Day Tripper

There's too much stuff in our lives, so we celebrate events and holidays with experiences. For our wedding anniversary we went on a boat tour of the Thimble Islands, off the coast of Branford, Connecticut.

The archipelago consists of about thirty-five (depending on whose accounting you buy) very tiny islands, quite a number of which support only one house.

I find this part of New England an interesting confluence of fantasy and reality. All you need is a lot of money and you, too, can own an adorably tiny island with a beautiful house. If the fantasy exceeds your means, the boat tour from Branford Harbor leaves several times daily and costs $10.http://www.thimbleislandcruise.com/tours.html

On the way home H dropped me at the Connecticut Yarn and Wool outlet in Madison, just off I-95, and left in search of a cold drink. It's a diminutive shop and took me little time to find beautiful yarns at seductively low prices. Once again, the man on duty was Bill, who had shown us around the Mother Shop in Haddam (for more on this, see my post of 3/7/10).

                                           

Here's Bill, ensconced in this bright jewel-box of a boutique. One of its features is an all-you-can-stuff-into-a-bag deal. If you're looking for extremely interesting hand-dyed yarns, you really can't go wrong this way. But if you don't want that many (I managed to stuff twelve 200-yard skeins into a fairly small bag), the discounts are deep nonetheless--usually about 40% off retail, sometimes more.
www.yarnandwool.com  By the time H had slaked his thirst with a grotesquely huge Coke, I'd temporarily satisfied my desire for ever more yarn, and we hit the road.

It was a really, really nice day.