New Haven - Monday Sept 3

Well, this was the Labor Day holiday, and from past experience we were interested to find out how many people actually took the holiday. We decided to go to another winery, further afield. This time we found the Route 34 correctly and headed west as yesterday to Derby. There we took the I-8 north toward Waterbury, turning off onto the 254 to Litchfield. This town had some historic buildings on one east-west street, separated from the main through road (the 202) by a green. We decided to lunch there at a pizza restaurant, Sue opting for pancakes (after her French toast and another option were ruled out) while Phil had 2 fried eggs with toast and "home fries" - segments of potatoes pan-fried.

We did not have addresses for the wineries on the map, but Phil deduced that they must be on the continuation of Route 63. After almost overshooting the first winery we pulled in to Sunset Meadow Vineyards (see http://www.sunsetmeadowvineyards.com/ ). Many people were sitting around in the sun having picnics and wines. We went into the tasting room. Again we had to pay to sample just 6 wines, with the glasses thrown in. The reds here had higher alcohol content and were mostly better than Jones' wines. We just bought 2 bottles here - 1 'Cayuga white' and 1 'New Dawn' red - being mindful that we would need to drink them over the next 3 weeks. Shouldn't be a problem, especially if we start cooking at the suite.

We headed out to go north, but shortly up the road the traffic was backed up for some distance. After a while we found out why - the Goshen Agricultural Show was on and in full swing. This was really a holiday for most people - there were thousands here. After making it through the traffic we turned onto the Route 4 leading to Hartford. We took this all the way in, turning off at River Street to look at the houses of Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorn Clemens) and Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin). We took a tour of the Mark Twain house, lasting about 45 minutes. VERY impressive with great restorations. (see http://www.harrietbeecherstowe.org/ and http://www.marktwainhouse.org/ ).

We were going to take the I-91 back to New Haven, but we took a circuitous route via New Britain to find a freeway. As we approached the I-91 turnoff the only overhead message board showed that there was a 6-mile bankup of traffic towards New Haven due to an incident. We continued on the Route 9 (towards Essex) until the 17 route came up. This was a pleasant country drive with little traffic that brought us to New Haven in about a half-hour. We headed towards Broadway via York Street. In York Street we found a pizza place for dinner. Phil ordered what he thought was a simple pasta dish with scallops. It was enormous!! Sue's swordfish steak was not as big, but filling as we had been served a salad before these dishes came out. We'll need to do some walking soon!!