Connecticut

My mom and I discovered last fall that we just love Connecticut, so we rented a car last weekend and headed back up. We spent most of our time in Westport, but drove around to several different little towns shopping, driving through the beautiful neighborhoods & along the ocean, etc... It was a great time. It was my first time off the island of Manhattan in 3 months - that seems crazy to me! Manhattan has a lot of stuff packed in it, but the square mileage is actually pretty small, so it seems funny that the furthest I think I had gone in 3 months was to jury duty. Anyway, it was great to get away from the hustle & bustle! And the weather could not have been more perfect...sunny skies and almost 90 degrees - summer is here (or at least was here, it seems to have gone back in hiding this weekend).

Here are some things we did:

-- rented a small car, but they were out so we were upgraded, for free, to an SUV. I love me a Ford SUV, but thought it was hysterical that I drove this car all weekend- a Ford Flex

-- first stop = Greenwich. Super cute, ritzy town where we had lunch at a non-ritzy diner place. Wasn't quite what we expected, but the eavesdropping on the conversations of locals sitting around us made it worth it! We also went in our first Pierre Deux of the trip - one of our favorite store finds from mom's Cali days.

-- Checked into our hotel in Norwalk - nothing fancy, but they had warm cookies to greet us, which was a nice treat! There were some Geese hanging out front of the hotel.
-- Went to dinner at The Dressing Room - Paul Newman's restaurant. It was delicious! They are known for being organic and using only ingredients from the area. They recently changed their menu to "Small Bites", basically like tapas, so we got several things and shared. Most of it was really good. It's a cute restaurants and Joanne Woodward came in with one of her and Paul's daughters and some other people to eat.

-- Saw a play at the Westport Playhouse called "Around the World in 80 Days". I don't think either of us loved it, but it was okay - kind of a funny show. I overheard one man liken it to children's theatre for adults. It was opening night and afterwards they had a little reception that it seemed anyone could go to, so we went! Don't know if we were crashing or not. We just sat around a while people watching and stole a couple rice krispy treats before heading in for the night. -- Brunch at Chocopologie in Norwalk. I had read about this place as having a cute cafe for brunch, but also being very well known for their truffles - as noted by both Madonna and Oprah. It was in a sketchy area, but turned out so cute!! We just loved this place. The food was good and atmosphere was perfect. We got some truffles to go and they came in the cutest box, so I got some for a co-worker who had done a favor for me the week before.

We sat in the cute cafe part of the restaurant, but this little back hallway was lined with stools where you could eat and watch through windows overlooking the chocolate making area. It was so cute!

-- Went to our second Pierre Deux of the trip in Westport...among other stores

-- Drove all around the neighborhoods in the Westport area

Some of the homes face a street that runs alongside the ocean. Between the street and the ocean, the homes each have their own fenced in yard with cute lawn chairs...so nice!

The flowers were really in bloom. I just loved this tree!

-- came across Southport, which we loved. It is TINY...only a few shops, but we went in an antique shop where we met the cutest lady and I bought some awesome shutters to hang in my car (the Ford Flex came in handy here...wouldn't have been able to get them home in the smaller car).

-- drove through New Canaan, which I really loved last time, but seemed a little lacking this time-maybe because a lot of stores were closed on Sunday. The town itself is very cute, even the train station right on Main Street is adorable - looks right out of a movie!

-- when we realized we were very close to Bedford, NY, we decided to drive over there because mom knew that Martha Stewart has a house/farm there. We weren't prepared for this, so I started to google stuff on my phone. My phone isn't really meant for internet searching, so I didn't come up with much, but we did find out that a TON of celebs have homes in this town. We'll go back another time, better prepared. We did see Richard Gere's restaurant and Inn there, but the restaurant was closed because it was between lunch/dinner hours. Would be an awesome place to stay and/or eat some time.

-- on the way back into the city, we had planned ahead to make a stop at a Target. I wanted to walk up and down every aisle. It's not often I can get to a Target and never with a car - especially an SUV. We spent 2 hours there! I was afraid it was driving my mom crazy and she was getting bored, but she was very understanding. She said she used to do the same thing when we lived in CoMo (before it got a mall and Target and Sams) and would take trips to Dallas...she would stock up at Sams Club! I bought tons of stuff at Target....toiletries, clothes, a tall mirror, food, etc.... Two hours never went by more quickly.

-- our last stop was dinner at a Panera in the Bronx - yummo!

Such a great weekend with my mom!