Adventure Weekend in CT

Happy Halloween!

This past weekend, I visited my friend H in Connecticut and we had ourselves a nice girls' weekend with loads of pink wine, delicious food, and some adrenaline rush-inducing activities. It was kind of random but loads of fun and I'm v. pleased with how the weekend turned out.

I didn't bring my camera up with me, since I was looking for a low-key weekend, but I wanted to do an iPhone photo dump. I like doing these not just because I enjoy documenting my life on this journal-like platform, but because I have a way to preserve the photos when I need to clean out my phone to make space.

I drove up after work on Friday evening. When I arrived, I said hello to Eisa (the cat) and met the snake, Sebastian. H and I hadn't seen each other since two Halloweens prior in New Orleans so we spent time catching up and fell asleep to Hocus Pocus.

On Saturday morning, we went to Max Fish not realizing they only do brunch on Sundays. Luckily, our server was really sweet and when we ordered bloody marys, she had the bartender gussy them up with celery sticks to make us feel a bit better about our gaff.

We started with a plate of oysters, which were fabulous. The Pickering Pass oysters in particular were really great; the menu claimed they had a "cucumber finish" and they totally did.

For her main, H got the lobster roll and I got sea scallops with haricots verts and butternut squash risotto. The food was great and despite it not being officially brunch, we still enjoyed ourselves.

After "brunch" we headed to the Priam Vineyards to do a bit of wine tasting and kill some time before our scheduled afternoon plans. The gentleman who served us was the most fabulous, amazing man ever. He made the wine tasting so much fun and the way he described the wines was relatable and not at all pretentious. Pretentiousness is the thing I hate most about going to wineries.

All of the wines were great but we decided to buy a bottle of the pink to enjoy outside.

And then we became mechanics for a hot minute because H's dashboard claimed that her car was low on motor oil.

The car recovered and we set off to do a bit of a leaf peeping drive through a really scenic route.

We had bought tickets to do a ziplining adventure at EMPOWER that was scheduled for the afternoon so we arrived a little early and sat in the car getting psyched up. Both of us have a fear of heights so we were a little anxious but also pretty excited.

We signed some waivers (I didn't actually read them but I'm sure they were something along the lines of "if you die, you can't sue us") and then geared up. Our instructors were Wolfgang and Mike and they were awesome. Wolfgang is literally the best and I might have cried and abandoned the whole activity if it weren't for him.

We ended up having a lot of fun, but I'm not going to lie, I was petrified at times, especially on the platforms up in the trees which swayed every time anyone even blinked.

At one point, you have to choose between two obstacle courses. One is a net and tightrope route. The one I chose was to cross two bridges. The first one was fine. The second one was terrifying and maybe one of my top ten fears realized, but I survived. Also, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that we were both sore the next day. I need to hit the gym a bit harder.

After our thrilling afternoon, we were both starving so we went to dinner at Bui for some Vietnamese food. I started with spring rolls while H went for steamed dumplings. I loved the bright gingery salad and daikon pickles accompanying the spring rolls.

For our mains, we both opted for the pho with shaved beef, meatballs, and shrimp. When I asked for chili garlic sauce, our server brought over a dish of homemade sauce; it was bomb. The pho was great and totally hit the spot.

After dinner, we freshened up our makeup (well, I went for a creepier look) and headed to Nightmare Acres so we could creep ourselves out. (How big does my forehead look in this photo? Wow, fivehead alert.)

The Haunted House was great. It was pretty big - I think it took us almost half an hour to go through the whole thing - and it was so much fun. The actors were all great and the themes of each room touched on different fears, including clowns and mentally insane weirdos, and it was so much fun. I am a loser that screams at everything (including bits of the zipline) so I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Afterwards, we went back home to relax with some libations to warm ourselves up. We watched a bunch of fun things on TV and true to my typical self, I fell asleep during one of the shows.

Sunday morning, we went to an early brunch at Mill on the River, which I highly recommend. It's basically $22 per person to get two cocktails, an entree, and access to a breakfast buffet with warm rolls and muffins, fruit, bagels, smoked salmon, various pastries, and desserts. H and I shared the seafood crepe and the eggs benedict with filet mignon and I was basically in heaven.

I wish I could have hung out a bit longer but unfortunately, Philippe (the tropical storm, not the horse from Beauty & the Beast) was rolling in and I didn't want my drive to be too difficult in pounding rain and high winds so I hit the road around noon.

I had a fun weekend going out of my comfort zone and am currently brainstorming more activities I can do to expand my horizons a bit more. I am open to suggestions!

xoxo.