1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (3 page)
Read 1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die Online
Authors: Patricia Schultz
As of January 2007 all U.S. and Canadian citizens traveling between Canada and the U.S.
by air
must present a valid passport. Citizens traveling
by land and sea
(including ferries) currently need to show proof of citizenship and identity, such as a birth certificate and government-issued photo identification (for example, a driver’s license). As of January 2008, both U.S. and Canadian citizens will likely be required to show a passport for all travel between the countries. If you don’t already have one, leave ample time for the process of procuring a passport: To get a start, U.S. citizens should go to the website
www.travel.state.gov
. Canadians can go to
www.passportcanada.gc.ca
.
C
ONNECTICUT
•
M
AINE
•
M
ASSACHUSETTS
•
N
EW
H
AMPSHIRE
•
R
HODE
I
SLAND
•
V
ERMONT
The Victorian Charm of Two Classic River Towns
HESTER
& E
AST
H
ADDAM
Connecticut
Few Connecticut areas better retain the look of yesteryear than the lower Connecticut River valley, particularly the neighboring Victorian villages of East Haddam and Chester. East Haddam (population 8,000)
developed during the 19th-century steamboat era, and it still contains countless imposing Victorian structures, including the painstakingly restored Goodspeed Opera House, a magnificent four-story Second Empire building on the banks of the Connecticut River. The opera house boomed for its first few decades but fell on hard times by the middle of the 20th century and nearly faced the wrecking ball. Preservationists stepped in, and now the 360-seat Goodspeed shows three top-quality musicals annually.
Just downriver the curious Gillette Castle anchors the 184-acre state park of the same name. Eccentric 19th-century thespian and Connecticut son William Gillette, famous for his Sherlock Holmes portrayals, labored five years to build the elaborate—some say bombastic—24-room fieldstone castle in 1919 for a then-astounding $1 million. When the actor died in 1937, he left his riverside property to be developed as a state park. You can tour the ambitiously restored bluff-top structure, or stroll along Gillette’s 3-mile-long mini-railroad. Trains no longer operate, but you can hike along the rail bed and admire the handsome stone rail station. Bring lunch—this is a wonderful place for a picnic and an afternoon spent exploring the area’s myriad nature trails.
Nearby Chester is a delightful spot for its shopping and dining. A smattering of art galleries fill the quaint, walkable downtown of this village perched along a section of the Connecticut River that the Nature Conservancy has called one of “the last great places on earth.” Foodies laud the excellent Restaurant du Village, which occupies an unpretentious dining room that could easily pass for a country farmhouse in the South of France. The Mediterranean allusion continues when you choose from such signature pleasers as calamari sautéed with broccoli rabe and lemon vinaigrette, or hearty lamb shank braised with a red wine sauce and root vegetables. It’s wonderfully satisfying unfussy food, and the service is faultless, too.
Overlooking the Connecticut River, the Gillette Castle took 25 men 5 years to complete.
W
HERE:
30 miles southeast of Hartford.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-793-4480 or 860-244-8181;
www.visitctriver.com
.
G
OODSPEED
O
PERA
H
OUSE:
East Haddam. Tel 860-873-8668;
www.goodspeed.org
.
Cost:
tickets from $25.
When:
season runs late Apr–mid-Dec; tours June–Oct on Sat.
G
ILLETTE
C
ASTLE:
East Haddam. Tel 860-526-2336.
When:
late May–mid-Oct.
R
ESTAURANT DU
V
ILLAGE:
Chester. Tel 860-526-5301;
www.restaurantduvillage.com
.
Cost:
dinner $40.
B
EST TIMES:
early Feb for Chester Winter Carnivale, with an outdoor ice-carving competition and gallery receptions; late Aug for the Chester Fair; early Sept for Chester Lobster Festival.
The Apex of American Impressionism
ONNECTICUT’S
A
RT
T
RAIL
Connecticut
Connecticut celebrates its important role in the American Impressionist art movement with its own Impressionist Trail, a highlight of which is Old Lyme, a quiet 19th-century arts colony at the mouth of the
Connecticut River. Here in the late 19th century Miss Florence Griswold—a patroness of the arts—routinely hosted such talents as Henry Ward Ranger, Willard Metcalf, and Childe Hassam. Her 1817 Georgian-style mansion is now a museum; many of the hostess’s visiting artists painted directly on the walls and doors of the interior, and their works are visible today.
Within walking distance of the museum, the Bee and Thistle Inn is housed in an imposing yellow 1765 Colonial with a gambrel roof and is set among beautiful gardens and tree-shaded lawns. The 11 rooms and one guest cottage (with its own fireplace) are handsomely furnished, and the inn’s well-regarded kitchen serves simple, contemporary American fare, including a knockout Southern buttermilk-fried game hen with marmalade-cream gravy, and perfectly prepared filet mignon topped with blue crab.
The Connecticut Impressionist Art Trail links a number of museums and attractions around the state, including the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, where the Cos Cob Art Colony thrived during the late 19th century. Metcalf, Hassam, and painters Elmer Livingston MacRae, William Merritt Chase, and John Twachtman all practiced their craft in Greenwich, and their works fill the Bruce Museum, along with paintings by Degas and Seurat and a fine portrait of George Washington by Rembrandt Peale.
Just west of Hartford in leafy Farmington, the Hill-Stead Museum is more about French than American Impressionism, although it does contain two renowned paintings by American artist Mary Cassatt (who lived in Connecticut at various times). Among the French represented are Monet, Degas, and Manet. The Hill-Stead occupies a 1901 mansion co-designed (with Stanford White) and formerly owned by Theodate Pope Riddle, who left the property to be run as a museum with all its original art and furnishings (including some precious Chinese porcelains and Japanese woodblock prints). A restored sunken garden originally laid out by famed landscape architect Beatrix Farrand surrounds the house.
A final major stop on the trail, and perhaps a somewhat underrated one, is the New Britain Museum of American Art, established in 1903. Housed inside a stunning contemporary limestone building, the collection numbers more than 5,000 works, including many by Connecticut luminaries such as Hassam, Cassatt, Metcalfe, and J. Alden Weir (who is celebrated at the Weir Farm National Historic Site in Wilton; see p. 9).
W
HERE:
Old Lyme is 40 miles southeast of Hartford.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-863-6569 or 860-444-2206;
www.mysticcountry.com
and
www.arttrail.org
.
F
LORENCE
G
RISWOLD
M
USEUM:
Old Lyme. Tel 860-434-5542;
www.flogris.org
.
When:
closed Mon.
B
EE AND
T
HISTLE
I
NN:
Old Lyme. Tel 800-622-4946 or 860-434-1667;
www.beeandthistleinn.com
.
Cost:
from $130; dinner $45.
B
RUCE
M
USEUM:
Greenwich. Tel 203-869-0376;
www.brucemuseum.org
.
When:
closed Mon.
H
ILL
-S
TEAD
M
USEUM:
Farmington. Tel 860-677-4787;
www.hillstead.org
.
When:
closed Mon.
N
EW
B
RITAIN
M
USEUM:
Tel 860-229-0257;
www.nbmaa.org
.
When:
closed Mon.
B
EST TIME:
late July for Old Lyme’s Midsummer Festival, which takes place in part at the Florence Griswold Museum.