s getting his PhD at WPI. They have quite a nice, smallish museum near campus. I think it’s a bit pricey for admission( but then everything in MA seems more expensive to me than here) but if you ask on campus as a prospective student I’m pretty sure they’d give you a free pass.

Theres a very good eatery nearby, called Anzios Brick Oven. I think they jut moved from North Grafton to Northborough. I haven’t found any good Mexican restaurants, but there’s an East African cafe that’s supposed to be very good, simple, and authentic. Fatima’s. And whatever you do, do NOT eat at the Sahara restaurant. Yuck and yuck.

So East African food is NOT something we have in Maine that I know of, and is DEFINITELY something we would love to try! Thank you for the suggestion (and the warning)!

He is really excited to check out WPI, but after his disappointment at a similar school and its surrounding area, I think he now has his eyes wide open. Since your son is there, do you have any suggestions for areas of town we can check out? He knows it will be grittier than our small picturesque town and that’s totally okay, but he was shocked enough to immediately let go one of his dream schools. The Canal District looks up and coming? I don’t know Worcester at all.

 

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2 hours ago, Dotwithaperiod said:

My son’s getting his PhD at WPI. They have quite a nice, smallish museum near campus. I think it’s a bit pricey for admission( but then everything in MA seems more expensive to me than here) but if you ask on campus as a prospective student I’m pretty sure they’d give you a free pass.

Theres a very good eatery nearby, called Anzios Brick Oven. I think they jut moved from North Grafton to Northborough. I haven’t found any good Mexican restaurants, but there’s an East African cafe that’s supposed to be very good, simple, and authentic. Fatima’s. And whatever you do, do NOT eat at the Sahara restaurant. Yuck and yuck.

The only museum I know of near WPI is the Worcester Art Museum,  which is quite nice but not affiliated in any way with WPI, as far as I know. Is there another one?

And now I want to try out this Fatima's. I'll admit yo not being well-versed in Worcester eateries...

5 minutes ago, MEmama said:

So East African food is NOT something we have in Maine that I know of, and is DEFINITELY something we would love to try! Thank you for the suggestion (and the warning)!

He is really excited to check out WPI, but after his disappointment at a similar school and its surrounding area, I think he now has his eyes wide open. Since your son is there, do you have any suggestions for areas of town we can check out? He knows it will be grittier than our small picturesque town and that’s totally okay, but he was shocked enough to immediately let go one of his dream schools. The Canal District looks up and coming? I don’t know Worcester at all.

Sorry to say, Worcester is a super-blah city.  The WPI campus itself is quite nice, but I honestly can't think of one cute or particularly interesting part of the city to point out.  My mom heads into Worcester for some cultural stuff, pretty much that's the aforementioned art museum and concerts and other performances at the Hanover theater. There's a big ugly convention center where stuff comes too. I've never been to the Canal District you mention,  but I have a hard time putting 'up and coming' and Worcester in the same sentence,  lol. 

All that said, my dd loved WPI itself, and would have been thrilled to attend if they'd given her enough merit aid for us to afford it...

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For younger kids (not your teen DS), the EcoTarium is pretty cool. And our whole family still collectively mourns the closing of the Higgins Armory. 

 

We like the Worcester Art Museum, and if there's a "Brown Bag Concert" going on at Mechanics Hall (long shot, I know), those are pretty fantastic!

If you do visit Mark Twain's house in Hartford, Harriet Beecher Stowe's house is right across the parking lot (if your DS is into history or architecture at all). And the Cabelas in Hartford has a huge bargain cave, though you likely have opportunities like that closer to home, LOL.

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47 minutes ago, Dotwithaperiod said:

Oh, I know the museum isn’t a part of the campus, I must have worded it wrong. WPI gives out free passes, tho, that’s how my son and I went. We’ve gone several times.

Cool, I didn't know they gave out passes!  I've been to that museum so many times, I wouldn't think to ask the school about it...

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2 hours ago, Lucy the Valiant said:

For younger kids (not your teen DS), the EcoTarium is pretty cool. And our whole family still collectively mourns the closing of the Higgins Armory. 

 

We like the Worcester Art Museum, and if there's a "Brown Bag Concert" going on at Mechanics Hall (long shot, I know), those are pretty fantastic!

If you do visit Mark Twain's house in Hartford, Harriet Beecher Stowe's house is right across the parking lot (if your DS is into history or architecture at all). And the Cabelas in Hartford has a huge bargain cave, though you likely have opportunities like that closer to home, LOL.

Forgot about the Ecotarium - but that is more a younger kid thing.  The Worcester Art Museum took a bunch of the Higgins collection, I think (although I don't remember seeing any of it last I was there - did I miss it or forget it or is it stored?)  Higgins Armory was cool.  I also mourn.

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