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Published: November 7th 2017
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We took a train along the Connecticut shore to Old Saybrook (former home of Katherine Hepburn and Vin Baker...), where my mom and step-dad met us at the station.
A big storm hit on Sunday, luckily after church. The hurricane force winds knocked out power to much of New England, but we were spared...just a lot of branches and leaves down.
On Monday, we walked around the historic part of Old Saybrook, where I learned some new history!
On Tuesday, we drove to UCONN to have lunch with my niece who is a junior there. On the way, we drove through Willimantic, the site of "the battle of the frogs", and the "Frog Bridge".
Willimantic is known as being home of the infamous "Battle of the Frogs" in 1754. To paraphrase the legend: One hot summer night, the good people of Windham (which Willimantic is now part of) were roused from their sleep by "a shrieking, clattering thunderous roar" unlike anything they had ever heard before. Fearing that it was either an Indian attack or Judgement Day, the townsfolk freaked out and began to panic -- some ran through the streets brandishing muskets, others fell to their knees in frantic Storm coming in...
McCook Point Beach prayer. Some cooler heads finally prevailed and went in search of the ungodly noises, but to no avail. Only the next morning when the sun came up, did they find the source of the horrendous cacaphony -- a nearby pond, down to no more than a puddle thanks to the dry summer, was ringed with scores of dead bullfrogs. Apparently, some sort of frog turf war had broken out and the carnage was excessive . . .
Wednesday, we took a hike up to the granite ridge above the area where my parents live, and later drove to Harkness State Park...My mom was a volunteer here for many years in the gardens.
"The park was the former summer home of philanthropists Edward and Mary Harkness, who inherited the fortune created by Edward's father, Stephen V. Harkness, who was a substantial investor in John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. The mansion, Eolia, named for the Greek god of the winds— was designed by the New York architectural firm of Lord & Hewlett and constructed in 1906-1907. From 1918 to 1929, landscape designer Beatrix Jones Farrand made extensive improvements to the grounds, adding numerous formal gardens. The 200+ acres were a working farm. The estate was left to the state by Mary Harkness in 1950 and became part of the state park system in 1952."
Thursday we drove to Massachusetts to have lunch with my brother Craig, who is a year younger than me. He lives in Lynn, coincidentally! Ned and my mom dropped us off at the airport after lunch, and we left for the West coast at 7:00pm. The woman sitting in front of us went into diabetic shock during the flight! She recovered with the help of a nurse on the flight...
My son Luke and his wife Alannah met us at the airport that night (even though they had gotten in from Hawaii early that morning...). We all woke up to snow the next day...our car needed to be jump-started, due to an electrical problem...but we finally drove safely home through the snow flurries to our beautiful bay!
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