Getaway to Westerly & Watch Hill, R.I.

We had a nice weekend away for George's birthday. Our first day we made it to the beach and this park and other pretty sites shown here.

Treated to special concert in the park.

Yes, we climbed them.

Town hall

On the next day it rained but we continued with our plans in North Kingston for a 10 lighthouse boat tour. It would have been stupendous had the weather been better. It was still good. Regardless I am putting some of the pictures as I find humor in the wet--blurry look. Just pretend they are impressionist photographs. The tour guide was extremely informative and interesting.

Jamestown Bridge
 

Despite it all, George really enjoyed it (he's not the disappointed photographer) and said it was going to be hard to top this birthday.

Connecticut Open House Day 2015

Today we chose the city of Waterbury to invade for the Connecticut Open House Day of 2015. It was a great choice! Carefully planned, we were able to catch three places and an accidental bonus one besides.

We started out with a one and half hour tour of the Waterbury Palace Theater--from the front lobby to the audience section to on stage to back stage and dressing rooms and even entertaining hallways, it was a wonderful tour with great tour guides. It is HUGE! It was exciting to be on the stage that Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Queen and Led Zepplin performed and so many others, but what excited me most was to be on the same stage where Harry Houdini performed. I have been fascinated with Houdini since I was young. When I was 18 I wanted to go to the courtroom in NY where they were going to reveal all his secrets. The man fascinated me.

The theater is just so beautiful that I have to let the pictures do the talking.

The door on stage to bring scenery and props. On the other side of this door is another one where a tractor trailer can back up and unload.

On stage before the curtain opens....the same stage that many well known performers have performed.

Lights above the stage.

View of the audience form the stage.

The red light straight ahead is for the performers to get their bearings when it is dark. That is the central point.
 

The following are pictures of the back hallway which the actors use. This neat tradition shows some of the plays that they have had and the people in the productions signed their names. Fun display.

Dressing room.
 

This was the wig room--specifically for putting on wigs because of the hairspray and chemicals involved.
 

This is a peak into the nicer dressing room for the major stars and the waiting area. Sometimes this waiting area is used for their security guards.

Final pictures of this awesome theater.

Such an awesome theater!

PART TWO

After lunch, we went on to our next stop...the Timex Museum. I've been trying to get here for a couple of years. This was discounted but not free and I was going to use a coupon that I have. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that this museum is part of the Blue Star program and veterans and their immediate family get in free. So, I have a buy one get one free ticket to this museum if anyone wants it, let me know. Sadly they are closing their doors in September, so go while you can.

It was interesting to see the old clocks. Again, I'll let the pictures talk. I took a lot because I figured they won't be there for long.

This clock was designed with the numbers backwards so someone in a barber's chair could read it in the mirror.
 

From the commercial--"it take a licking but keeps on ticking".

A section about Easter Island

I was taking a picture of the quote form geographer, G.F Carter, "Any fool can make an ......point, but only God can make a sweet potato." speculating how sweet potatoes got to Easter Island.



This visual by the Easter Island statue, reminded us just how far away form other land Easter Island is. What a mystery.

This was a short video about the mysterious mounds that used to be in North America. Most were destroyed over the years. It was determined that the Native Americans made them.

Be sure to visit this before it closes this year. Last chance! It's very easily located next to the mall.

PART THREE

This was the most delicious part of the day....a candy tour! We had never heard of Fascia's chocolates before, but now they are memorable. We had a free sample before we went in to hear the gentleman tell us the history and show us some videos. He gave us each a packet with 3 pieces of chocolate--dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate and told us how to taste them to really taste the differences. YUM!!! This is some good stuff!

They also sell gelato and we tried the pistachio which was good. We have not really had gelato very much so we don't know if it was exceptional too, but it was creamy and flavorful.

We were aware of, but did not have time to take, a special train ride from Thomaston that includes taking people to this factory for a tour. Our free tour was not the entire tour and we are contemplating taking the train one time and getting the full tour where you get to make your own chocolate bar. We were told that they plan on making this offer on the last Friday of each summer month.

We liked these chocolates better than others we have had that are made in Connecticut--not to name names, but they were excellent!

PART FOUR

When we left the museum, we took a right instead of a left to look for something else, when all of a sudden this helicopter attracted our attention. We stopped and found this interesting memorial park. It is in need of mowing and the parking is really non-existent, but it is an interesting memorial.

This picture does not do the helicopter justice. It is bigger than it looks.

The train went by as we were looking at the memorials.

This is a nice little memorial that we were glad to have found.

That was our Connecticut Open House Day for this year. It was a great day.