1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (5 page)

With 340,000 square feet of gaming space, Foxwoods is the largest casino in the world.

Foxwoods also operates the superb Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, set beneath a 185-foot observation tower on a ridge near the casino. High-tech, high-quality interactive exhibits tell the story of some 10,000 years of Native Americans in North America.

W
HERE:
45 miles southeast of Hartford.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-863-6569 or 860-444-2206;
www.mysticcountry.com
.
M
OHEGAN
S
UN:
Uncasville. Tel 888-226-7711 or 860-204-7163;
www.mohegansun.com
.
Cost:
rooms from $149; dinner at Todd English’s Tuscany $50.
F
OXWOODS:
Ledyard. Tel 800-FOX-WOODS or 860-312-3000;
www.foxwoods.com
.
Cost:
rooms at Grand Pequot Tower from $180.
M
ASHANTUCKET
P
EQUOT
M
USEUM:
Ledyard. Tel 800-411-9671 or 860-396-6838;
www.pequotmuseum.org
.
B
EST TIMES:
late Aug, when Foxwoods hosts the 4-day Schemitzun Powwow; Oct for peak foliage.

Old Money Meets Urban Revival

Greenwich and Environs, Connecticut

The coastal section of Fairfield County, with its neatly preened towns inhabited by Fortune 500 CEOs and boldface names (Regis Philbin and Diana Ross have homes here, and the first President Bush was
raised here), has long been called the Gold Coast. It’s a land of massive mansions, exclusive yacht and country clubs, and elegant boutiques that overlooks calm Long Island Sound. Some have called Greenwich, on the border of New York State, a leafy extension of Manhattan’s Upper East Side (it is 29 miles but worlds away). Just stroll through downtown, past the Aston Martin dealership and vaunted century-old Betteridge Jewelers shop, and you sense the deep coffers enjoyed by this Old Money enclave.

West of downtown in the ritzy, largely residential Belle Haven district, you’ll find the lavish Homestead Inn, a princely 1799 mansion that was transformed into a Gothic and Italianate Victorian inn in 1859. The place is filled with museum-quality antiques and art, sumptuous fabrics, and striking colors. Most of the 18 rooms are in the main building (playwright William Inge lived here in 1953 when writing
Picnic
), but there are also some handsome larger suites in neighboring outbuildings. Dining in the Homestead’s rarefied restaurant, Thomas Henkelmann (named for the inn’s chef and owner), is a treat of the highest order. Beneath timber-beam ceilings and gilt chandeliers, diners enjoy French cuisine that seamlessly blends classic with contemporary: Dover sole is raised to new heights when filled with saffron mousse and garnished with Maine lobster medallions.

Nearby communities—such as Darien, New Canaan, and Westport (see p. 9)—showcase similarly imposing homes and fine shopping, but it’s the small city of Norwalk,
and especially historic South Norwalk (aka SoNo), that’s enlivened the otherwise sedate Gold Coast in recent years. A vision of inner-city blight until an exciting revitalization in the 1980s and ’90s turned it into a dynamic hub for food, shopping, nightlife, and culture, SoNo is anchored by the stunning Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, set inside a handsomely refurbished 19th-century foundry. The state-of-the-art aquarium contains more than 1,000 animals native to Long Island Sound, and a cavernous Maritime Hall offers boat-building workshops and houses exhibits on nautical history—there’s also an IMAX theater.

Among SoNo’s many cool restaurants, don’t miss dinner at Match, an ultra-chic two-story space with a postindustrial design and vibrant energy. Sit at the boisterous bar and sip pomegranate Bellinis before moving on to the dining room, where one of your choices might be steak tartare “and eggs” (served with a three-minute quail egg and chopped black truffles).

W
HERE:
35 miles northeast of New York City.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-866-7925 or 203-853-7770;
www.coastalct.com.
H
OMESTEAD
I
NN:
Tel 203-869-7500;
www.homesteadinn.com
.
Cost:
from $250; dinner $70.
M
ARITIME
A
QUARIUM:
Norwalk. Tel 203-852-0700;
www.maritimeaquarium.org.
MATCH:
Norwalk. Tel 203-852-1088.
Cost:
dinner $40.
B
EST TIME:
early June for the Greenwich Concours d’Elegance, a 2-day festival of luxury, vintage planes, boats, and automobiles.

There’s No Place Like Home

Hartford, Connecticut

Literary fans come from around the world to visit the home of beloved author Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, a pen name he derived from the term used by Mississippi River pilots to indicate a water depth of two fathoms
. “To us,” Twain said, “our house … had a heart, and a soul, and eyes to see us with…. It was of us, and we were in its confidence, and lived in its grace and in the peace of its benediction.”

Although more commonly associated with his hometown of Hannibal (see p. 449), as an adult the Missouri-born Twain always held this home in Hartford’s Nook Farm section in a special light. The custom-designed High Victorian mansion was commissioned from well-known New York architect Edward Tuckerman Potter. Twain lived here with his family from 1874 to 1891, during which he penned some of his most acclaimed works, including
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
and
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.
The beautifully restored 19-room mansion features decorative work by Louis Comfort Tiffany and nearly 10,000 Victorian-era objects. Guided tours point out personal items, including the 3-ton Paige typesetter, an ill-fated invention in which Twain invested, leading to his bankruptcy. A striking contemporary museum stands adjacent to the house, further detailing the life and times of this master storyteller—a key feature is a small theater showing a 22-minute Ken Burns film biography.

Nearly across the street, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center celebrates the legacy of
the author of the greatest antislavery novel of all time,
Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
considered to be the first international best seller. This compound is anchored by the brick Gothic Victorian “cottage” (though substantial, it is not nearly as grand as neighbor Twain’s) where the author resided from 1873 until she died in 1896. Guided tours provide insights into Stowe’s abolitionist politics and then-revolutionary social views.

W
HERE:
110 miles northeast of New York City. Tel 860-247-0998;
www.marktwain
house.org.
When:
daily, May–Dec; closed Tues, Jan–Apr.
H
ARRIET
B
EECHER
S
TOWE
C
ENTER:
Tel 860-522-9258;
www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org
.
B
EST TIME:
Christmastime, when the Mark Twain House is decked out in holiday splendor.

The Mark Twain House contains personal items including the billiards table where the author spread out his manuscript when editing.

America’s Oldest Public Art Museum

Hartford, Connecticut

The Wadsworth Atheneum opened in 1842 and has expanded a number of times since, but the Gothic Revival main building remains the architectural centerpiece of the nation’s first public art museum. Hartford
art patron Daniel Wadsworth founded the museum to share the wonders of art with the public—a concept unheard of at the time. The museum’s permanent collection slowly grew to comprise some 45,000 works dating back a few thousand years. Be sure to view the first-rate collection of Hudson River School paintings, including some by Frederic Church, a Hartford native son and friend of Wadsworth. You can also view
Elizabeth Eggington,
the oldest dated American portrait (1664); a fine selection of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman bronzes; and some notable French and American Impressionist works, including some by Connecticut artists (see p. 6). It also holds a rich collection of Pilgrim Century American furniture and decorative arts from the 1600s. Outside, note the enormous steel stabile
Stegosaurus
(1973), by Alexander Calder, who spent much of his life in Connecticut.

Downtown Hartford has a few other noteworthy attractions. History buffs should seek out the Old State House, built in 1796, the nation’s oldest still-standing statehouse. The famous
Amistad
trial, immortalized by the Steven Spielberg movie (1997), took place in this stunning building. Inside you can see an original Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington in the restored senate chamber. The state legislature met here until the early 1870s, when the new Connecticut State Capitol was constructed nearby in Bushnell Park. A leafy 38-acre oasis, it’s one of the Northeast’s most striking urban parks, with a number of sculptures and the still-working 1914 Bushnell Park Carousel. But the gothic and highly ornate Connecticut State
Capitol, one of the most distinctive such buildings in the country, is the park’s most prominent feature. It was designed by Richard Upjohn and was completed in 1878 at an astonishing cost of $2.5 million.

At the end of your outing, enjoy a meal at Max Downtown, the centerpiece of the revered Max restaurant group (with several excellent eateries around the region). This swanky, clubby space is a favorite of the neighborhood’s politicos and CEOs keen on the sophisticated regional American fare, such as grilled veal chop stuffed with caramelized onions, mascarpone, and pancetta.

W
HERE:
110 miles northeast of New York City.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-793-4480 or 860-244-8181;
www.visitctriver.com.
W
ADSWORTH
A
THENEUM:
Tel 860-278-2670;
www.wadsworthatheneum.org
.
When:
closed Mon–Tues.
O
LD
S
TATE
H
OUSE:
Tel 860-522-6766;
www.ctosh.org
.
When:
closed Sun.
C
ONNECTICUT
S
TATE
C
APITOL:
Tel 860-240-0222;
www.cga.ct.gov/capitoltours
.
When:
Mon–Fri; also Sat, Apr–Oct.
M
AX
D
OWNTOWN:
Tel 860-522-2530;
www.maxrestaurantgroup.com.
Cost:
dinner $35.
B
EST TIMES:
early June for the Black-Eyed & Blues music festival in Bushnell Park; late June for Rose Weekend at Elizabeth Park’s stunning rose gardens; mid-July for Great Hartford Festival of Jazz; mid-Aug for Taste of Hartford food festival.