Connecticut Travel

The Aquarium’s 2017-18 season of “Seal-Spotting & Birding Cruises”  operates on many weekends through March 31, 2018.

These invigorating 2½-hour outings seek out some of the harbor seals and gray seals that migrate down into Long Island Sound from northern waters – such as off Cape Cod and the Gulf of Maine – which serve as their summer breeding and pupping areas. During the Aquarium cruises, seals often can be seen near the Norwalk islands resting on rocks and shoals exposed at low tide. Aquarium educators will point out these federally protected marine mammals and talk about their natural histories.

These cruises also give birders unique “on-the-water” access to see and photograph visiting winter waterfowl, such as buffleheads, mergansers, Brant geese and long-tailed ducks.

“Although we’ve been displaying seals for nearly 30 years now – and explaining to guests that seals are out there in the Sound during the winter – it’s still a revelation for participants to actually see them during our cruises,” said Dave Sigworth, the Aquarium’s associate director of communications. “It is these exciting first-hand experiences that really emphasize that Long Island Sound is an important habitat to protect.”

Dates and departure times of the cruises vary by low tide. Most cruises occur on weekends, although outings also are planned during the Christmas-break week Dec. 27-29. For the full schedule, go to www.maritimeaquarium.org.

Ring in the New Year with an old-fashioned Tea hosted by the Gunn Historical Museum in the Wykeham Room of the Gunn Memorial Library from 11am-1pm on Saturday, January 6, 2018. A snow date is scheduled for Tuesday, January 9, 2018 4-6pm.

Visitors will have the opportunity to socialize with friends under the historic 1914 gilded ceiling mural by H. Siddons Mowbray and enjoy period music in the festively decorated room. We’ll have our Washington photo albums out for guests to browse. Guests are asked to bring their favorite teacup and we will provide tea sandwiches.

A cookie contest will be the highlight of this year’s tea party. Those interested in participating should pre-register by calling the library 860.868.7586 or signing up at the circulation desk: gunncirc@biblio.org.

The Tea is free and open to the public. Registration is requested. To register please email your name(s) to: info@gunnhistoricalmuseum.org or call 860-868-7756. The Gunn Memorial Library is located at 5 Wykeham Road at Route 47 on the Green, in Washington, CT. View www.gunnmuseum.org for more information.

Start the new year off at Connecticut’s largest nature foundation, White Memorial in Litchfield. On January 6, this conservation center will be offering a program on the forest wolf with Andrew Dobos who will take visitors on a wildlife tracking walk through the winter woods. There are always clues left behind by the animals for us to decipher, telling a story of their habits and lives. Get to know our beloved wildlife that much better. Children should be accompanied by an adult and all should dress extra warm and wear good boots! You never know where the animals have been.10:00 A. M. – 12:00 P.M. Meet in the Museum. Members: $5.00 Non-Members: $15.00, Pre-registration and pre-payment are required. Call 860-567-0857.

Another charming program for kids on January 6 is the Christmas bird count designed for children ages 7- 12. Have your kids participate in the longest-running citizen science project in history, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. This bird survey is held around the world between the second weekend in December and the third weekend in January every year. This year, we’ll be holding a special CBC 4 Kids event at White Memorial Conservation Center on January 6, 2018 from 10am-approximately 12pm. Meet in the A.B. Ceder Room (lower level of Museum). There will be pizza and hot cocoa afterwards for all the participants. Bring your own binoculars if you have them, but if not, pairs will be provided. Dress for the weather. This event will be run by LHAS Junior Audubon Leader Donna Rose Smith and White Memorial Education Director Carrie Szwed, but additional adult mentors are needed to help the teams of young people out in the field, so parents, please plan on staying. There is no program fee, but donations are welcome to help defray program costs.

If you love the winter white, grey, blue colors of winter, take an art workshop with Betsy Rogers-Knox to learn to paint a serene sunset silhouette using a variety of watercolor techniques on January 20 from 2-4:30 pm. All levels welcome in this step-by-step workshop which includes all materials. The cost for this is members: $35.00 Non-members: $60.00, Pre-registration and pre-payment are required. Call 860-567-0857 or register online.

If you have always wanted to walk with llama’s on Jan. 20, you will have your chance! Visit White Memorial to take a one hour walk with a llama on a beautiful trail! The cost is $20 per person with a percentage donated to the White Memorial Conservation Center. Participants should meet at 10:00 A.M.,at the Museum parking lot. Call Debbie from Country Quilt Llama Farm at 860-248-0355 to pre-register or to schedule your very own private llama walk.

To finish off the month, go to a special DEEP Family Ice Fishing Workshop on January 27 from 9:30 am to 3 pm. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Fisheries Division sponsors this program for the seventh consecutive year. Families and individuals age nine and up are welcome to attend this unique event which is part of the DEEP’s CARE (Connecticut Aquatic Resources Education) program. The class is taught by certified volunteer instructors and it’s FUN!!! All fishing tackle and course materials are provided ABSOLUTELY FREE! To learn more log onto the CT DEEP’s website: http://www.ct.gov/dep and type in “CARE”. BRING LUNCH! Classroom (mandatory participation): 9:30 A.M. – 11:30 A.M., Ice Fishing (Conditions permitting): 12:00 P.M. – 3:00 P.M., A.B. Ceder Room. Pre-registration is required. Call 860-567-0857. Or register online

For more information and to register for these events click here https://www.whitememorialcc.org

Treasures of the Earth: Mineral Masterpieces from the Robert R. Wiener Collection,” opens at the Bruce Museum, located on One Museum Drive in Greenwich and runs through April 1, 2018.

There will be approximately 100 dazzling specimens on display, ranging from intricately connected cubes of pyrite, to dazzlingly clear crystals of selenite, to fiery red hexagons of vanadinite.

Robert R. Wiener, chairman of MAXX Properties, a fourth-generation, family-owned real estate company based in Harrison, N.Y., has built this comprehensive collection over the past four decades. His collection includes minerals from Madagascar, China, Peru, Australia, Morocco, the United States, and beyond. Many examples of unusual crystal forms, rare combinations of multiple minerals growing together, and eye-catchingly enormous specimens are all featured.

Visit the website for future programming.

The Sherman Chamber Ensemble is ringing in the new year with its annual “Best of Baroque” concerts on Saturday, January 6 at 4 p.m. at Christ Church on Quaker Hill in Pawling, NY and on Sunday, January 7 at 4 p,m. at St. Andrew’s Church in Kent, CT. Audiences will be treated to works by masters of the Baroque era played by the best of today’s chamber music artists.

The program will include music for harpsichord, flute and strings by Bach, Telemann and Vivaldi. Special Guest Dylan Sauerwald, international prize winning harpsichordist will be joined by SCE Artistic Director and cellist Eliot Bailen, Susan Rotholz (flute), Michael Roth (violin), Sarah Adams (viola), and Peter Weitzner (bass).

The Ensemble’s “Best of Baroque” concerts have been praised by The Millbrook Independent as “stunning performances…inspiring and uplifting.”

Harpsichordist Sauerwald is a distinctive continuo player, soloist and music director, and is active across the US and Canada. He won the first place title in chamber music at the Concours de Musique du Canada 2009 and was a finalist at the Montréal Baroque CBC / Galaxie chamber music competition 2007, both with Ensemble la Félicité. He has performed in halls from Montréal’s Musée de Beaux Arts to Taipei’s National Recital Hall to Boston’s Goodlife bar.

He has music directed staged productions for Ensemble la Félicité and Ensemble Musica Humana, and is a regular repetiteur for the Amherst Early Music Festival, Venice Opera Project, Tafelmusik Summer Baroque Institute, and others.

Sauerwald has performed with the Handel & Haydn Society, TENET, Emmanuel Music, the Cambridge Concentus, Lorelei Ensemble, Sonnambula, Tramontana, The Weckmann Project, Ensemble Musica Humana, Ensemble ad Libitum and many others.

General Admission tickets are $30; Senior and Student tickets are $25, and children ages 15 and under are admitted free with the purchase of a paid ticket. Tickets may be purchased online at www.ShermanChamberEnsemble.org or at the door on the afternoon of the performance. For information or reservations call 860-355-5930.

End the year, including a countdown to 12 o’clock – 12 o’clock noon – with special family fun on Dec. 31 at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk.

The Aquarium’s “Noon Year’s Eve” celebration offers bonus activities for families with younger children who want to celebrate the end of 2017 together, but not at the stroke of midnight.

From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., a disc jockey will provide the beat, as well as the countdown to 12 o’clock; 12 o’clock noon, that is.

Also on hand will be three strolling entertainers: “bubble-ologist” Kim Winslow, magician Greg Dubin, and family comedy and juggling by Peter Straus.

Dec. 31 also is the final day to experience “Flurry Zone! An Indoor Snow Experience.” No matter the weather outside, The Maritime Aquarium is guaranteeing a snowy forecast inside the popular family attraction, thanks to a special snow machine that is producing an hourly flurry each day in December.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., every hour, on the hour, snow falls from the ceiling of Newman’s Own Hall (where the seals are). Each squall lasts for about 5 minutes, but – magically – shoveling is not required.

The “Noon Year’s Eve” entertainment, and “Flurry Zone! An Indoor Snow Experience,” are free with Aquarium admission.

Get details about all of The Maritime Aquarium’s events, exhibits and IMAX® movies, including “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” at www.maritimeaquarium.org.