Fall Frolicking in Connecticut

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a good weekend! I loved reading your entries for the granola giveaway, the winner is posted at the bottom of this post! 😀 This weekend was a big one for Josh and I, we were traveling to New Haven, CT to visit his parents! I have only driven through CT once before so I was really excited to get to explore it more and to get to spend more time with his parents. I feel really lucky because Josh’s parents are the most wonderful people, and Josh is so close with them. I always look forward to spending time with them, and this weekend was so fun!

Friday morning we got brunch at Irvings in State College as we waited for the Megabus to take us to NYC.

A close-up of that sandwich. Hummus, sprouts, red pepper, and cucumber on a freshly made bagel. Yum!

The Megabus left about an hour late so we were running a little behind schedule. We ended up getting into NYC around 8pm. I love seeing all the lights in the city at night, it made for a pretty view as we walked across town to get to the train station for our next leg of the journey.

To celebrate our first train ride together we ate gumdrops! When I was little I used to ride the train with my grandma and she would buy me gumdrops. I always remembered that as being so cool and so special and a little tradition I loved having with her. I haven’t ridden a train since and when I found out Josh and I were going to I was so excited to get to enjoy them again and continue on the little tradition! Please excuse the crazy hair.

We got in to New Haven around 11pm. His mom and a family friend picked us up from the train station and drove us around to see the town a little bit before we headed back to Josh’s house. We called it a night shortly after getting to his house because we knew we had a big day Saturday.

We started Saturday with a breakfast trip to Manjares. Josh has raved about this place since last winter, with both him and his mom swearing they make the best french toast in the world. I was so excited to have the opportunity to get to eat there!

We started off with some coffee. Pretty and yummy!

And then for the meal. French toast on homemade bread, maple syrup, fresh fruit, and homemade whipped cream. It was heaven. I ate every single thing on this plate and I completely agree with Josh and his mom.

When we got back from breakfast Josh’s mom and I ran some errands. The reason for the trip besides seeing each other was to help with Fall Frolic. Josh and his parents have this awesome tradition of decorating the entire house for fall every year. They have the most amazing collection of decorations and I was so excited to get to be a part of it. His mom and I girl talked while we picked up a scarecrow and some tablecloth and ribbon from JoAnn Fabrics.

Check out all the pumpkins, gourds, and corn! There was some serious fall-frolicking going on.

Their kitty Goodyear got into the Fall spirit by sitting in one of the open boxes. Too cute.

Josh’s family friends stopped by throughout the day to say hello and in the afternoon his parents’ good friends Mary and Joey came over to help fall frolic. I’ve met them before and was looking forward to getting to spend more time with them. Every year Mary is in charge of decorating the mantle at their house. She did an incredible job.

This was the prettiest mantle decoration I have ever seen! I love fireplaces and thought this one was completely stunning.

We took a break halfway through for pizza. Josh has raved to me about how no pizza compares to New Haven pizza and I was so excited to get to try some for myself!

Half was plain while half was onions and peppers.

And a whole garlic and spinach. Yum! The verdict was that it was absolutely delicious! The one unfortunate thing is that because I have an ear infection (and am slightly allergic to cats) I was really sniffly and congested. (That’s why there’s only one picture of me in this post, I was not having a particularly pretty-looking weekend.) My taste buds were dulled as a result and while I could taste I was eating ah-mazing pizza I couldn’t fully appreciate it. I’m so excited to get to eat more of it on New Years!

After eating we got back to decorating! Josh was working on creating a town made with Department 56 houses and figurines. The result was beautiful, he did such a great job and it looked so good all put together! For a guy so smart with analyzing data and number things (his Masters minor is in stats) it is amazing to me how incredibly well rounded he is, because he just as creative. It was so great getting to see his artistic side come out!

Josh’s mom worked on a Halloween figure display while I put some pumpkins on the stairs as well as the little bird guy. I thought he was cute! 😀

We finished decorating around midnight and the house looked gorgeous and so ready for fall! I can’t wait to get to do that with my own house someday! Saturday went by way too fast but we knew we better get to bed some-what early since we had another big travel day ahead of us on Sunday.

Sunday morning’s breakfast was at Cafe Romeo. New Haven has some of the most adorable shops and eateries. I am so excited to get to explore it more in December/January with Josh when I stay for longer than a weekend.

I got a spinach and egg frittata and the most amazing mocha in the world that unfortunately I didn’t get to snap a picture of. Josh got a fruit, cream cheese, and honey tortilla while his mom got a bagel and his dad got an egg and cheese on ciabatta.  We also got a nut scone and blueberry muffin for the table. It was all incredible.

Way too soon it was time to head back to the train station. How gorgeous are the ceilings?

We boarded a brand new fancy-schmancy train that was miles better than our train from Friday night. It had clean seats and an electronic board that displayed the next stop.

An hour and a half later we arrived in Grand Central.

We browsed through the market and then decided to head outside to spend some time exploring the city. We had two hours until we had to catch the Megabus.

There was so much going on in the city! There was a Spanish heritage parade blasting awesome music!

And a festival going on in Hell’s Kitchen with tons of vendors. There was so much to see and do and it was absolutely beautiful out, as it was all weekend. There is something very different about having 80 degreee weather in October, it makes you thankful for it! There were so many food choices and being the indecisive person that I am I couldn’t seem to make up my mind on any of them. We traveled all over in search of the perfect restaurant.

And then Josh found it. It might not look like much on the outside, in fact we were originally going to eat at a much fancier looking Italian restaurant with big glass doors thrown wide to the city so you can eat al fresco and take in the sunshine, until we saw hidden behind one of those doors was their health inspection grade: a big fat C. How many rats must live in your kitchen to get a C? There was no way we were eating there so we trekked on and found what I think is a true gem of Hell’s Kitchen.

Drinks are served in Mason jars. How adorable is this? I got a fresh squeezed lemonade that was perfect on a hot day. The pumpkin decor added a really nice touch. 😀

We both got veggie burgers with goat cheese and split an order of sweet potato fries. It was so good, a large part of it due to the creamy goat cheese and the fact I think they make their buns fresh. It was soft and buttery and the perfect accompaniment to a fresh made veggie burger stuffed with rice and carrots and broccoli. So so good.

Here is where the restaurant really won me over. I got the prix fixe where for $11 you get a burger with one specialty topping (goat cheese), a lemonade, and a cupcake. Josh got a veggie burger a la carte with two specialty toppings and an order of sweet potato fries. Our original plan was to split my cupcake, but when we saw the menu we couldn’t decide which one to get. Josh is a huge carrot cake lover, while I am obsessed with red velvet. (And carrot cake too, I’m an equal opportunity cupcake lover.) When I asked the waitress which one she recommended she said their pumpkin cupcake with caramel sauce was a huge hit right now. I laughingly told her that added a third consideration into our cupcake dilemma, before we decided to order the carrot. She was so sweet and said she’d throw in the pumpkin for free! When we finished up our burgers we decided to get our cupcakes to go so we would get to the Megabus in time. Imagine my surprise to find we not only were sent off with a free pumpkin cupcake along with our carrot cake cupcake, but a red velvet cupcake as well! She was the sweetest waitress and it totally made my day! We ate them in the (insanely long) Megabus line and they were so delicious! If you’re ever in New York City and looking for a delicious little lunch spot I would totally recommend Burgers and Cupcakes!

We spent the rest of the day on the Megabus cuddling and talking and eating. As we were getting close to State College I asked Josh if he would pick the number for the winner of the Nuts About Granola giveaway. He was so sweet and downloaded a random number generator app. Out of 22 entries the winner is….

Number 2! AKA Becca! Thanks so much for following me on Twitter Becca! Congrats on winning! Please email me your address at [email protected] so I can get your address sent over to the Nuts About Granola company so they can mail you out your granola package! I would love to hear what you think of it!

And that was the end of our weekend trip! I had the best time traveling with Josh and visiting with his family. They went out of their way to make the trip special and I enjoyed every moment of it! I hope you guys enjoyed the weekend recap! 😀

Question of the Day: What’s a recent trip you went on that was super special? Where did you go? What made it special?