Our good friends’s (Sue and Don) daughter Laura is getting married to Zach at Zach’s uncle’s farm in Connecticut. We decided to attend the wedding then see some of New England. We’ve never been here before!

We arrived in Hartford around midnight Thursday and rented a little blue car Friday morning.

Since Hartford is the capital of Connecticut, we headed for the capital building. Along way was a grouping of large rocks on some grass. We have no idea why they were there, but Brian had to hop up. 

We went into an old cemetery right in the middle of downtown Hartford, which had gravestones dating from the 1500’s. Pretty old for us Coloradoans!  

The first park in North America was the 37-acres around the capital building (1636). That’s a lot bigger than Denver’s City Park! And the capital building itself has a much older architectural style. I really liked the bas reliefs on the outside of the building. 

About five miles south of Hartford is Dinosaur State Park founded in 1967 just one year after over 2,000 Early Jurassic footprints were discovered. That is quick work for a state park!

The footprints were sursingly similar to the Cretaceous ones at Dinosaur Ridge, 100 million years younger than these. Perhaps a higher percentage of theropods, but still. It gave Brian a better sense of just how long dinosaurs lived on this planet – and he once identified himself as a geochronologist! We all need to experience things to understand them. 

I loved walking on the paths at this park, just drinking in the green. 

We ate a lovely lunch in Middletown near this colorful mural.

And found a Brownstone quarry across the river. Connecticut is known as the “Brownstone State” and we thought Brownstone was the state rock of New Jersey (but not officially true). So, we actually sought this place out to see the rock. But they had turned the quarry into an adventure park, which had just closed for the season. Looks like it could have been fun!

We then drove to Milford, just south of New Haven to find our hotel. The evening was spent at “The Bar” meeting Zach’s family and talking with friends at the rehearsal dinner. (No pictures). 

• Coast-to-Coast Trip