This is the continued recap of our 10-day trip to the East Coast … first part is here. (Beware of another photo-heavy post!)
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J and I left Connecticut Sunday night and drove up to Sturbridge, MA. J spent many summers as a kid in the area and the first order of business was to take me out to “Friendly’s”, a popular neighborhood restaurant chain, for dinner.
I guess, sometimes your childhood memories can betray you, because J said the food was way better than he remembered. His burger was cooked to order and delicious and – I had to agree – my turkey melt sandwich was absolutely yummy! I wish I could have topped of the dining experience with some ice-cream, but I was so full!
For the next two nights we stayed at the Publick House Historic Inn.
The room definitely had a … ahem… rustic touch and the wall paper was so busy it hurt my eyes a bit, but otherwise the room was clean and the beds were decent. I am sure that we had a much better experience at the Inn than we would have had at the Super 8 down the road!
We started off the next day with a hearty breakfast/lunch at Annie’s Country Kitchen, which had very good reviews on Yelp.com and my food surely did not disappoint. I had grilled Italian sausage with mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy and it was so, so good. It definitely fueled me up for the day.
After lunch, we headed to Old Sturbridge Village. I am sure you’ve all heard of or been to similar places.
“Old Sturbridge Village is one of the country’s oldest and largest living history museums, depicting early New England life from 1790-1840 with historians in costume, antique buildings, water-powered mills, and a working farm. Visitors can view antiques, meet heritage breed animals, and enjoy hands-on crafts.” (osv.org)
J knew I’d love it! I am just a sucker for those kinds of things. I love museums, old buildings, costumes and historic reenactments. What a great journey back in time!
It doesn’t look like it at all in the pictures, but just minutes before I took those pictures, we had gotten into a small downpour, which disappeared as fast it had come on. It reminded me a lot of Germany, where we can have small summer storms that only last for a few minutes!
Look at the cute little boys that were all dressed up!
The grant store and bake shop
Candy
so many horse carriages
Old printing office
I took many more pictures that I couldn’t show you all in this post, but if you want to see more, head over to my Flickr set.
After a few hours at OSV, we crossed the state border to Connecticut again and J took me to Lake Mashapaug, where he spent many, many summers as a kid. It was a completely different journey back in time than the visit at OSV. J hadn’t been to the lake in many years, but he quickly remembered the area and found the family cabin, that he used to stay at, within minutes.
The view of the lake was breath-taking.
Of course, I had to put my feet in the water! (Actually, I had planned to swim and the weather was definitely warm enough, but clouds had rolled in and it kept looking like it was going to rain again any minute.)
It was so much fun sitting on the little landing stage and have J reminisce about old times and happy memories. He had told me about the lake pretty much since the first day that we met and it was such a special experience that we were able to go there and J could show me a place of his childhood.
We spent a few hours, enjoying the sunset and then headed to the Traveler’s Restaurant, the only place near the lake where you can get something to eat and a place that has – according to J – been around forever. It’s not the fanciest place in the world, but we had a decent dinner and checked off another place of the list of “places to visit”.
Next up: Boston (part I).
Steffi
July 23, 2012 at 6:09 amLove the second part. Especially the pictures. New England is so beautiful!!
Show us more!!!!
Travel Spot
July 23, 2012 at 7:54 amI love those old villages. Have you been to Plymouth? My grandmother lives in Mass and we always go see the Mayflower and the Plantation and go whale watching! I am glad you enjoyed your trip!
Nilsa @ SoMi Speaks
July 23, 2012 at 10:27 amFriendly’s and Old Sturbridge Village – you’re bringing me back to things I visited as a teenager! It’s funny, but Sweets’ grandparents had a home on a lake in New Hampshire that his family used to visit in the summers when he was growing up. A few years ago, we took a trip to see the site of the home (the house is no longer there – new owners built a much bigger home) and the town. It’s pretty special to see a loved one walk down memory lane … brings them back to childhood, but with an adult perspective … everything is the same and yet, everything has changed so much!
Chrissy
July 23, 2012 at 12:03 pmNew England really is beautiful! Love this part and all the wonderful pictures! The food…mmh…yummy!
Happy Monday, sweet San! xxx
Lisa of Lisa's Yarns
July 23, 2012 at 3:00 pmI have never been to Friendly’s, but one of the girls I met when I studied abroad worked there and she raved about the food. I hate when I want to have ice cream or something like that and am too full!
Sounds like such a fun trip. I am loving the photo heavy posts!! Keep ’em coming. That lake in CT is beautiful – so cool to see an area that your husband has so many memories of!
Lauren
July 23, 2012 at 3:39 pmI grew up on Friendly’s food! :D (I’m from Pennsylvania.) Honestly though, I can’t handle a lot of it now.. it’s too heavy for me now.
PA gets random summer rains like you described as well.
That candy is in like.. every single gift shop at every single tourist attraction up and down the east coast I think. haha!!
Very cool pictures!
Gina
July 23, 2012 at 10:44 pmThe little boys in costume are so cute! And I love the picture of you on the landing stage in front of the lake!
lauryn
July 24, 2012 at 6:04 amThis looks like so much fun! We have something similar here called Greenfield Village. I love historic living museums like that!
Born27
July 25, 2012 at 12:52 amIt’s great to hear that you have an exciting experience in Sturbridge and Lake Mashapaug! Thanks for sharing these lovely photos with us and i’m looking forward on your next post!
Ulli
July 25, 2012 at 6:46 pmLovely lovely photo!
Melissa
July 30, 2012 at 8:31 amI love that J was able to show you places from his childhood, how sweet! The lake looks absolutely gorgeous. It’s too bad it looked like it was going to rain and you couldn’t swim, but sounds like you made the best of it anyway.
terra
August 6, 2012 at 12:26 pmI love that you got to check out a place from J’s childhood – that’s so cool that he was able to share that with you. Andrew and I keep talking about a trip to Michigan to visit the places he visited as a kid. It’d be awesome to see the places he’s always talked about.