Day 4 – 5/24/2019 – Sights along the drive

This morning we packed up, checked out of our Air B&B and headed for New Haven – Home of Yale University.

We started the tour at the Peabody Museum (apparently there are several; this was the original housing Natural History, Connecticut History, and a few additional collections.

Randy was particularly interested in the Babylonian collection.

This is a cast of a stele containing the law code of Hammurabi. The original dates to the mid 1700’s BC and is in the Louvre in Paris

Kim was interested in a collection of mezzo-American artifacts

Jesse stole his mother’s phone and took hundreds (OK, lots) of photos of the gem and mineral collection.

By the time we got done it was time for lunch. And when in New Haven there is really only one choice for lunch. We made our way to Wooster square (Little Italy) and dropped in at Pepe’s.

They have been making wood fired pizza since the 1920s and after sampling their fare I have to say that their reputation is well deserved.

Kim and I split a white clam pizza. The clams are fresh – or it disappears from the menu that day. They actually keep 3 people on staff just to shuck the clams.

After lunch we decided to change the order (while S was still awake) and head to the PEZ factory.

I mean…who goes to New Haven and doesn’t stop by the PEZ factory?

We got to watch the people in the window

All the way back to the beginning
Incidentally the word PEZ is taken from the German word (PEZ was originated in Austria) PfeffErminZ (Peppermint). The candy was developed as a substitute for a smoking habit

And did I mention the salute to conspicuous consumption?

Eventually we tore ourselves away from the salute to the mini-cubes of flavored sugar, packed our shopping bag full of PEZ-related goodies into the car and headed back to campus. As perdicted S chose that time to fall asleep so we took a leisurly drive around viewing famous (and not so famous) buildings including:

St. Someone or Other’s Congregational Church
serously, I don’t remember what this building is, but it’s impressive.

Eventually it was time to make our way to the freeway and head for the next stop – Hartford. In addition to being the capital of Connecticut

It also had two very important features:

The play area at Bushnell park is highly rated and served as a welcome break for boys to stretch their legs during a long driving day. It also gave the driver a chance to nap.

A stop at Capital Cream provided a burst of energy required to finish the day’s adventures.

Then it was back in the car and on to the next – but wait. It was 4:00. And there was no way we were going to make it to the next event. Add to the fact that it’s Friday of Memorial Day weekend and the next event would require us to drive toward Boston. Wiser heads prevailed and we turned the car north, crossing Connecticut, Massachusetts, a corner of Vermont and landing in Concord New Hampshire.

Dinner tonight was from Five Guys – with fries from St. Anthony – followed by a dip in the hotel pool.

Tomorrow we pick up some of what we didn’t get done today and it’s on to higher adventures.

Till then, Nite all. R