Scenes from Connecticut

Have I publicly admitted that I am, in fact, from Connecticut? I grew up on the shoreline, east of New Haven and west of New London. Despite eight years of solid New York residency, I've retained many New England traits: an obsession with colonial saltbox homes, an ordinate fondness for L.L. Bean-monogrammed backpacks, and a persistent snobbery regarding bisque (the soup, not the porcelain).

In any case, last weekend, I dragged DK on a very last-minute camping trip to the Constitution State. Just a few hours from Brooklyn and 10 miles from where I grew up, we made our first substantive stop for some dockside eats. You know how I do:


We spent Saturday inland, amid the pleasures of one of my childhood favorite places, Devil's Hopyard State Park--so named for purported hoofprints of fiendish origin ground into the rock there (actually just geological potholes, but "Erosion Hopyard State Park" doesn't quite have the same ring).


Did you know that approximately one bajillion more stars are visible outside of the city?


Devil's Hopyard has a beautiful series of stepped waterfalls by the main entrance. DK and I were up by 6am on Sunday to enjoy it all by ourselves, and we couldn't resist dunking our heads through one of the smaller falls. It was better than any cup of coffee ever.



After we packed up, we stopped at a wildlife preserve for a morning nature walk and stumbled across the stone on the right, below, off trail. I'm not sure if it's actually a gravestone, but I can't imagine a more lovely place to be buried than this hushed little wilderness. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Latin translates to "as long as I live and beyond.")


I'm happy to believe that a lobster a day keeps the doctor away. Ditto fried clam strips and onion rings.


We camped out at the inimitable Hammonasset Beach State Park on Sunday. I can't really even start on Hammonasset, which is where I tried and failed to learn how to drive, where I snuck into after-hours with my friends, where I got drunk after prom... you get the idea, Hammonasset looms large in the mythology of my teenage self.

For now, the rather generic beach shot below must suffice.


After that, I spent most of the daylight hours in the ocean, where it's inadvisable to tote a camera. And DK and I more or less fell asleep by sunset because we were just too tuckered out by all that sand, surf, and seafood.

Good times, which we hope to repeat at least once more before fall proper.