Day 1: Northwest Connecticut

Hello all!

This week Josh and I are on a road trip with our friends Spencer and Ashley. We're doing an 9-day road trip through New England! Inspired by Emmy's Baltic blogging, I'm thinking I'll try to write a blog post for each day of the trip.

Here goes my account of day one: northwest Connecticut, also known as the Gilmore Girls day [Josh note: we drove 393.8 miles this day!]

For those who aren't familiar, Gilmore Girls is a TV show about a mother and daughter that takes place in a fictional town called Stars Hollow, Connecticut. One of the main draws of the show is the small-town charm of picturesque Stars Hollow, so we were excited to see if we could find any towns that felt like it.

Morning Drive

We got an early start on the day, leaving a little after 5am. It was about a 5-hour drive to our first stop in Connecticut, and it involved driving over the George Washington Bridge and through the Bronx!

Woodbury

Our first stop of the road trip was Woodbury, Connecticut. In Gilmore Girls, Woodbury is referenced somewhat frequently as Stars Hollow's rival town, led by town selectman "Hank from Woodbury."

We started by sharing some doughnuts from Dottie's Diner as a snack, then did some shopping at the Red Barn Thrift Shop and The Book Cellar, a used bookstore attached to the public library.

We then walked around "downtown," which mainly consists of a town green with a gazebo (!), several churches, and an old pharmacy/gift shop called the Canfield Corner Pharmacy, which is a cool spot. In the gazebo, we noticed a plaque commemorating a man who "opened his heart and his barn to wandering troubadours." Exciting, since Stars Hollow has both a gazebo in the town green and a town troubadour!

A fun fact about Woodbury: It's known as the "antiques capital of Connecticut"! We went to an antique store called Wayne Mattox Antiques, located in an old house, like Kim's Antiques. The owner lives there and walked around the rooms with us and told us about some of his items. There was Shaker furniture, desks and cabinets from the 1700s, etc. It was pretty impressive and interesting to hear about where the owner found some of the pieces!

Some old toys at Wayne Mattox Antiques

Washington Depot

The next stop was Washington Depot, which the writer of Gilmore Girls, Amy Sherman Palladino, says inspired the show. On our way there, we saw a turtle walking across the road!

In Washington Depot, we had lunch at Marty's Cafe. I got a chicken salad sandwich and a latte. The caffeine was helpful because we were feeling pretty tired after the early morning. Supposedly, this cafe was the inspiration for Luke's Diner in Gilmore Girls. It looks nothing like it, but the owner reminded us a little of Luke, so that was fun!

We then went to the Hickory Stick Bookshop, which had a table with Gilmore Girls books and merchandise. Another shop, called Five Janes, had a section of Gilmore Girls souvenirs. The town is embracing their claim to fame!

We also saw the city hall, Washington Supply Company (inspiration for William's Hardware), and Washington Food Company (inspiration for Doose's Market). Ashley and I got pictures with corn starch (cornmeal, technically, but close enough), a Gilmore Girls reference for dedicated fans.

According to a guide in the Hickory Stick Bookshop, a nearby boarding school called the Frederick Gunn School was the inspiration for Rory's school, Chilton [Josh note: I added this to our itinerary after reading a guide]. I'm a little skeptical, but we saw the school, and it had a beautiful campus!

We finished our tour of Washington Depot with a stop at the Mayflower Inn, where Amy Sherman Palladino once stayed and came up with the Independence Inn (the inn Lorelai manages in Gilmore Girls). We definitely saw the resemblance, with the large grounds, a pond, and several buildings that could have been Lorelai and Rory's potting shed. Unfortunately, we couldn't go inside.

Kent

On the way to our next town, we had two notable stops. First, the Gaylordsville Spite House, which looks like a tiered cake. Apparently, it was built as a "monument to injustice" by a man who was angry at the state of Connecticut. Second, the Historic Bulls Covered Bridge, one of three covered car bridges in the state. I love covered bridges! They're quintessential New England.

In Kent, we saw a couple souvenir shops, another antique store in an old house (this one looks even more like Kim's Antiques!), and their gazebo. Near the end of our visit to Kent, it stopped raining, and we walked around on the train tracks in celebration.

On the way out of town, we saw Kent Falls, which was beautiful! The whole day, we were really impressed with the landscape in this part of Connecticut. It looks sort of like Oregon, with a lot of green hills. There's more elevation in Connecticut than we expected!

Sharon and Litchfield

The first thing we saw in the next town, Sharon, was the childhood home of William F. Buckley, Jr., the founder of National Review and a popular guy at AEI. My boss recently wrote this review of a new biography about him.

We then had dinner at When Pigs Fly, a barbecue place in Sharon, and drove through Litchfield, which is referenced a couple of times in Gilmore Girls. Luke "moves" to Litchfield in season 4, briefly. It's a nice town with a lot of shops and restaurants, and the longest town green in Connecticut! During the drive, we saw our second covered bridge!

The best thing we saw in Litchfield was a replica of the Grotto of Lourdes, like we have at Notre Dame. It was a really lovely spot!

Plume House Inn

That night, we stayed in the Plume House Inn in Thomaston, a charming town known for its opera house and clockmaking history (we learned the latter fact from the antique shop owner in Woodbury). The inn was amazing! It has antique decor/furniture, and the house used belong to the manager of the clock factory. The innkeeper is very friendly and gave us a nice tour of the house when we arrived. More on the Plume House Inn and Thomaston tomorrow...