Things to do in Connecticut
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Frank Pepe's
New Haven's most famous eatery takes its name from the Italian immigrant who tossed America's first pizza a century ago. You'd best believe they've got the recipe down pat. For the ultimate, order Pepe's signature white pizza topped with garlicky fresh clams.
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Modern Apizza
Lots of locals believe that this place serves up pies as good as, if not better than, Frank Pepe’s and Sally’s – and without the throngs. Despite the name, it’s been tossing dough since 1934.
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Trumbull Kitchen
At this slick downtown eatery you can get bites of anything from dim sum, tapas, stone pies or (and?) fondue. The bar stays open later on the weekend, the longer to sample the impressive cocktail list.
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Peabody Museum of Natural History
Wannabe paleontologists will be thrilled by the dinosaurs at the Peabody Museum of Natural History.
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Mystic Seaport Museum
From simple beginnings in the 17th century, the village of Mystic grew to become one of the great shipbuilding ports of the East Coast. In the mid-19th century, Mystic’s shipyards launched clipper ships, many from the George Greenman & Co Shipyard, now the site of Mystic Seaport Museum. Today, the museum covers 17 acres and includes more than 60 historic buildings, four tall ships and almost 500 smaller vessels. Some buildings in the museum were originally here, but, as with Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, many were transported from other parts of New England and arranged to recreate a resemblance to the past. Interpreters staff all the buildings and are all to…
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Avery’s
It doesn’t get much more authentic than Avery’s. Its 30-plus flavors of sodas and seltzers are still made with 1950s technology in the original red barn where it all started back in 1904. The water is pure well and the sugar is pure cane – no high-fructose corn syrup here. Standbys like Birch Beer and Black Cherry share the stage with concoctions like Half & Half and Pineapple. If your group is at least four strong, be sure to call ahead to arrange a make-your-own-soda tour ($11.50 per group). You’ll go upstairs to the Mixing Room and create three bottles of soda to your exact flavor specifications and then watch the conveyor-belt machine downstairs add the water and …
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United House Wrecking, Inc.
Even if you’re one of those folks who reflexively yawns – or gags – at the thought of ‘going antiquing, ’ the extraordinary United House Wrecking, Inc. is well worth a visit. Upon pulling into the parking lot you may be greeted with a 15ft-tall Pinocchio standing with a 12ft Statue of Liberty, flanked by dozens of lampposts or scores of cherubic garden sculptures. Inside, the 35,000-sq-ft warehouse holds vintage chandeliers, stained glass, furniture and classy knickknacks of all sorts. No room in the car for that one-of-a-kind fireplace mantle? No worries – they ship world-wide. (Hyperactive children and accident-prone adults may want to wait outside with Pinocc…
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Hammonasset Beach State Park
Though not off the beaten path by any means, the two full miles of flat, sandy beach at Hammonasset Beach State Park handily accommodate summer crowds. This is the ideal beach at which to set up an umbrella-chair, crack open a book and forget about the world. The surf is tame, making swimming superb; restrooms and showering facilities are clean and ample; and a wooden boardwalk runs the length of the park. There is no entry charge in the off-season. Stroll the boardwalk all the way to Meigs Point at the tip of the peninsula and visit the Nature Center before heading out on a trail that meanders through saltwater marshes. Excellent bird-watching here. Hammonasset is a Nati…
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Dinosaur State Park
Connecticut’s answer to Jurassic Park, Dinosaur State Park lets you view dinosaur footprints left 200 million years ago on mudflats near Rocky Hill, 10 miles due south of Hartford along I-91. The tracks hardened in the mud and were only uncovered by road-building crews in the early 20th century. Today, they’re preserved beneath a geodesic dome and you can tour an 80ft-long diorama that shows how the tracks were made. Outside, there are several on-site dino prints where visitors can make plaster casts. The casting site is free, open from May through October, and the park provides everything you need but the plaster of paris, 25 pounds of which is recommended to make sev…
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New Haven Green
New Haven’s spacious green has been the spiritual center of the city since its Puritan fathers designed it in 1638 as the prospective site for Christ’s Second Coming. Since then it has held the municipal burial grounds – graves were later moved to Grove Street Cemetery – several statehouses and an array of churches, three of which still stand. The 1816 Trinity Church is Episcopal and resembles England’s Gothic York Minster, featuring several Tiffany windows. The Georgian-style 1812 Center Church on the Green (United Church of Christ), a fine New England interpretation of Palladian architecture, harbors many colonial tombstones in its crypt. The 1814 United Churc…
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Monte Cristo Cottage
Part of a well-laid-out walking tour is Monte Cristo Cottage, the boyhood summer home of Eugene O’Neill, America’s only Nobel Prize–winning playwright. Near Ocean Beach Park in the southern districts of the city (follow the signs), the Victorian-style house is now a research library for dramatists. Many of O’Neill’s belongings are on display, including his desk. You might recognize the living room: it was the inspiration for the setting for two of O’Neill’s most famous plays, Long Day’s Journey into Night and Ah, Wilderness! Theater buffs should be sure to visit the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in nearby Waterford, which hosts an annual summer series of…
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Lake Compounce Theme Park
If the kids are in dire need of a rollercoaster and funnel-cake infusion, Lake Compounce Theme Park is the ticket. This 100-acre lakeshore amusement park in the town of Bristol, 18 miles southwest of Hartford at the junction of CT 61 and CT 132, boasts two rollercoasters (one of which, Boulder Dash, is an excellent wooden specimen), a whitewater raft ride, historic steam train, interactive haunted house and many other amusements. Clipper Cove, with a 300-gallon water bucket, and Splash Harbor Water Park with its pools and waterslides, are perfect for a steaming summer’s day. The 180ft free-fall ‘swing’ will thrill even the most jaded of extreme- sports enthusiasts. Admiss…
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Bushnell Park
Spreading down the hill from Capitol Hill is the 37-acre Bushnell Park, designed by Jacob Weidenmann in the 1850s. The Gothic Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Arch, which frames the Trinity St entrance, commemorates Civil War veterans and offers fine views from its turrets, unfortunately accessible only on a tour. If you're a botany buff, take the self-guided tree tour of the park. Pick up a brochure at the Memorial Arch. The Tudor-style Pump House Gallery (1947) features art exhibits and a summer concert series. The park's carousel is a 1914 merry-go-round designed by Stein and Goldstein, with 48 horses and a 1925 Wurlitzer band organ. Even if you’re not game for a ride, stop…
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Clarke Outdoors
New England’s three northern states – Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine – are justly noted for their outdoor activities, but that doesn’t mean that Connecticut can’t compete. Northwest Connecticut’s Housatonic River is particularly good for canoeing, kayaking, rafting and tubing. With the spring floods, the white water can reach Class III. Expect to pay about $90 for guided white-water rafting during the spring run-off, and about $25 for unguided rafting the rest of the year. Clarke Outdoors can equip you with a canoe, kayak or raft for a 10-mile run down the Housatonic River. It also leads white-water rafting trips during spring’s high water. Guided rafting tr…
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Huck Finn Adventures
New England’s three northern states – Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine – are justly noted for their outdoor activities, but that doesn’t mean that Connecticut can’t compete. Northwest Connecticut’s Housatonic River is particularly good for canoeing, kayaking, rafting and tubing. With the spring floods, the white water can reach Class III. Expect to pay about $90 for guided white-water rafting during the spring run-off, and about $25 for unguided rafting the rest of the year. Huck Finn has a tubing service. They also offer a guided tour through the Lost Park River, miles of spacious tunnels buried under Hartford.
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Farmington River Tubing
New England’s three northern states – Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine – are justly noted for their outdoor activities, but that doesn’t mean that Connecticut can’t compete. Northwest Connecticut’s Housatonic River is particularly good for canoeing, kayaking, rafting and tubing. With the spring floods, the white water can reach Class III. Expect to pay about $90 for guided white-water rafting during the spring run-off, and about $25 for unguided rafting the rest of the year. Farmington River Tubing will get you tubing down 2.5 miles of the Farmington River. Only cash payments are accepted.
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Center Church
This church was established by the Reverend Thomas Hooker when he came to Hartford from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636. The present building dates from 1807 and was modeled on St Martin’s-in-the-Fields in London. In the Ancient Burying Ground behind the church lie the remains of Hooker and Revolutionary War patriots Joseph and Jeremiah Wadsworth. Some headstones date from the 17th century. Adjacent to the church is Carl Andre’s Stone Field sculpture, which to some is a powerful minimalist statement. To others, it’s exactly what it sounds like – a field of rocks.
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Abbott’s Lobster in the Rough
Lobster lovers should check out Abbott’s, on the waterfront in neighboring Noank. Order your lobster (or other seafood) at the window, get a number, pick out a table by the water and, when your number is called, pay and dig in. New England doesn’t get much better than this on a warm summer night. Just down the road is Abbott’s sister business, Costello’s Clam Shack, open similar hours. To reach both from Mystic, take Water St/Rte 215 southwest. When you reach a stop sign take a left (Mosher Ave) and stay right when it divides. Turn left onto Main St and right onto Pearl. BYOB beer or wine.
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Grove Street Cemetery
Three blocks north of the green, this cemetery holds the graves of several famous New Havenites behind its grand Egyptian Revival gate, including rubber magnate Charles Goodyear, the telegraph inventor Samuel Morse, lexicographer Noah Webster and cotton-gin inventor Eli Whitney. It was the first chartered cemetery in the country in 1797 and the first to arrange graves by family plots. Around the turn of the century, Yale medical students would sneak in at night to dig up bodies for dissection, but you can simply join the free walking tour at 11am on Saturdays.
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Elizabeth Park Rose Gardens
Known for its fine collection of 15,000 rose bushes, Elizabeth Park at Asylum Ave is a 100-acre – and 100-year-old – preserve on the Hartford-West Hartford town line. More than 900 varieties such as climbers, American Beauties, ramblers and heavily perfumed damasks cover the grounds. June and July are the months to see the roses in full flower, but they bloom, if less profusely, well into fall. Besides roses, the park tends a tall dahlia display, herb gardens and greenhouses. The landscaped paths make for excellent jogging trails.
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Tomb
The Tomb is not open to the public. This is the home of Yale’s most notorious secret society, the Skull & Bones Club, founded in 1832, and its list of members reads like a ‘who’s who’ of high-powered judges, financiers, politicians, publishers and intelligence officers. Stories of bizarre initiation rites and claims that the Tomb is full of stolen booty like Hitler’s silverware and the skulls of Apache warrior Geronimo and Mexican general Pancho Villa further fuel popular curiosity.
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Maritime Aquarium
This aquarium focuses on the marine life of the Long Island Sound, including sand tiger sharks, loggerhead turtles and harbor seals, whose daily feedings at 11:45am, 1:45pm and 3:45pm are a real treat. IMAX movies are also shown throughout the day for an additional fee. For a more hands-on experience, take a 2½-hour cruise on the research vessel Oceanic (per person $20.50). Cruises depart at 1pm daily in July and August, and on weekends in April through June and September.
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Henry B duPont Preservation Shipyard
At the Henry B duPont Preservation Shipyard you can watch large wooden boats being restored. Be sure not to miss the Wendell Building, which houses a fascinating collection of ships' figureheads and carvings. Close by is a small 'museum' for children seven and under. The Seaport also includes a small boat shop, jail, general store, chapel, school, pharmacy, sail loft, shipsmith and ship chandlery - all the sorts of places that you'd expect to find in a real shipbuilding town of 150 years ago.
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Trash Museum
JRun by the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA), it enlightens visitors on earth-friendly recycling techniques. A viewing platform overlooking the sorting operation takes center stage while cool sculptures made from trash and wormy composting displays plug the green side of it all. You'll also get the scoop on CRRA's trash-to-energy program that fuels a billion kilowatts of green electric power annually. To get to the museum take I-95 to exit 27, which dumps you right at the site.
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Union League Café
Here’s an upscale French bistro in the historic Union League building. Expect a menu featuring continental classics like cocotte de joues de veau (organic veal cheeks with sautéed wild mushrooms, $25) along with those of nouvelle cuisine. If your budget won’t stretch to dinner, slip in for a sinful dessert like crêpe soufflé au citron (lemon crepes) washed down with a glass from the exquisite wine list. Date place par excellence.
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