Maroon 5, Mark Twain, and the Atlantic Ocean

I’ve been in the US now for over a month and Reese has taken me to see a lot of neat things. A few weekends ago we drove to Uncasville, CT, for a Maroon 5 concert. The concert was at Mohegan Sun, a gigantic casino.  Reese got free front row tickets from his work and after the show we were invited backstage to meet and hang out with the band. That was the first time I’ve ever been backstage and it wasn’t what I expected, it was much tamer than I imagined.  A few people had a couple shots to celebrate the concert going well, but other than that, everyone just sat around, acted classy, and chatted about shoes and other things. No drugs, or strippers, and not much drinking (thank goodness). Adam Levine wasn’t there either… apparently he really loves yoga so chances are he was off doing that. Despite his absence, it was an interesting experience. If you ever get the chance, go backstage and meet the band members of Maroon 5, they’re pretty friendly guys.

That same weekend we also went to the Mark Twain Museum in Hartford, the capital city of Connecticut. The museum was actually Mark Twain’s old house and we paid the extra money for the tour of it. The house was beautiful and had so much character. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside the house. We did, however, get a few pictures outside of it.

Last weekend we made a trip to Long Island, NY. Before we could leave Connecticut for New York, Reese had to go to work for a meeting. Since it was on the way, I went with him but was dropped off at a nearby Starbucks in Southington, CT. I don’t have a phone yet so Reese left me his work phone in case I needed to contact him (and so I knew he would come back for me). ESPN headquarters is in Bristol, CT, which is about ½ hour from where we live and about 6 minutes from where I was waiting for him during his meeting. As I waited in the Starbucks, I felt the need to be very cautious of people so I avoided making any eye contact. As a “Friendly Manitoban”, I was raised with the belief that Americans are rude, mean, distrustful and selfish, but as I watched the people of Starbucks, I saw that they are just as kind as Canadians. An older gentleman even asked me to watch his laptop and briefcase while he went to the bathroom. I hesitated for a moment, thinking that maybe he could be a terrorist and he had a bomb in his briefcase and planned to blow up Starbucks or that he was a kidnapper and this was part of his plan to steal me...but he looked nice enough so I told him that yes, I could watch his items. He came back a few minutes later and thanked me at least 3 times before he left. He seemed genuinely grateful I had done that small favour for him… just like a Canadian would do. After this valuable learning experience, I was a lot more comfortable sitting in Starbucks alone and in being in America in general. Oh, I also found 50 cents, and yes, I picked it up. Now I have my own American money.

After we left Starbucks we went to Long Island, New York, because Reese was doing a stand-up show Saturday night with 3 other comedians at Stoney Brook University. The show went really well and it was the first time I saw him perform since we met almost 9 months ago. I also got to go backstage for this show but it wasn’t anything exciting. The back room the comedians were given was tiny.. Our hotel bathroom was bigger. The show was great though, and it was really amazing to see Reese make the audience laugh so much.

We stayed in Long Island most of Sunday as well. Our plan was to go to a beach that wasn’t too far away to see the ocean, but once we got close to the beaches, we found out that most were all closed for the season, except for Jones Beach. It was a lot further away than we expected to drive to see the ocean, but we went anyways. On our way, we stopped at Captree Island to look at the houses there. Most of the houses looked like summer cabins, only a couple looked expensive. There was one particular house that stood out to me, the one that was raised off the ground and looked more like a tree house than anything. It reminded me of the shanty houses I saw on the movie Beasts of the Southern Wild.

After Captree Island, we continued on our journey to see the ocean. We headed to Jones Beach (still in Long Island, New York). As we got closer and closer, the image on the GPS looked like we were going to drive straight into the ocean. There was sand all over the roads and when we did get as close to the ocean as we could in the car, we got out and prepared ourselves for the long trek through the long sand path to the shoreline. Reese changed his shoes and I got out his big red winter emergency coat from the trunk because I knew it was going to be really windy and cold by the water, and it was.

It took us about 10 minutes to walk from the car to the coastline in the soft sand. I found lots of broken shells, my favourite was the dead crab shells, I’ve never seen those before. The waves were really big and loud and Reese made me go touch the water.. I wasn’t sure about getting too close to the water since it was so cold and I didn’t want to get soaked by the waves. Despite my hesitations, I accomplished touching the Atlantic Ocean without getting my boots or jeans wet by running away from the waves.

After the trip to the ocean we stopped to see Oheka Castle, a famous castle which is in Long Island and was on our back to Connecticut. We were only able to get a glimpse of the castle (also a fancy hotel) because it was so big and the angles from the car allowed for only partial views. We discussed trying to sneak inside but decided that was a bad idea and continued on our way back to the apartment.

Earlier this week we went to a movie theatre in Hartford. I was surprised to see that they were selling small bottles of wine and other liquors at the concession stand. Who goes to a movie theatre to drink? Americans are strange sometimes. After the movie, we drove around downtown Hartford and went to a few pet stores. We are thinking about getting a pet soon and wanted to go check out and learn more about different animals. Anyone know what a ferret is like as a pet? Pretty cute..

 

That’s pretty much what we’ve been up to lately. The weather has been okay, warmer than Manitoba and definitely not as much snow. Reese has set up the house phone which has free international calling.. so if you would like my new number and would like me to call you, just message me on Facebook :)