Our Last Day in Fairfield, Connecticut: Our Kind of Terrific Day at New Haven.

Friday, August 30, 2024

Our Last Day in Fairfield, Connecticut: Our Kind of Terrific Day at New Haven.

We had a dream day together—at least we had a dream morning—just Llew and me—as we made the absolute most of our last day in Fairfield, Connecticut. Tomorrow, we fly to Canada, for the start of Phase Four of our Great North American Adventure.

Breakfast at IHOP in Orange, Connecticut:

We left Mary-Lauren’s place early, after I looked up Google and found out that IHOP in Orange, Connecticut, is still open. It took us about a half hour to get there, but get there we did, when it was still fairly empty. I absolutely LOVE eating breakfast at IHOP as I believe they offer the best breakfasts in the world at the most reasonable prices.

We sat ourselves down and scanned the menu when I had my first disappointment. The Rooty-Tooty Fresh and Fruity Pancakes that I used to adore at this place are no longer on the menu. A quick word with the waitress confirmed that they have taken all items containing nuts off their menu! To me this is plain, NUTS!!! The reason I loved those pancakes so much was because they were so superbly nutty-flavored as they were studded with chopped nuts that brought amazing flavor and texture. Anyway, I had to settle for waffles with strawberry compote and pecan-flavored syrup. The waitress was good enough to try to appease my disappointment by bringing me extra hefty servings of the strawberry compost, fresh strawberries, whipped cream and syrup and I have to tell you, I had a real party going on my plate! It was tremendous and the perfect last breakfast in the USA for me. Llew had his usual: two eggs with sausage, bacon, pancakes and hash browns and his serving was enormous and delicious too. We had a lovely companionable breakfast as we thought and talked about the years that we have been coming to this place for breakfast with various friends and guests and the many times we have really and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves here.

Off to New Haven for a Touch of Anglophilia:

One of my other favorite things to do in Fairfield County is to walk in the university town of New Haven, home of Yale University, I love it for many reasons: the architecture, first of all, is just wonderfully reminiscent for me of the English university towns of Oxford and Cambridge—so I get my Neo-Gothic fix when I am here. The second reason is that it has the most glorious book shops and as Llew and I never pass a book shop without going inside, well, we have loads of browsing opportunities when in this town. Thirdly, I love the gentle, youthful ambience of this town which is always full of students and the intellectual air they bring to the place.

So, we began with parking our car on the main road (at Church Street) just outside Atticus Bookshop and the two museums. And then our walk began as we strolled under the Bridge of Sighs and went on towards Harkness Tower. My camera worked overtime as I kept clicking all the beautiful architectural masterpieces of the college before we entered the Green and took in the different architectural styles of the many buildings around the periphery. We also passed by the famous Sterling Library, entered the Grey Matter Book store to browse in there, then made a lovely loop and returned to our car. I am just delighted that we managed to squeeze in a visit to Yale as the new academic year had just begun, ‘Welcome to Yale’ signs were everywhere and you could sense the enthusiasm of the freshers who were still making friends and getting to know each other as they moved between classes. It took me back to my own years as a university grad student and then to the many decades I spent teaching these young folks as a university professor. While I had loved every second of it all, I have to admit that I do not miss it one bit and am really happy to be retired and free to simply enjoy every moment that life now presents me.

A Visit to Yale University Art Gallery:

Our first stop, once we crossed the street, was the Yale Center for British Art…but, to our disappointment, it was closed. This is always my first place of call and, as a result, I always end up spending a lot of time here and tiring myself out. This time, since it was closed for renovation, we had no choice but to enter the Yale University Art Gallery, just across the road, which turned out to be a real revelation for me. We began by looking at a section of the Ishtaar Gates, originally in Babylon, the entire Processional Way of which is now in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, where I had seen it. Here, a small section, featuring an embossed lion, is astounding enough, in terms of the achievement in ceramic art in that Ancient period. For the next two hours, we went minutely through a collection of Old Masters and contemporary masterpieces that simply took our breath away. From the extensive Medieval Collection to the Modern, we saw works by Botticelli, Constable, Degas, Georgia O’Keefe and Picasso—to name just a few. Each one was better than the other and representative of the most distinctive work of these artists. I could easily have spent another whole hour here, but we had a lunch appointment, back in Fairfield, with our friend, Mary-Lauren (who had the day off), for which we did not want to be late. So, very reluctantly, we left the museum (with me vowing to return there again on my next visit to Fairfield). It was such a well-spent morning.

Lunch with Mary-Lauren at Molto Pizzeria:

It was our friend and hostess, Mary-Lauren, who picked Molto Pizzeria for the casual lunch to which we wanted to treat her as she had been on a business trip throughout our stay at her home. After we dropped our car in her driveway, she took us for a spin in her snazzy vintage, convertible BMW which she has only recently purchased. With the top down on a glorious summer’s day, I sat beside her and tried to channel my inner Isadora Duncan, wearing my scarf around my head and neck! Thankfully, there were no historical accidents repeating themselves!

Lunch was wonderful, overstuffed sandwiches with each of us choosing something from their Lunch Special Menu that suited our fancy. We had ciabatta Sandwiches stuffed with tuna or deli meats (according to our taste) and served with small side salads. Everything was just terrific. Best of all, we actually had the opportunity to spend some quality time with our dear friend who has been so helpful to me, through the last year or two and is so generous in every way you can imagine. I feel so blessed to count her as one of my dearest friends in Fairfield.

Tea with More Friends at Maplethorpe:

No sooner did we finish lunch with Mary-Lauren than we had to say Bye to her and make our way to our next appointment: don’t even ask how I managed to squeeze all these different meetings with different friends, simply because I wanted to make sure that I could see them all during our brief 10-day stay in Connecticut.

The next port of call was the Maplethorpe Assisted Living Community to see our friend Jane who has been resident there for a couple of years. We had heard from her and others that she had a recent fall from which she was still recovering. And so, we were delighted to find her ready to greet us at the entrance, once we arrived there. We were also thrilled to find that our other friends, Virginia and Cheryl, would also be joining us shortly. We were all members of the Meet The Author Committee at the Pequot Library in Southport, Connecticut, which is where I became really friendly with these lovely, inspiring women.

Well, Jane looked wonderful, even if she has slowed down just a little bit. Once up in her room, we found that she had laid out a nice Tea for us with a platter of cookies and fresh lemonade—which we nibbled and sipped. Of course, there is so much for us all to talk about when all of us get together and the chatter simply did not stop. It is always a great pleasure for me to be in Jane’s presence, to enjoy conversation with someone whose vital mind and varied interests coalesce so beautifully with my own and to admire her amazing personal art collection—she has found the space to accommodate all her art work in her tiny space. I was also delighted to find that she had held on to my own book, ‘The Year The World Was Mine’ and that it is in her bookcase (I also saw the same book in Mary-Lauren’s bookcase). I cannot tell you how thrilling it is for a writer to find that friends have supported her efforts by buying her book and holding on to it. All too soon, it was time for us to leave our lovely friends and to think about our next appointment.

But first, we stopped back at our place to finish up our packing for tomorrow and to keep our backpacks ready for our flight to Canada as we’d be traveling with just one small carry-on bag each. This chore done, we could go on to our dinner appointment with full peace of mind.

b>Dinner at our Friend Diana’s Home in Fairfield:

And so, at the appointed hour (7.30 pm), we were ringing the doorbell to the home of our friend Diana who had invited us for a light and casual supper (although her husband Jonathan was on one of his sailing regattas). We were sorry that he would not be with us, but being with Diana is always fun and very heartwarming and she always goes out of her way to give us a good time.

so she did, on this occasion too. She plied us with drinks of our choice and then led us to her table where she had laid out her Spag Bal (what the British call Spaghetti Bolognese)—a large bowl of spaghetti to be topped with her terrific homemade meat-tomato sauce, further topped with lots of fresh, grated parmesan cheese. To go with this, she had a colorful side salad that was also grand. And for dessert, she had a most unusual dessert: a kind of pina colada in a bowl! She had slices of fresh pineapple that she topped with coconut ice-cream over which she poured a dram of rum! Now how creative is that? Well, needless to say, it was so tasty and a perfect ending to a simple, home cooked meal. Diana gave us a lot of family news and we gave her much of ours. It is always a pleasure to hear about her clever sons and their doings.

But, in a couple of hours, it was time for us to leave, as we had an early morning start for our flight to Canada. We thanked Diana profusely for organizing this evening with us, at such short notice, and hugging her goodbye, we returned to Sturbridge Lane to say Goodbye and Thanks to Mary-Lauren and Brett as we’d have a very early start tomorrow.

Until tomorrow, cheerio…