Lajeune

Fun Things to do in Connecticut – Part III

There’s lots to do in the state of Connecticut during the Summer, especially when the weather is cooperating. It is truly ‘hotter than July’ so there is really no need to travel anywhere, we have sun filled days and long nights right here in CT (smile).

Here is a short list of annual events that occur in the Summer months and involve food, fun, music, festivities, entertainment and more! The good news is that most are free to attend and some even offer free parking.

A Taste of Mystic (New London County)

This annual event takes place at the Olde Mistick Village (OMV) around the second weekend in June (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) and involves food and drinks, live bands, loads of entertainment, merchant specials and more!

Admission is free (parking is also free). To participate in The Taste you buy sleeves of tickets for $1.00 each to be exchanged for food and drinks from the vendors.

Joyce Reskinoff the owner of Olde Mistick Village being interviewed by News 8’s own Co-Chief Meteorologist Joe Furey

And the OMV Merchants offer money-saving specials as well! Here’s a PSA: Be sure to support these Connecticut based small businesses.

Garden Specialties

UNA

Bestemors Imports

Franklins

Smiths Boutique

Kitch

Sticky Situations

Munsons Chocolates

New Haven Music on the Green (New Haven County)

In New Haven the unofficial start to Summer kicks off with Music on the Green!

Ryan Kristofer and Teresa DuFour of CT Style along with Jo Jo Pastors and her gf on the New Haven Green

In Summers past we have been entertained (in our VIP seats) by such notable acts as Ronnie Spector, Debbie Gibson, Taylor Dayne, KC and the Sunshine Band and En Vogue, just to name a few.

And this year we had the pleasure of seeing Lisa Lisa on Saturday 7/20/19 and Morris Day on Saturday 7/29/19!

Morris Day is 61 years young – a real talent for sure!

The Hamden Free Summer Concert Series (New Haven County)

Beginning late June on Friday nights at 6pm at the Hamden Town Center Park, live bands play to diverse crowds made up of singles, couples, families, dogs and more! This free annual outdoor event truly features something for everyone. There’s no VIP but at the same time there is truly not a bad seat in the house. And if you come hungry you can feast off of the nearby food trucks or better yet, pack your own picnic complete with adult beverages. Bring your lawn chairs and blankets and make a space on the lawn as happy people jam to the music.

Plenty of room at the free Hamden Summer Concert Series at the Hamden town green. Long lines at the ethnically diverse food trucks

This year (2019) on Week 4 The Wailers, featuring Julian Junior Marvin, delighted the Friday night crowd.

The Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz (Hartford County)

Jazz is alive and well outdoors at the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz at Bushnell Park in Hartford! This free annual event takes place over an entire weekend (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) in mid July. There are food and retail clothing vendors and folks completely covering the Bushnell park lawn with their blankets, lawn chairs, coolers and sun umbrellas. Big screen TVs on both sides of the stage ensure that everyone gets a decent view. It’s a thing!

The line-up of jazz musicians is awesome and the party lasts all day long and well into the night.

Having a blast in Hartford – jazz is everywhere – love the energy here!

Although this is a free event donations are gladly accepted…

New London Sailfest (New London County)

This coastal city comes alive during the Summer with its signature event, the New London Sailfest!

July is the month and the entire mid-month weekend (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) offers something for all family members.

From tall ships to face painting to patriotic costumes and more, there is truly something for everyone.

Speaking of which, there are amusement park rides, face painting, delicious food options plus sailboat and people watching.

The food, the rides, the atmosphere, the fireworks at night…

So that’s my short list of fun things to do during Summers in Connecticut – Staycate and enjoy!

Sincerely,

TVFL

Beach Bum

We were desperately in need of a vacation – the goal was somewhere warm, beachy and fun – so the Sunshine state immediately came to mind (with the help of Karen, our travel agent).

We couldn’t of timed it better – we departed from Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, CT on a rainy, dreary Sunday morning in mid-May at 720am and arrived to sunny Tampa International Airport in Tampa, Florida less than 3 hours later.

Our destination was the Sirata Beach Resort in Clearwater, Florida a half hour from TIA airport (but it took our shuttle service over an hour and a half to get there due to heavy traffic and multiple drop-offs).

It was worth the long wait though once we saw that the resort (although not as new as the promotional video pictured it) was nonetheless cute and quaint (smile).

After we checked into our City View (as opposed to Ocean View) suite at Sirata Beach Resort, we headed out the door for some much needed grub and a walk on St. Pete’s Beach.

Our first stop at the resort for grub was Harry’s Beach Bar because we were starving and because it was literally right in front of us (smile). The food at Harry’s was okay, nothing to write home about, but the peek-a-boo views of the pool and the beach were inviting…

After lunch we went for a long walk on St. Pete’s Beach, touted as the number 1 beach in the U.S. The breathtaking beauty of this beach reminded me of vacationing in the Caribbean- – white sand, baby blue water and lots of big waves.

While walking the beach we could not help but notice how it was sectioned off by resorts in that each individual resort (over the 13 acres of premier beachfront!) had it’s own matching cabanas, beach loungers, chairs and umbrellas perfectly lined up on their own property. Sirata Beach Resort property provided 2 complimentary beach loungers per room per day to their guests. If you wanted front row access (prime real estate) you had to head to the beach by 8am and pay the the attendant $20 for a Sirata Beach umbrella. This reservation ensured that your beach loungers and umbrella would be placed in the front row and that no one could move into your spot for the entire day. Nor could anyone park in front of you. We made front row reservations every day over the next 4 days (smile).

Sirata Beach Resort is a lot of things but it is not all-inclusive. However there are a total of 4 restaurants at the resort which are all decent. One of our favorite casual dining restaurants on the resort was Rum Runners Bar and Grill which also featured live music in the evenings.

And since Sirata Beach Resort is situated on Gulf Boulevard, there are a ton of good restaurant choices – most within walking distance. We discovered a really good seafood restaurant called Crabby Bills 5 minutes from our resort a few days before we departed. It was sooooo good we ate there two days in a row (smile).

As far as night life, we stumbled upon a beautiful hotel while walking along Gulf Boulevard during the day. It had a rooftop deck for drinks and apps and a fine dining restaurant below called Spinners (it literally spun while you dined). This hotel was called the Grand Plaza Hotel. We went there that same evening and sat outside on the rooftop deck for drinks and apps.

While reading about daily activities at the resort I saw that there was a free service called Beach Rides. These vans provide free local rides to resort guests but ask that you leave a tip since this is how they make their living. We called Beach Rides to take us to another local beach called Madeira Beach on our 3rd day. We chose Madeira as were interested in seeing the marina, stopping in on the boardwalk shops and taking a dolphin watch tour.

Our dolphin watch tour was for 1.5 hours and we found it was a quick and easy way to learn about the residents who lived around the bay as well as information about dolphin life. There were a lot of dolphins out that afternoon and we even saw a baby dolphin that the Captain told us had just been born 24 hours ago!

Very active Dolphin tour which we learned that day is not always the case

Excited to see baby dolphins – a rare sight indeed!

Afterwards we ate outdoors at The Hut Bar and Grill while we watched lots of other tours and boat activity. Great day at Madeira Beach.

The following day we were back at our resort. Oh, I forgot to mention that every night during the week the resort offered free drinks at the tiki bar from 730pm to 8pm. You had your choice of beer, wine or rum punch. It was here that we met a nice couple that happened to be Clearwater locals. They were telling us where to go in the short time we had remaining on our trip.

The Tiki Bar party featured free drinks to resort residents every night!

What stuck in my mind was when this couple told us about going to downtown St. Petersburg at night. From the way they described it, it sounded like our kind of town so we took their advice and caught a Beach Rides van to St. Petersburg, FL (15 minutes from Clearwater). We paid a flat fee of $25.00 since it was out of the beach zone and enjoyed a nice stroll at the marina, sightseeing in downtown St. Petersburg, a free movie night on the Green, late night snacks outdoors at a popular restaurant and a live music session at Ruby’s.

Here we are on a rooftop lounge indulging in adult beverages

We loved our time in St. Petersburg and we plan on heading back when we have more time (smile).

Our final day at the resort was spent packing up, spending time on the beach for a last walk and eating out at Crabby Bills. Here is a picture of one of our last nights on the beach.

Sincerely,

TVFL

Summer Love

I’m that girl who happens to love the change of seasons that living in New England affords me…However, if April showers are supposed to bring May flowers, what do May showers bring?!?

That’s the $64,000 question in Connecticut today as we head into the 2nd week of May and those pesky intermittent April showers trail right behind us…

Why do I care? Well for one I simply cannot seem to decide what to wear to work anymore – should I wear dark clothes to reflect the dim and gloomy skies or light clothes in anticipation of brighter days?

And this iffy weather is even affecting down time on the weekends: our grass is growing like wildfire so our lawnmower service cannot keep up!

But being the eternal optimist that I am, I try real hard not to take it too seriously, i.e., let it affect my mood but sometimes I’m not successful…

So here’s the glass half-full point of view: Have you taken a look outside lately?!? All of that icky persistent rain this past month and a half has turned the bare brown ugliness of Winter into a beautiful Green paradise.

And wait, there’s more: Summer! One of my fave seasons is only about 6 weeks away. I have a lot to look forward to…

Early sunrises and late sunsets…

Carefree Summer work clothes with open-toed sandals

Weekend Golf lessons with my female Golf mates

And a promise to not complain when it’s too hot outside (smile).

Sincerely,

TVFL

My Clean Living Life Part VI

As anyone who regularly reads TVFL knows, this girl has been blogging about taking care of her health and well being for the past several years. It was precipitated 8 years ago when I was diagnosed with colon cancer: Check out my blog post: A Place of Desert…(almost) 4 years cancer free So it should come as no surprise to anyone that my most shared blog post, My clean living life… is up to Part Six. Namely because health and wellness is something that I (and apparently others in or not in my age group) struggle with. And I’m not ashamed to write about it. However, don’t get me wrong, if I could wave a magic wand and become the healthiest girl alive overnight, I would’ve been there done that soooo many years ago (smile).

As is stands, working out at the Edge Fitness Center 5 mornings a week, eating clean and healthy, getting the proper ZZZs at night and imbibing only on the weekends can get old (smile).

Especially when you work on 100 percent commission in a pressure-cooker environment each and every weekday…

But I’m not one to throw a pity party for too long…I like to look on the bright side of life. For instance, my quest for good health and wellness affords me the following rewards: a brighter, sunnier disposition, faster metabolism, increased energy and overall improved health.