Jo had a business trip to NY early this week, so we tacked on a visit to our old stomping ground in CT to see several of our friends along with all the changes in the area. I flew into Providence, RI on Thursday and picked up the rental car for the drive to New Haven where I hoped to be able to find Jo at the Metro North train station. Although they have changed the driving patterns around the New Haven train station, and several of the key landmarks I use to find the way to go are no long there, we managed to meet up without too much difficulty. Then it was back to New London, CT to enjoy some tasty clam strips at Fred's Shanty with the Thames River in the background.
Afterwards, we stopped at Clyde's Mill to enjoy a few cider donuts and fresh squeezed apple cider even though we were pretty full with clam strips. Even so, we made sure to buy enough to last us through the entire weekend. After chasing away the bees long enough we headed over to Bruno and Sheri's. They are both looking great and we spent the evening catching up on all that is happening in their lives. Friday morning as they went off to work, we spent the day sightseeing. This included driving by our old house and seeing any changes (not many that we could tell from the street), walking the boardwalk at Ocean Beach, and most importantly having lobster rolls for lunch. Captain Scott's was our lobster roll destination where we enjoyed the delicious simplicity of the lobster rolls while talking with E, who Jo worked with at Pfizer. Sure can't beat a lobster roll. Next up on our nostalgia tour was a drive-by of the Pfizer sites we worked at. Jo's building was sold to General Dynamics and there wasn't much we could see there. At the research site, Pfizer is in the process of tearing a bunch of buildings down so there was a lot of change to be seen. Dinner was with several couples that we did things with when we lived in CT. It was fun hearing about everyone's busy lives since we last saw them. After dinner and we were driving home we were both a bit sad that we don't get to see these friends more often and we didn't hold out much hope in convincing any of them to move to warm, sunny, Wisconsin.
Saturday dawned to rain and ominous clouds so we moved a movie into our plans. Jo, Sheri, and I headed to a local cinema to watch "Gone Girl" while Bruno stayed home to putter around the house (which I totally understand since rainy days are perfect for house puttering). A very good, although suspenseful movie - we all came out of it a bit stressed. We finally managed to get a walk in before dinner as the rain had tapered off. Then it was time for dinner in downtown Westerly before we went to the Granite Theater like old times. The play was "South Pacific" and was well done with good singing and clever use of the small stage for all the locations the musical requires.
Sunday after enjoying brunch in the sun on their deck we took a quick tour of Sheri and Bruno's garden. We continue to use their garden as a model for ours to try and make our garden as functional and varied as they have accomplished. Then to continue to enjoy the beautiful weather we took a walk up to the dairy farm just up the street from their house. The cows were close to the road so Jo could fulfill her periodic need of petting a cow - it has something to do with her childhood and raising cows, I personally have never understood her need to touch cows. Then it was back to the house to pack up and head back home to ready ourselves for another week of work (well to be honest, Jo has to ready herself more than I do).
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