Sunday, September 21, 2008

The Big E

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The Eastern States Exposition is a huge agricultural fair that encompasses many of the New England states. It is one of the largest fairs in the U.S. and lasts for 3 weeks. We headed up to Massachusetts on the scooter in the sunny weather. It took us about 2-1/2 hours but it was a fun ride. We met up with Andy and Erin who had driven over from Boston.
Erin seems to be quite happy as a sheep. Andy on the other hand appears to be quite a serious sheep.

We met lots of animals and specifically a lot of sheep.There were thousands of people at The Big E on Saturday and there was plenty of fried food and carnival rides for everyone. As you can see, Erin and Andy were quite excited about riding the Ferris Wheel Andy tried to break some bottles but fell short of winning a toy.The "Whac-a-mole" game was just as fruitless.A final attempt was made by Erin but the carnival got to keep their toys and our money.By the end of the night we had satisfied our appetite for carnival food and entertainment and headed home. We hadn't anticipated how chilly it would get in the evening so our nighttime ride home to New Haven was a cold one. We stopped half way to warm up in a McDonald's with some coffee. It was almost 1am by the time we got back and as Jen said "I've never been so happy to see New Haven". Next time we'll be better prepared.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Shopping Buddy

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We took a trip today to do some shopping. As you can see, Jen has the parcels strapped to the back of the scoot. The weather was great for cruisin' along, although it got a little toasty while waiting at traffic lights for too long.

Citizenship

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We knew Friday would be busy, so we both took the day off work. In the morning we had our motorcycle driving test. the whole process dragged out for a couple of hours, but that's the nature of the DMV. We both passed, so the day was off to a good start. The key activity for the day was Jen's naturalization ceremony. At 10.30am we heading downtown to the city courthouse. As you can see, the room was full of people. It was so full that we got to sit in the jury box. It turns out that the jury gets some very comfortable reclining leather seats. We were practicing our "We the members of the jury find the defendant...guilty" speech. There were a total of 67 people getting citizenship, from 29 countries and 5 continents.
Surprisingly there were no little flags handed out and there was no speech by George.W.Bush played on the screens. A judge entered and the formal part took maybe 15 minutes. The 67 people stood and recited the oath. The judge left the room and the citizenship certificates were handed out by a man wearing a stars and stripes tie. And here's a photo outside the courthouse.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

North Haven Fair

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It's fair season as autumn approaches. The north haven fair is very close to New Haven and is one of the smaller fairs. As with all the agricultural fairs, there were livestock competitions, farms machinery and baking contests.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Norwich B&B "Shear Luck Farm"

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I thought I would post some photos from our trip last weekend. It was a long weekend because Monday was Labor day. We went up to Vermont and stayed on a farm just outside Norwich. It's currently not a working farm but they do have a few sheep and they keep chickens for fresh eggs. The food was excellent and our hosts were great. We spent our time visiting the local tourist spots.
Quechee Gorge
is a mile long, 165 foot deep gorge formed by the Ottauquechee River, in the village of Quechee, VT.There was a labor day weekend flea market taking place close to the gorge. This is a miniature steam train that they have drivng around a quarter mile track. We also sampled plenty of Cabot cheese here.Lake Morey Country Club for 9 holes of golf. I'll not tell you our scores.The Cornish-Windsor Bridge was, until this year, the longest covered bridge in the US (A longer one was built in Ohio). The bridge spans between Cornish, NH and Windsor, VT. The Connecticut river forms the border between Vermont and New Hampshire.On the way home we visited a maple syrup farm that taps 6,000 trees every year. We also visited, and got a tour of an Alpaca Farm, "Paris Hill Farm". The owners were very friendly and told us a lot about breeding alpacas. They gave us directions to get to a goat farm nearby, "Oak Knoll Dairy", where we could buy goats' milk. We found the farm and they had about 400 goats. As we had been told, there was a small shed with a paper sign that read "buy goats' milk here". We went in and all that was inside was a refridgerator with a price list on it. Inside the refridgerator was a selection of milk and a tin can to leave your money. We bought some milk and headed home.