So as I promised, I am back to fill you in on the rest of our trip to Connecticut. When last we spoke, I had been telling you about Wednesday and the wonderful time that we had with Emily's cousins, and the fascinating Globe Hollow. Our plans for Thursday were to do some more letterboxing, but it seemed that to get the letterboxes, we would actually have to leave the car. (We had heard reports that if you drive around in Connecticut with your windows down, boxes would jump right in. These reports are simply not true.) So our plans for the rest of the week included leaving the car and hitting the trail to seek out the elusive letterboxes.
Thursday morning dawned and we slept. When we finally awoke, we began to make plans with Aunt S & the Godfather as to where we would letterbox today. We decided to do letterboxes in and around the campus of UCONN, that way we could do two more of Aunt S's boxes and also visit the incredible Shadow Puppet exhibit at BIMP (Emily especially was looking forward to this). So after getting a later start than we expected, we were off and on our way to UCONN. We stopped at the site of a letterbox, but were unable to do it because a police officer was sitting in his car directly across from it, and we did not want to attract undo attention. We continued on to the puppet museum and managed to find the two boxes there and then enjoyed our private tour of the exhibit. From here we went to Kathy John's for lunch and a letterbox. Our next stop was the UCONN Dairy Bar. There is no letterbox here, but there is ICE CREAM which is made right here on campus. With our tummies full of lunch and ice cream, we went in search of a letterbox in a nearby church cemetery; once again we were successful. Aunt S & the Godfather then went with us in search of three other boxes that were all very close to each other, and the cemetery, but alas, two of them were missing. From here we parted ways with Aunt S & the Godfather, as they had appointments in the evening. We found the next two boxes that we searched for, and really enjoyed the lovely campus. We then took some time for site seeing, and souvenir shopping in the co-op. Emily also really wanted to see the statue of Jonathan and see where the UCONN women's basketball team played. Our evening was coming to a close (and we were starting to lose the daylight), but there was a four box series we really wanted to do, so we went to our last stop. We all started on our quest, but after the first box, Emily was getting very fussy and very tired, so Christa brought her back to the car and I continued on alone. I was working as fast as I could, but night was falling fast. I was able to get two more boxes for the series and another single box, that was placed on the same trail, but I was unable to find the last box because it just got too dark. On our way home, we stopped for the box that the police officer had prevented us from getting earlier, and I have to admit it was one of the most ingenious hiding places I have ever seen. We returned to the Dome (I think I have forgotten to mention that Aunt S & the Godfather live in a very very cool Geodesic Dome house.) and got a good night's rest.
On Friday, we went off to the place where I grew up, Brookfield, CT. One of the first orders of business was to stop at the local Saturn dealership for an oil change, vacation is no reason to slack off on maintenance. From here we got our first box of the day in a very old cemetery. A big part of our plan for today was to plant a couple letterboxes of our own while in Brookfield, so we needed to buy some plastic containers to put them in. The next couple of hours were spent going from store to store, looking for somewhere that sold what we were looking for. We were having very little success, until we finally found what we were looking for in the last store we went to (let's face it, OF COURSE it was the last store we went to, how silly would it have been to keep looking after we found what we were looking for?). From here we did a box in New Milford, which is the town that borders Brookfield. We had some trouble at this box, because just as we were beginning our search some people showed up and wouldn't go away. Just as we were about to give up, they left and we were able to find the box. From here we drove past the house I lived in as a kid, once again I was a little upset about all the trees that have been cut down, but at least the house color wasn't as offensive. Now that we were done site seeing, and had the materials necessary to plant out boxes, we set about doing that (we have still not yet had the chance to post our clues, they'll be coming soon). Once our boxes were in place, we went to visit my former employer, Barto Engraving and Awards, or more specifically Barb Norman. Emily was very happy to meet Mrs. Norman and judging from the reception we received, the feeling was mutual. We spent a little while catching up, but finally had to say our goodbyes and head back to the Dome.
Saturday was to be our final day of vacation (and the beginning of our trip home), but we wanted to get the last box from our quest and try to get another set of boxes from Aunt S & the Godfather on our way out of town. Sadly, when we arrived at the location for Aunt S's boxes, there was a Revolutionary War re-enactment going on, so we were not able to make an attempt. From here we went to complete our quest, which thankfully we were able to do! On our way out of town, we made a quick detour to the Dairy Bar to end our trip. After the Dairy Bar, it was time to hit the road and make our way home. We did end up stopping, much longer than we would have liked, to look for a bookstore so we could buy the audio book for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the ride home. Our drive progressed much the same way as before, stopping every so often to let Emily stretch, until she was down for the count. We did encounter some difficulty finding a hotel room, but we did find one and got a little shut eye.
Sunday, once again we left a little later than we would have liked, but our bellies were full from the continental breakfast and spirits were high because tonight we would be sleeping in our own beds!! The day progressed nicely and we really enjoyed the scenic beauty that is Pennsylvania. We enjoyed it for a very LONG time, because Pennsylvania is a very LONG state. We were still making stops for Emily, and she was starting to get a little antsy from spending so much time in the car. When we would try to put her back in the seat after a break, she would refuse to bend at the waist in her attempt to not be put back into her seat. It took me a little while to discover that a little tummy tickle would fix this problem. We finally arrived home, a lot later than we would have liked, but we all had fun and were also happy to be home. Emily survived her first LONG trip with great success and we look forward to our next opportunity to travel.
So, I will leave you here, with just a small tease . . . coming soon (hopefully not later that we would like) . . . March of Dimes . . . Emily's final swimming lesson . . . and much much more!!!
While at BIMP, Aunt S gave us a private tour of the Shadow & Substance exhibit, as well as the rest of the puppet museum. It was pretty fun. (If you look closely, you can see Emily hanging on her every word.)
Emily was looking at one shadow puppet, while Daddy was looking at another.
"Wow! Aunt S, these puppets are amazing!"
Steve used a Shadow Mask to change the shape of his shadow on the wall.
at the UCONN Dairy Bar . . . Emily wasn't looking at the menu, because she knew when we arrived that she wanted a "milk shake."
This is The All-American Sundae . . . woo-hoo!
Emily has a thing for straps. We bought her this really neat purple dragon, but all she wanted to do with it was chew on his Velcro (tm) strap.
Emily, at this point, had decided that she had enough of her car seat. Here she is trying to work the red button that will release her seat belt and set her free.
When she couldn't push hard enough to set herself free, she settled on eating the slack from her seat belt. (aka, another strap!)
This is part of a cemetery where we found a letterbox. I thought it was neat the way this tree is swallowing the grave marker.
Aunt S takes a short respite while Emily slackboxes, I read clues, and the Godfather follows behind us.
This lovely garden was another letterbox location (no, not this exact spot, but in this same garden.)
Steve captured the ultimate slackboxer at work! She may be a slackboxer, but she sure is cute.
At the UCONN Co-op, Emily found another hat to add to her collection. The kid looks fabulous in a hat!
Our next stop was to go say hi to Jonathan (UCONN's mascot).
What a cutie!
Emily decided that she was hungry while we were visiting Jonathan, so we took a seat on the bench next to him. When she was done eating, she and Daddy made faces at each other.
"Come on, Mommy, stop taking pictures and keep up!"
We would have needed to walk through some grass that was taller than Steve to go retrieve another letterbox. Emily and I stayed behind at the picnic area (we didn't want her to get ticks) while Steve went in after the letterbox. I snapped a few pictures of the area while we waited and managed to get this really cute one of Emily on my back. I also liked the way the clouds looked in the background, so I decided not to crop this shot.
This is the view from the top of the hill (mountain?) at Lovers' Leap State Park.
This is the "newly renovated" Lovers' Leap Bridge.
Steve's childhood home in Connecticut. The last time we saw this house, the natural cedar shakes had been painted blue, yuck! Who would do that to natural cedar shakes? Now they have been repainted a nice grey, that's better than blue anyway. 
Turn about is fair play . . . Steve snuck a picture of me napping with Emily earlier in our trip, so I was able to sneak one of him on our way home.
**...looking at this sign, scratching my head in confusion...**
Emily found another strap. This is the end of the strap that holds her Rainforest creatures onto her carseat. She needed something to snack on.
Pay close attention to her right leg . . .
This is the way I found Emily the morning after we arrived home. She was so happy to be sleeping in her own bed. She decided to rearrange her stuffed animals and was having a giddy time goofing around before I came to get her for her morning bottle.
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