Sometimes Dinner Tastes Better Outside of The Hotel Room.

Boy, I can't believe our time in Connecticut is coming to an end! We've definitely loved it up here and have felt so at home in New England. We're trying to fit in as many excursions as possible in the next three days (ahh!), but I realized that I had the draft for this fun Connecticut date just sitting there for weeks!

Perhaps the only aspect of our time here that we won't miss is living in a hotel for months. I suppose its nice having someone else clean our bathroom and take out our trash, but not having a kitchen has been difficult. Cooking and baking is a bonding and stress relieving activity (usually!) for us, so at times its been frustrating not really having that option. And while I have come up with some pretty ingenious ways to cook meals in our hotel room that consist of more than microwave dinners (shall I write a post about cooking in a hotel room??), we both always enjoy those nights when we're able to get out of the Chalet and sit down to an oh-so-tasty meal that wasn't made in a rice cooker.

So a few weeks ago we went to a super cute, locally recommended pasta shop, Paul's Pasta. You guys, this place is so great! I probably love it more because the weather was gorgeous (not even 80 degrees!) and they had outdoor seating, so we twirled and slurped our pasta on a cool, covered deck overlooking the Thames River. Eating Outside--my favorite thing!

What better place to indulge in clam linguine and lobster ravioli than New England! It was heaven. Cheesy, warm, garlicy, rich, creamy, tasty heaven. My mouth is watering just thinking about it again. I  think I need to stop writing about such deliciously fabulous food all the time... 

Cannolis--my favorite thing! Ha or at least one of them. But hey, Outdoor dining and cannolis? Talk about double satisfaction. Probably my favorite aspect of this particular cannoli was the pastry shell. Light and flaky but without a taste and crunch that's reminiscent of stale supermarket cream puffs that I so often find with the bakery favorite. But hey, I'm no expert or anything. 

After dinner we decided to take a short drive over to Mystic and do a little window shopping while simultaneously walking off some of that to-die-for pasta.

Oh be still, my heart! We love the whole vibe of Mystic and the other similar coastal towns. Though if we're being specific, Mystic is technically a village---I didn't even realize "villages" still existed!

The cool thing about being an adult is, if you want two desserts, you can have 'em! And we wanted ice cream. We had heard good things about Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream so we decided to give it a go. For our Lexington/Buena Vista friends, it was similar to Sweet Things but far more expensive with a staff that was quite rude---or at least unfriendly at best. And there's no Johnny Cash music either. The actual ice cream was still refreshing and delicious, but we're eager to be back at Sweet Things again.

While sitting on the dock and eating our ice cream, we watched the drawbridge go up for a sailboat to pass through! I suppose its no big deal for residents of Mystic, where the bridge lifts about once every hour, but for us it was quite the exciting experience. Oh and did I mention that meanwhile, there was a man playing bagpipes (the sailor's Hornpipe, no less) from his balcony on the opposite side of the water? New England culture, seafood, water, and scottish bagpipes---my heart is home!

Ok. please hold back your judgmental scoffs. But In addition to pasta, a cannoli, and ice cream, we maaaay have gotten a slice of pizza too.

I know, I know, oink oink. But how could we go to Mystic and not grab a slice from Mystic Pizza? Remember the whole, philly cheesesteak in Philly thing? Its just part of the experience. So we went for it---it being a slice of white pizza with bacon and scallops. It was mighty delicious, although in hindsight we probably over did it as we were a liiiiiittle bit stuffed the remainder of the night. But nothing that relaxing with a movie can't fix! Except perhaps a few hours on the elliptical...

Oh New England, we sure do love you!