Weekend Trips

by Monika Nica

Gillette Castle, East Haddam, Middlesex County

Do you know that Connecticut has its very own fortress? Gillette Castle in East Haddam looks like a decoration from a fairy tale book, a real medieval castle. Its robust, dark gray stone walls, bastions and towers hide an eccentric and surprising fantasy world of hidden doorways, tricky pieces of furniture and quirky installation. Once a property of Sherlock Holmes actor, William Gillette, the fortress is now open to the public. Its generous park mirrors the castle: its winding trails lead through arched bridges and little tunnels along the path of the castle's private 3-mile long railroad with its own Grand Central Station. So if you are ready to share something extravagantly out-of-the-ordinary with your family, plan a trip to East Haddam's Seven Sisters Hills.

Wouldn't your little writer love visiting Louise May Alcott's Orchard House or Walden Pond this summer? What a great road trip for your tweens and teens! This itinerary given to me by Corrine Upton over at the Mark Twain House has covered it all starting in Hartford and finishing up in Boston. Over the course of five days (or less, for those who are ambitious), visit the birthplace of Mark Twain’s most famous characters, get inspired by Edith Wharton’s landscape design, and visit the gravesites of Thoreau, Hawthorne, Emerson and Alcott at Author’s Ridge at Sleepy Hollow.  
 
Below, you'll find the full itinerary of a New England literary pilgrimage-- offering a unique, inspiring and educational summer vacation.