In the morning, after some sunrise pics…
we headed a little south to Warwick so we could eat at this old-school diner, Johnny’s Chalet,
known for its johnny cakes. See below.
These were on my list of things I had to try. They’re ok… not great, but at least I can now say I know what they are and have had them.
Then we set off to drive to Harford Connecticut. It was only about 65 miles, but the drive took about an hour and a half because we went through some back country to get there.
That’s ok though, since the point of these trips is to see the country, which is better done through some of these older state highways, that cross through towns and neighborhoods, than on an Interstate. The weather was cooling down too and we were expecting some light rain as we traveled west.
We arrived at Hartford around 10:30a, still a bit early to check in, but they registered us and we went to look around.
First we drove over to the house my father-in-law lived in when he was first born.
Then we drove back into the city center and went to lunch, where we met a friend of ours from California, who had recently moved to upstate New York. He made the trip over just to have lunch with us and visit the city. We went to an Irish pub, Vaughan’s Public House, where I got Guinness stew and brown bread.
We walked over to Bushnell Park,
where I accidentally stumbled across a statue of Horace Wells, the inventor of Anesthesiology.
I had done a comic book about him (below)
a while back and completely forgotten that he was from Hartford.
Even when I saw the statue and read the name it didn’t register, but Shell had asked me if that wasn’t the guy. The building he had his practice in still stands, but it’s currently a Burger King. There is, however, a commemorative plaque noting that his business was once here.
From there we saw the State Capitol,
the Wordsworth Atheneum,
and the Old State House.
We also walked along the Connecticut River’s Riverside Park.
By this time, our friend took off and we returned to the hotel to rest up.
Then we drove out a bit to visit the Mark Twain (below)
and Harriet Beecher Stowe Houses and Museum….
and saw the Cathedral of Saint Joseph too.
It was starting to rain a bit more by this time, so we returned to the hotel for more rest.
The food I had earmarked to look for in Connecticut was roast clam, lobster rolls (which I would get in Maine), and clam chowder, but I’d already gotten the clam chowder in Providence. We ate at Trumbull’s that evening and then came back to the hotel exhausted.
