Lighthouse, Bulldogs, Pizza, and Family

We had our first set of visitors that weren't our parents come to town and it was a much needed, wonderful visit. A time to laugh, catch up, and do a little Connecticut exploring with not just two small kids but three under the age of three (let's just say every time we went to do something someone was napping). The Mr.'s older brother, wife, and daughter were our first non parent guest. They were such troopers, willing to pile into our small apartment and crazy life with our two children. 

During their visit we were able to play outside, take pictures (lots and lots of pictures), go for a walk, and just enjoy being together. They were so gracious to let me take millions of pictures with their sweet girl. My kids are over me taking their picture. Plus it was nice to get some cousin shots for the grandparents. 

Seeing that we had three little kids and the Mr. was having to work we didn't do a whole lot of exploration. We had not been into New Haven, other than to go to iKEA, so we were decided it was a great opportunity to explore somewhere near by. 

I've told you all before that apparently Connecticut has the best pizza, we've searched high and low. Apparently the best pizza place is in New Haven and goes by the name of Frank Pepe's. We thought this would be the perfect place to take our guest, and then we could all decide if it was the best pizza we had ever ate. They are most famous for their white clam pizza, I'm sorry I just can't bring myself to spend money on something that doesn't sound at all appealing, maybe if someone else ordered it I would give it a try. Frank Pepe's is located in New Haven's own "Little Italy." They have several locations but the one in New Haven is the original, it has the original wood burning oven, which is essential to making their famous pizza. While I wouldn't say its the best pizza I have ever had (we have been to Italy, which I just don't think my standards will ever be the same) it was pretty good. We opted for the standard margarita pizza. We ordered a large which was enough to cover four adults and the dictator. The service was crappy, our waitress was rude (I am assuming she had just had a bad day) and the host was just hateful. In fact it was the first time that I truly ever felt like I got that New England stereotype of being rude (surprisingly most people are really friendly). 

After lunch we headed over to Yale's campus. I am firm believer it is never to early to begin talking about college. Yale has a bulldog as a mascot so of course Elin thought it was worth looking at. She is considering it as one of her college choices, but UK is still at the top of her list(Go Big Blue)!

The next leg of our journey took us to East Haven Lighthouse. This is a state park, and well Connecticut charges for state parks, its absurd I know. The Mr. and I didn't even think anything about it before heading down there or otherwise we may have considered not going. Luckily though we arrived the weekend before the state park opened, so it was free. If you are going there between Memorial Day and Labor Day it is $20.00 a car for state residents and $35.00 a car for out of state residents (I am telling you in CT they charge you for EVERYTHING). Some of Wes' co-workers said that this state park can be pretty crowded on the weekend. We were able to get some nice photos of our visitors, thanks again for letting me take your picture Logan family! Definitely one of the prettier spots we have been in Connecticut, they are few and far between so we will take spots like this when we can.

We are so grateful to have had some visitors (WE LOVE VISITORS). We can't thank you guys enough for coming to visit. Moving away from everything you ever have known definitely has its ups and downs. While we are taking this adventure in and soaking up all the great things that it has to offer us we definitely appreciate the moments we shared with our guest. 

Hershey, PA The Sweetest Place on Earth

I told you all we have been doing some serious exploring. We had been planning this trip for awhile and were really looking forward to it. Who wouldn't want to go to a chocolate factory? Elin was beyond pumped for this trip. 

Originally we had planned the trip to be a weekend trip but the more we thought about it the more we thought that we could probably cover all the things to do in Hershey in a day, if we didn't do the theme park. At this point in our children's lives they are pretty small so we thought it probably wasn't worth it, plus the Mr. and I are not really theme park people (Disney being the only exception). We packed our bags and headed down to Hershey the second weekend of May, you would have thought the weather would be cooperating by then, ha! It went from cold, then to hot, then to cold and rainy, making it pretty difficulty to plan attire. I have quickly learned that you should pack for all seasons when walking out the door here, in the blink of an eye you will need a coat or a bag to put your coat in!

We started our day off at the Hershey Welcome Center. Apparently, people use to come from all over the world to visit the actually factory but so many people were coming that the factory just couldn't hold everyone, so they built the Hershey Park Welcome Center. The park is adjacent to the Welcome Center so if you are planning a trip everything is literally right there. The Welcome Center is where you learn about the making of those delicious candy bars from bean to shelf. They just revamped the tour and it is actually very cool. It pretty much is a ride like "Its a Small World" at Disney. You can sit back and relax and it takes you through the chocolate making process step by step. At the end of the ride you get none other than a Hershey chocolate of some sort, we ended our tour with a Kit-Kat. 

The Welcome Center has a huge shopping area, literally its almost impossible to get out of their without buying something. You can purchase a 5 lb. bag of any Hershey product(tempting I know). There are also several restaurants, mainly desserts! Don't forget the character chocolates, Elin refused to take her picture with any of them, but Baylor thought they were pretty cool. 

After the chocolate tour we went to make our own candy bar. This was an experience that was definitely worth doing, Elin is still talking about it. They dress you like "little chefs," as she calls it, apron and hair nets (even Baylor rocked a hair net). 

The first room you enter has little touch screens where you pick your ingredients. You can pick from 3 different flavor bases (milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate), then you can pick what goes inside, which I got the impression that those ingredients change frequently. Baylor and I picked a dark chocolate base with rice krispies, milk chocolate morsels, and cookie crumbles. Elin and the Mr. went with a white chocolate base, chocolate morsels,cookie crumbles, and sprinkles on top. 

The next room is where you watch your candy bar come together. You don't actually make the candy bar it just a little assembly line. The base comes out, it is filled with whatever you picked, and then covered in milk chocolate. The one disappointment we had was that we were expecting the entire bar to be made out of whatever chocolate we picked, but that was for the base only the bar was covered in milk chocolate (don't get me wrong it was still good, but I do love dark chocolate). 

The next room is where you design your cover. Again it is a touch screen and you can pick whatever color or text you want on it. Then you wait for your bar to get packaged up and ready to take home! The whole experience takes about 45 minutes and it was definitely Elin's favorite part of the trip. 

After the candy bar making it was time for lunch. We had planned to go to a restaurant in Hershey but we didn't have much time to wait between making the candy bar and loading up on a trolley for a tour of the town. We opted for Chipotle and to hit up the Art on Chocolate Festival, instead of going to a sit down restaurant. The Art on Chocolate Festival was awesome, if you have been following the blog you know I love a good art festival. It was perfect! Lots of cool odds and end artwork and jewelry. I definitely wish we would have had more time to spend there but I didn't know it was going on that weekend and we had already pre-purchased our tickets for the trolley that we needed to get to. 

The trolley ride was by far our favorite thing that we did. At least for the Mr. and I. Elin and Baylor took a nice little nap. The trolley started at the Welcome Center and went all around Hershey, PA. It was a guided tour of Hershey, and we learned so much not only about the town but about Milton Hershey himself. He was a pretty awesome guy. I will not share all the details of the trolley ride because it is truly an awesome excursion that I hope one day anyone reading this can experience. You will have a new found appreciate for purchasing any Hershey product. 

Important things to note:
1.) Parking is more expensive the longer you stay, crazy I know but it is honestly better to go do something for a few hours leave for lunch and come back. 
2.) The park is really more geared towards older kids, lots of roller coasters. 
3.) You can book all your tickets online and save a dollar or two. 

We loved being able to check Hershey off our list, it is truly the sweetest place on Earth. We aren't done with Pennsylvania yet, we will be back soon!

Elephant Trunk Flea Market As Seen on HGTV

When you think of a flea market your mind instantly races to a few antiques, good deals, farm animals, knock off purses, and well essentially junk because that is what most of them have become these days. My mind races to a place full of hidden treasures that you can turn into works of art, now that kind of flea market is a hidden treasure in itself. I love a good flea market. Partly because I love crafting and making old new again and partly because I love people watching. I am a sucker for places that scream people watching, and we all know that is exactly what you will find at your typical flea market. Now I maybe crazy and you may disagree but in the KY I feel like the flea markets have made a turn for the worse. Back in the day they were filled with those rare finds, but now it seems like the are literally full of just junk (air brush t-shirts, toys you buy at the fair, and the list goes on and on). Maybe there are still some legit flea markets out there but I just haven't been to a good one in some time. 

Now in Connecticut we have found the greatest flea market I believe I have ever been to. Seriously people it is worth the trip up here just for the flea market finds and food trucks, oh the food trucks (my mouth is currently watering). If you have ever watched the show Flea Market Flip on HGTV than you probably have seen the very flea market that I so lovingly dragged the Mr. and kids to (they will no longer go kicking and screaming, the Mr. is practically begging to go back so he can be put into a food truck coma again). 

The Elephant Trunk is located in New Milford, CT. This is about 45 minutes from where the Mr. and I live. It is only open on Sundays during the months of April through December. You can participate as a vendor or a buyer. The flea market opens bright an early, and if you are an early bird (5:45 a.m.) be prepared to pay $20 for admission, regular buyers (7:00 a.m. and beyond)pay $2.00 for admission. The market has a variety of vendors and honestly they say no two weekends are the same at the market. Vendors travel from all across the country to participate in this flea market. Its really pretty incredible. To top it all off there are some great food trucks set up. 

The weekend that the Mr. and I went (and I think they are there every weekend during market season) the Crafty Cue food truck was there. Now the Mr. and I love BBQ (you could always find us at Marks on Monday night when we lived in Louisville, we were Monday regulars). Seeing that we were there around brunch a lot of the food trucks were serving breakfast type items, but there were so many and it was a little chilly (cold enough for the kids to take a really good nap all snuggled up in the stroller) that we didn't have time to check them all out. Back to the Crafty Cue, we decided to eat brunch at this cute little food truck and both order the "Dirty Pig," which consisted of BBQ, an egg, two slices of bacon on top of some delicious type of bun. Some of you maybe reading this thinking that sounds disgusting, others maybe curious about this concoction, while others maybe watering at the mouth (that would be me as I type this post). Let me just tell you the Mr. believes it is the best BBQ sandwich he has ever eaten (we've been to Austin folks, grew up with Moonlight BBQ, we know our BBQ). I kid you not he has talked about it since we left, wishes he would have bought two sandwiches. He is currently reading this post planning our next trip to the Elephant Trunk. It was pretty delectable, and I honestly think anything on their menu would have been scrumptious. Also a major plus to Crafty Cue, they served sweet tea and it was good. I love a good food truck, they never let me down. 

To sweet not to share

They both took a great nap, missed brunch entirely

While we didn't find any treasures we couldn't live without (we really don't have room anyways) it was nice to look around. We were there for 2 hours before it got cold and rainy and only made it down two rows, and of course ate. Its a huge flea market, so if you are coming bring your wagon (to put your goodies in), wear your walking shoes, and come hungry. I promise the Elephant Trunk won't disappoint.