skwaaaaaaaaantz paaaaaaaaand

I'm not going to say Connecticut is a mountainous state. It's not. It's hilly at best. But when you've got three hot chicks from the city who just want a day of nature... well, the Constitution State will do.

Thea ("TAY-a"), Andrea ("On-DRAY-a") and I (mournfully robbed of the monicker "KAY-a") headed out to my parents' house (in East Snootyville) for a weekend in the country. We met up at the train station, trundled into my parents' car, and drove out into the wilds of CT... (ahem, just outside of Danbury).

Squantz Pond State Park (much better when you don the midwestern accent and call it "Skwaaaaantz Paaaaaand") is this gorgeous pond (which looks a lot like a lake to those of us with no ecological background) with a small beach and some hiking trails. We figured we'd hike until we got hot, sweaty and hungry, and then we'd picnic and hit the water.

We slathered on the sunblock (have you seen three paler chicks?) and headed out into the woods.

("I'm tired," says the rock, "I think I'll just rest my several tons against this tree...")


We followed the map from the unblazed trail along the water (that just means it wasn't labled -- blaze = trail marker) to the red trail that intersected it. Up the hill we went, up and up, until we ran out of trail. Red Trail dead-ended into this gravel road, which, according to the map, didn't exist.


We figured we were probably in Canada by now, and no longer on the map.


"Guys, I have no idea where we are."


"Oh, ok."


"So let's just go this way for a while and see if we see anything resembling a blaze."


"Ok."


They were remarkably calm about being lost in the woods. But that's probably because Andrea had packed us three granola bars, just in case we got lost in the woods on a gravel road that didn't exist. Hmmm...

We headed out in one direction and didn't find anything, so we turned around and went the other direction. In which we found... more nothing.

Luckily, we were atop the hill, and knew there were two paths between us and the water, if we wanted to bushwhack. So we bushwhacked. And bushwhacked. You know, hiking is much easier when you stay on the trail.

We had to stop for some wildlife (a hopping baby bird, two deer and a snake -- nothing like the snake from the last hiking trip) and for some photo ops. Like the picnic table floating in the water:

And Andrea taking a picture of the "I heart Lobster" pin Thea was wearing on her hat, as part of a photo meme:
When the hike was over, we had to have a picnic. And it was a hell of a picnic, if I do say so myself. Now, why was it so fantastic, you ask? Well... on Friday (the day I got my new job), I happened to have been served two cups of regular coffee in the morning. No big deal, except that, well, I don't drink caffeine. So at 1 am, when I laid down to go to bed, there was a lot of tossing and turning, but no actual sleeping.

I got up. And from 1:30 until about 3:15, I made pasta salad, egg salad, fruit salad and sandwiches. (From 3:15 to 4:15 I watched CSI.) So our picnic rocked! And we had an ENORMOUS bag of "Sensible Portion" pita chips:
(the photo reveals nowhere near enough of the irony)

After our feast, we didn't feel much like hitting the water (let alone getting into a bathing suit), but felt sort of obligated to at least explore the beach. When we grumbled a bit about taking off our shoes, Andrea said, "I'll just keep mine on, I'm only going to touch the water with my hands..."

But we ended up wading in and found the water really warm and lovely. And crowded. [With Connecticut's less tony inhabitants (as all the hoity-toities have somewhere private to go). I felt paler than pale.]

(The picture is not representative of the crowds!)

Stuffed, warm and happy, we headed back to my parents' house, where we stuffed ourselves even more. Can you say "hello grilled vegetables?!?!?" YUM! And, we grilled peaches. I highly recommend that!

I do not, however, recommend Frutezia "wine." It was made from one grape and sixteen bags of sugar, and Thea kept renaming it every time a glass was poured.

"Want some Fructissima?"

"How about some more Fruit Teaser?"

"Fruit Fusion for you?"

"Nasty Crap Ass Wine, anyone?"

With the addition of my high school friend Rachel, the veggies, the wine (we had another, real bottle in the fridge), the boy talk, the sex talk, the girl talk... we went to bed that night happier than the proverbial pigs.

Thanks, Skwaaaaaaantz Paaaaaaand! (and maaaaaam and daaaaaad, for giving us the house!!)