On August 9, Andrea and I flew out to Connecticut for Ken and Becky’s wedding. We left at 8 am from Denver, flying to Bradley International in Hartford via Dallas on American. The flight from Denver went smoothly and we grabbed lunch in the airport in Dallas. Little did we know that this would be the only on time flight in the entire weekend.
The next flight to Hartford was delayed in boarding for about 30 minutes due to a late arriving aircraft. We boarded, pushed back, and were #1 in line for takeoff when air traffic control had us sit on the tarmac for an hour due to weather over Ohio. So, needless to say, we were over an hour late getting into Hartford, causing us to miss the rehearsal dinner.
Bradley International in Hartford has to be one of the dirtiest, dingiest airports that I have ever seen. The building looks like it was built in the 1950’s and no one has done any maintenance to it since. The halls were all dark and dirty, and the entire facility looked like it was about to fall apart.
After leaving the airport, we drove down to Bristol where the wedding was and checked into the Bristol Clarion Hotel. It turned out that we were just a block and a half from the ESPN studios, but they didn’t give tours. The desk attendant gave us directions to Queen Street where all of the restaurants were, but all of the street signs in that area of Connecticut must be modeled off of postage stamps, causing us to miss numerous turns; a theme that was to be repeated many times during our 2 days in Connecticut. We finally found Friendly’s where we had dinner and then we returned to the hotel where we met up with Becky and some of her friends before heading to bed.
On the morning of the 10th, we got up and ran a few errands before heading to west Hartford where we toured the Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe houses. Mark Twain’s house is a large, somewhat dark house where he lived during the time of his most prolific writing from 1874-1891. The Twain house was decorated by Louis C. Tiffany and contains many early examples of what would later evolve into his signature glasswork.
The Harriet Beecher Stowe house is the house in which she lived in the later part of her life. The Stowes moved into this house in 1873, right next to their neighbor, Mark Twain. The house is decorated with a number of paintings by Harriet Beecher Stowe as well as a numbe of other items owned by the Stowes. Best known as the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe also wrote a number of other works. The kitchen in the house largely conforms to the model kitchen laid out in her book “American Woman’s Home.”
After leaving the Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain houses, we went back to Bristol and quickly changed for the wedding. Becky and Ken’s wedding was at the St. Matthew Catholic Church in Forestville, CT. The service was beautiful. We then headed to the Aqua Turf Club for the reception where we promptly got lost again. The reception was great, complete with an open bar, a three course meal, and lots of dancing. We were seated with all of the other law school friends who had attended, ensuring plenty of conversation. We finally headed back to the hotel from the reception shortly after 11 pm, where we sat in the room and chatted with Andrea’s friend, Brian, for over an hour before finally heading to bed.
