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(Click on the pictures to obtain larger images, which take longer to download.) Photographs © George P. Landow. Images may be used without written permission for any educational purpose. Any commercial or other use requires prior written permission.
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(Left) Ruth, tickets in hand, waits to board the special first-class parlor car. (Middle left) The locomotive, which had pulled the train from the other end, has switched ends and is about to be reattached. (Middle right) The wonderfully shiny restored locomotive, a 2-8-2. (Right) Ruth sitting in her swivel seat before the car filled up.
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(Left) George across the aisle. (Middle) The steamboat landing: we disembark while those who've completed the hour-long cruise on the Connecticut River approach the train to return to the station. (Right) Ruth relaxing on board, crocheting, while we listen to the pleasant, informed guide.
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(Left) Here we pass the tiny car ferry that brings one from the riverside across to the island on whose heights perches Gillette's Castle (at top of picture), which was constructed by an wealthy stage actor who made a fortune playing Sherlock Holmes. We had taken this ferry some years ago during one of our Connecticut inn jaunts, the photos of which are in one of the as-yet-unscanned volumes of the family album. (Middle) The remains of a bridge Gillette had constructed. It lead to a gazebo, which used to sit on the white stone foundation. (Right) We pass the ferry.
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(Left) If you look carefully, you can make out the train returning to take us back to the station. (Right) Ruth outside one of our favorite places -- the Bee and Thistle Inn in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
After leaving Essex, Connecticut, we drove a few miles north to the Bee and Thistle Inn in hopes that they would have room for us at dinner. Fortunately, a large party had just canceled. After enjoying a nice single-malt for twenty minutes or so in their lounge, which is furnished with Queen Anne-style furniture and fine paintings, we went into the dining room. We took our places at a table in a glassed-in porch that overlooks a beautiful flower garden. The food was wonderful, as always, and the warm bread pudding with caramel sauce -- superb. It came with a tiny glass cup of whipped cream within which the waitress had placed a candle. Ruth, it turns out, had told someone that it was George's birthday, and a handsome couple at a nearby table, who were celebrating their twenty-fifth anniversary, offered their felicitations, a someone quieter result than when Ruth had casually mentioned G's birthday to the cashier at Loui's earlier that day: the cashier, who is one of Louis's daughters, announced that fact to all, and the entire beanery sang "Happy Birthday" at the top of their lungs. From Loui's to the Bee and Thistle -- Ruth always arranges a good birthday celebration!
