Hanging Out in Hartford

I so rarely get to go on a "vacation" out of state. I haven't flown in six years before my little jaunt up to New England. It was exciting, boring, busy, fun. I was grateful for the opportunity to travel somewhere for work, but it just so happened to fall on a week where they were experiencing temps in the 100s! Since I knew nothing about Hartford, we just sort of winged it. We walked everywhere -- stopping in neat little places as we saw them. I ended up having a lot of down town (even though I was "working") so I was able to visit a lot of places (mostly bars, but hey, what else is there to do?!).

Tuesday:
Tuesday morning we woke up early to hop on a plane. Since I never fly and might be a wee bit terrified this was an interesting morning. Once we landed (thank goodness!), we checked into our hotel and I had to set up for a work conference. If I had known it would have only taken 3 minutes to set up... I probably wouldn't have arranged for such an early flight. However, it was my first work conference and I didn't know what to expect. I honestly was surprised my stuff that I had shipped was already there.

We headed to City Stream Brewery (one of the only things I managed to find to DO in Hartford) and I had a yumo Caprese Burger and a beer. Duh. We marathon napped before waking up to see what else Downtown Hartford had to offer. Luckily the Rays were playing the Yankees so every bar had the game on! I ordered a $5 pitcher of cider at Pig's Eye Pub (That was one thing Hartford had plenty of -- drink specials!) to enjoy while watching the game, before later deciding I wanted a late night snack.

We went to a place called Feng Bistro and had yummy sushi and shared a sake sampler (plum, raspberry, and pear). The sushi was so cheap since it was their late night menu (rolls were barely $2) and this was one of the best nights of the trip!

Wednesday:
I was up early to check out my schedule for the conference before we huffed it to Arch Street Tavern (And, PS, we walked EVERYWHERE). Summer Shandy was on tap at basically every bar we went to so I had to try it. It is like lemonade--very sweet. We started to explore Downtown Hartford some more and ended up at the Wadsworth Atheneum. It is a huge art gallery with amazing originals! I loved the Pop Art room with Andy Warhol stuff (among some other awesome work).

What really was memorizing was a huge Lady of Shallot painting. I swear this poem follows me everywhere! It's a Tennyson poem that I had to study in college and it's about this woman who is trapped in a tower and escapes to follow her love and dies. I mean it's much more poetic than that (obviously) but it's just something I always remember. Artists have painted the Lady of Shallot and it was so cool to see it since I had loved this painting before.

And, PS, if you love that song by The Band Perry "If I Die Young" their music video makes references to the Lady of Shallot (she's carrying a Tennyson book, dying young, floating down a river, etc.). Okay, no more nerdy talk, moving on....

After exploring the art museum we walked for what felt like forever. We stopped at a place called Hot Tomatoes for a Blackberry Wheat beer and shared Blue Cheese Garlic Bread. Heavenly.

We took a walk through Bushnell Park and saw the Capitol building. All very nice but it was just SO HOT I think we were ready for a nap.

After getting some energy back we explored the nearby bars & restaurants. It was such a blessing that we were able to walk everywhere! That is the one thing I did enjoy about the trip, the ability to walk everywhere.

Thursday:
I worked. I read. I napped. We had dinner at this neat little BBQ place called Black Eyed Sallys where our waitress was a girl who went to school where we live...weird!

Friday:
I worked. I read. I napped. We packed up and headed back to the City Stream Brewery because we liked it so much. We ended up at the airport SO early and were totally grateful that there was a bar (Black Bear Salloon) to kill time at. More Summer Shandy here, of course. We didn't get home until well after midnight because we were delayed due to a peanut allergy? They had to remove all the nuts from the plane and couldn't sell snacks. I'm sorry, but if you're allergic to peanuts wouldn't you make arrangements BEFORE we are all on the plane? Like, hey, airplane, I totally can't even SMELL peanuts or else I swell up and die?! Oh well.

It was neat to go somewhere where I knew no one, had no expectations, and had a nice few days to RELAX. However, if I have to travel for work again, I hope it's somewhere a little more... hopping?! Hartford was busy late at night with the college crowd in our area but besides drinking... we didn't notice too much else to do.