Memorial Day Weekend

Great Park Pursuit - Week 4
Abandoned once again by the Carrolls who went camping at Lake George with Lorri's family,  i was left alone to carry on the tradition.... this week's GPP location was Natchaug State Forest in Eastford CT. Ironically this is exactly where Jon, Lorri, Alyssa and Amanda were camping LAST WEEKEND when they abandoned us previously!  This week was again a self-guided tour, no rush to run up there (2 hours away) and due to Jake's driving class on Saturday I figured a Sunday trip would be nice way to spend the day, the weather forecast was looking great! We went out to dinner Saturday night and I brought up the GPP. Mind you, I'd already talked about it with Amy and cleared the way for the Sunday trip. Suddenly my whole family, including my wife of nearly 21 years, turned on me, attacking my integrity, honor and good name. They had the audacity to call the GPP "lame" and flat our refused to participate any further.  So, needless to say, dinner didn't go too well after that.


Not So Great Park Pursuit
Consolation prize was to find something to do locally. Meg really wanted to attend the Memorial Day parade in town so we needed to find something to do for a few hours in the morning. We ended up doing a little biking and hiking on the "Rails to Trails" in Trumbull. We'd gone here in the past and knew what to expect so we packed a picnic lunch and headed off. We had fun hiking around the "swimming hole" but Jake lost his sun glasses in the water when he jumped over some rocks.

Later in the afternoon, sans Jake, we went to the parade. In previous years Meg and I walked in the parade as part of her Brownie troop but this year we were just spectators. It was a lot more fun to be in the parade but we had a good time.

Monday's weather was nice in the morning so Meg, Jake and I decided to do a little more hiking, this time at Webb Mountain Park.  Hiked for an hour or so and climbed around on some rocks.

Ice Cream, U Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!
The Carrolls, back from their camping adventure, joined us for the kickoff of this summers Great Ice Cream Caper (??). After a failed attempt at locating Carnival Cones & Cakes ( and the realization that i just need to be in charge of this stuff) we found our way to Denmo's Snack + Dairy Bar in Southbury CT.

More of a road side drive-in than an ice cream shop but they had both hard and soft serve ice cream and the "gourmet" flavors were pretty good.  Price was very reasonable but the service was not so good. I'll chalk it up to early season jitters and the staff being new.  Jake had to change his order because they were out of Snickers flavor ice cream and Jon had to remind them what Alyssa and Amanda were waiting for.  Not bad, definitely my favorite place so far this year.