Harkness Memorial State Park…CT
So this weekend we had a family get together, some picture taking with both Grandparents of our grandbaby, along with aunts and uncles and two dogs. Had a professional photog take photos of the people, and a dog or two. I promised bb that I would be good, and I was, tired, but good. But you know, you can only watch so many snapshots of people and dogs and since I just happened to bring my own professional camera so I started to…wander..
…Harkness Memorial State Park. To be honest my family and I have lived here in CT for over 30 years, and up until yesteday I had never heard of this place. Not its fault of course, my fault as there are many, many places I’ve never heard of, and an equal amount of places that I’ve heard of but forgot I heard of them…71 years old does that to you.
So come on lets wander around the joint, fair warning if you quote anything I say about the park PLEASE double check the facts, see above for the reason.
That’s the Long Island Sound out there…
…it was really windy so this is as close as I wanted to get to it, I’ve been on it a few times, it looks like all the other bumpy water I’ve been on while wishing I wasn’t on bumpy water. The park is 230 acres along the Long Island Sound. Personally I get kind of pissed when I have to write “Long Island Sound” because I happen to know for a fact that the bumpy water out there actually bumps into Connecticut as well, so at the very least it should be called “The Connecticut & Long Island Sound,” just be correct for gawd’s sake.
So, like everything else around here that is really old…
…there is always some Rockerfeller, John D, connection, here to, basically a guy in Ohio somehow made a ton of money with John-D and decided that he should live where he could keep an eye on Johnny, so he moved here to be on the Connecticut/Long Island Sound…
(T/O…that’s not a painting, I monkeyed around the innards of the Canon 5d and when I switch to that function the photo comes out looking like a painting….most times)
…so in 1907 Edward and Mary Harkness buy a mansion here, decide in 1918 that their place needed some fixing up which took until 1929 to complete. Personally I might have gotten a different handyman who might have worked quicker…just saying.
At some point Ed and Mary pass away and in 1950 all the land and fixed up house became the property of the state of Connecticut. In 1952 the state gave it to us, as a park where if you have a CT license plate on your car, you can get in free to wander around.
You can click on any of these pictures to make the photo larger.
This is possibly my favorite wandering around shot of Harkness except…
…it’s actually not in Harkness State Park. It’s on the other side of the pond from the park but you can see it from the park so that counts. Wandering rule #1.
May do some more wandering, if I do I’ll take you along (figuratively speakin’)…
…but hey try to wander, you don’t have to board a plane or big arse cruise ship to see things, you’d be surprised what you will see if you just walk around and take the time, to look.
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”