Category: Connecticut Travel

If you are up for a wild time and a unique safari experience Connecticut style, don’t miss the most popular event of the year, the Wine, Beer and Food Safari hosted by the Beardsley Zoo located on 1875 Noble Ave. in Bridgeport that is taking place on June 3 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

This year guests 21 years of age and older can go on the hunt for more than 60 different types of wine from all over the country. As for food, there is food aplenty prepared by favorite local restaurants and caterers — they know you will work up an appetite while exploring the Zoo and meeting all the wild residents that make Beardsley Zoo their home! Please note, all wine & beer will be sampled from 6:00 PM through 8:30 PM (alcohol serving ends one half-hour before event close). Keep in mind that participating vendors are serving tastings, not full servings – the Zoo staff wants to encourage guests to sample as much as they can! There will also be plenty of non-alcoholic beverages such as soda and water at snack stations.

In addition to beer, wine and food tastings, there will be live music performed on the stage in the Peacock Pavilion, and even a silent auction with eighty great prizes to set your sights on! And, while on “safari”, be sure not to miss visiting the Zoo’s Amur tigers & leopards, otters, wolves and more outside; then stop in to the South American Rainforest to see monkeys, ocelot, and tamarins. Be sure to check the schedule of events that evening for animal demonstrations and feedings.

Admission to this event is $75 per person, groups of four or more are $70 per person and VIP admission is $120. VIP guests enjoy early admission, and a special cocktail reception hosted by Tito’s Handmade Vodka from 5 pm – 6 pm, hors d’oeuvres and a special animal encounter! As a travel tip, buy your tickets in advance because this event is a sell out! Tickets are sold online.

On May 20, the Barkhamsted Historical Society is once again hosting its annual Old Barkhamsted Day on May 20 beginning at 12 noon on the grounds of the Squire Tavern located on 100 East River Road in Pleasant Valley, a bucolic village in the township of Barkhamsted.

Festivities will include a variety of live demonstrations featuring some of the domestic skills our ancestors used in their daily lives. There will be a blacksmith on the grounds of the Squire Tavern with his portable forge showing how a number of iron items were produced that were needed around the farms that once populated the area. In addition there will be weaving, spinning, candle making, basket weaving, rush chair seat weaving demonstrations as well as examples of corn husk dolls. For the young and young at heart there will be old hand tools and games to try. New this year is a sheep shearing demonstration as well as several friendly goats that will be roaming the grounds.

Once again, the Lebanon Towne Miltitia have set up an encampment that shows how these men lived while being ready to defend their town. To round out the fun, Squires Tavern will also be open for tours.

The Mattatuck Museum located on 144 West Main Street just off the Waterbury Green is hosting anew exhibition from May 20 – August 13 that will feature the Peanuts characters.

Love is everywhere in Peanuts—Charlie Brown loves the Little Red-Haired Girl, Lucy adores Schroeder, Sally pursues Linus—but sadly these sentiments are rarely returned.

Museum goers will experience the joys and sorrows of unrequited love Peanuts-style in the traveling exhibition, Heartbreak in Peanuts. Join the Peanuts characters as they continually return to their hopeless quests for love, undaunted by defeat.

The exhibition presents 50 high quality digital reproductions of original Peanuts comic strips which focus on narratives of lost love. The opening reception will be held on May 21 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The Mattatuck Museum is open Tues. – Sat 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sun. 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Heartbreak in Peanuts is organized and toured by the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, Santa Rosa, California.To sign up for a free monthly newsletter on Litchfield Hills or Fairfield County on things to do and see and special deals visit www.litchfieldhills.com
 

This year marks the 32nd. annual Outdoor Crafts Festival hosted by the Bruce Museum located on One Museum Drive in Greenwich Connecticut. The annual outdoor crafts festival will be held this year on May 20 and 21 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Bruce Museum. This crafts show represents the upper tier of the crafts world and lures art lovers from around the country.

Fair goers will find more than 75 craft artists from all over the country, many of them new to the show this year. Artists and craft artists will be on hand to show and discuss their work. Fine contemporary crafts, including ceramics, fiber, jewelry, glass, wood, metal, paper arts and leather, will all be available for purchase. There will also be family craft activities, live music and delicious food.

The admission is $8 per person and children under 5 and members of the Bruce Museum are free.

The Stamford Museum and Nature Center located on 39 Scofieldtown Rd, in Stamford is celebrating Spring on their farm on May 20 and 21 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and you are invited!

There are many activities that are sure to delight such as watching the Center’s flock of sheep get their annual haircut during a traditional shearing session and learning what happens with their woolly coats. Festival goers will see firsthand how to turn wool into felt or yarn, among a variety of other hands-on demonstrations.

To add to the fun there will be a multitude of activities for all ages from face painting and crafts to live music with Jay and Ray, a plant and herb sale for gardeners and even hayrides around the grounds. The Museum’s galleries will be open and visitors are invited to view “Powerful yet Fragile: Connecticut’s Waterways,” a fascinating photography exhibition that touches on the importance of water.

The works of members of the Loft Artists Association will be featured in “Art on the Meadow” and available for purchase. Another special highlight is the display by the Yama Ki Bonsai Society that will be presenting a boutique exhibition of the ancient art of bonsai with more than 75 unique bonsai trees.

If all this works up your appetite, not to worry, there will be an assortment of local food trucks offering a variety of cuisines.
Daily admission to this event is $5 for members and $10 for non-members.

When Kasha and David Furman founded Cricket Hill Garden in 1989, it was one of the first nurseries in the United States to focus on rare Chinese tree peonies. These special plants have blossoms that are among the largest, most colorful and most fragrant of all flowers. They cultivated over 500 different hybrid peonies, choosing the hardiest, most vigorous and fragrant to propagate and sell. Over the years a rocky, wooded hillside has been transformed into a six-acre peony display garden they call Peony Heaven. The family, now including son Dan Furman, enjoys sharing the beauty of the garden in peak bloom in May and June.

This year the visitors are invited to join peony lovers from near and far at Peony Heaven to see a rare collection of mature peonies in a lovely, peaceful setting. Some of the tree peonies in the display garden are reaching an impressive size and age, with many plants now over 25 years old. The tree peonies will begin to bloom the week of May 15th. Expect a good show of tree peonies to about May 31st. Cricket Hill anticipates that the herbaceous and intersectional peonies will bloom as they usually do, starting near the third week of May. Call them at (860) 283-1042 or email info@crickethillgarden.com for bloom updates.

Cricket Hill, located on 670 Walnut Hill Rd. in Thomaston is hosting a special garden event on Sunday, May 14th, May 21st and May 28th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A highlight of the day is when Dan Furman leads a garden walk to discuss what they are growing and what is in bloom. Be sure to bring your walking shoes for the spectacular tour of the hillside garden that takes place from 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The garden and nursery is open through June 18th, Tuesday-Sunday, from 10am-5pm. They are closed on Mondays. The exception will be Memorial Day Monday, which is always a good bloom day! After June 18, the garden and nursery is open by appointment only, please call ahead before visiting in late June and during the summer.