Home again, Home again

We spent the weekend in Connecticut at the wedding of some very dear friends, and it was wonderful. The wedding was Sunday evening; we drove out Saturday and spent the afternoon exploring (and visiting a petting farm) before dinner at First & Last Tavern (Avon).

We stayed the night at a local B&B, the Linden House. (Their site is out of date; the guy who designed it fell off the planet and they're not sure how to fix that.) Beautiful house, and the owners - Julia and Myles - are first-generation Irish immigrants. Julia welcomed us (and she LOVES to talk) and has just a faint hint of a brogue left, most evident in the L's and R's. We met Myles at breakfast in the morning, and his accent is much more evident. Wonderfully sweet people and I'd not hesitate to recommend their house to anyone in the area.

Sunday was beautiful weather, and we decided to make the hike to Heublein Tower in Talcott Mountain State Park. The first quarter-mile of the hike was pretty steep, then it's gently rolling with spectacular views of the valley:

Also, no fences to protect you from yourself. Cool.

We finally reached the tower, and wandered through what little bit of it is open to the public. I'd love to see the rest of the inside, but that's not open... yet.

The view from the top is magnificent:

And from the non-trail side of the building, this is what the tower looks like:

Hiked back down, checked in to our hotel, relaxed and cleaned up, and then it was off to the wedding. Our invite indicated "black tie optional", and I did rent a tux for the event. I was far from the only one. Very elegant event; the bride was (quite literally) bouncing with excitement as she said her vows and the groom seemed to have an allergy attack. ;-) The reception and dinner following was magnificent, and I'm VERY happy we got to help friends celebrate. There are (somewhere) pictures of us all dressed up; I'll have to see if I can get them from the appropriate folks.

Drove home yesterday, and it's back into life with a vengeance...