New Haven, Connecticut - Doesn't make us feel welcome

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

July 23, 2022

We had another day-trip planned from our camping spot near the center of Connecticut. Today we are heading 40 miles southwest to New Haven, Connecticut. Denisa had a list of things to see, and at the top of her list was the Five Mile Point Lighthouse--the crown jewel of Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven. 

That's when we were reminded that Connecticut is not good at sharing with others. They don't want anyone to stand, or park anywhere! This is also a pretty bossy state with signs that seem very unwelcoming.

When we drove to Lighthouse Point Park to get a quick picture of the lighthouse, we were told that it would cost us $30 to enter the park since we didn't live here. Well, no lighthouse picture is worth $30, so we left and looked for Plan B. That's when we found all the no parking signs on all the streets around the park. We felt very unwelcomed, but we weren't dissuaded. We finally found a parking spot a mile away, and walked into the park--because pedestrians aren't charged an admission fee. So we got a little exercise and saved $30. We also got the views in the park with the city of New Haven in the background.

The park also includes a pretty nice beach . . .

and an indoor antique carousel that wasn't yet open for the day--or Denisa would have taken a ride. The Lighthouse Point Carousel was built in 1916, and is one of the few carousels that old that is still operational. It is on the National Registry of Historic Places, and the 69 hand-painted horses tempted us to stay at the park until it opened at noon. 

But we have places to be on this blue-sky day. So we got a couple pictures of Five Mile Point Lighthouse--built in 1845--and made the walked back to the pickup.

Sometimes we make stops that aren't on Denisa's list. For example, we were driving back towards downtown when we caught a glimpse of one of those brown signs that usually points drivers towards important state or national sites. We followed that little sign until it led us into a completely deserted parking lot. We learned that there has been a fort on this site since 1657. The brown sign we followed called it Black Rock Fort, but it has gone by several different names. Black Rock seems a fitting name because the beach here was covered in--you guessed it--black rocks. 

It's about this time that we figured out why no one else was here. As we walked through this wooded area on the way to the beach, a hungry swarm of mosquitoes noticed they had company. They went into attack mode. We were running back through this historical site with our arms flailing and trying to fight off the biting buggers. Whew! They were awful, and we were awfully glad to get back into the safety of the pickup. That was not very welcoming!

Our next stop today is at the little university in town. We stopped by Yale's visitor center to find out that their student-led campus tours have been booked up for weeks. They have no visitor parking, so we were on our own to find a two-hour pay spot several blocks from campus. Now armed with their campus map and a downloaded audio tour, we started our own tour of Yale. We started through the same gate that all the freshmen enter through--and all the seniors exit through--Phelps Gate.

One of the freshmen from the class of 1773 has a statue in his honor in front of the freshman dorm where he lived on campus. Nathan Hale's most famous quote was also his last, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." He was 21 when the British sentenced him to die for spying during the the Revolutionary War.

Those freshman students also know that they should rub the toe of the statue of past President Theodore Woolsey (class of 1820) for good luck. That shoe has been rubbed until it is shiny, so we should have good luck today.

The other side of the "Old Campus" is Harkness Tower, just peeking through the tree tops as we left the oldest part of Yale University.

Sterling Library is the next stop on our audio tour.

We know that this is a library, but it definitely looks and feels like a church.

 

The librarians' information desk--with its illuminated computer screen--feels like it is setting on a pulpit beside the confessional booths with Mother Mary watching.

This big library attaches to other buildings via a series of alcoves and underground tunnels. 

With all that Gothic architecture in the center of campus, we found quite modern buildings around the outside. This is one of the newer additions--the Beinecke Library. This is the depository of Yale's rare book collection.

To protect those books and documents, no direct sunlight comes into the building, yet it uses very little artificial light. The main source of light comes through the 1 1/4-inch marble slabs that make up the walls. The student at the visitor center described it to us by saying that the building "seems to glow."

Most of the books are stored in the center of the building in climate-controlled conditions.

But a few of the most rare are preserved under glass so people can see and enjoy them. 

This is a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, printed in Germany in 1455. It is the first book printed with a movable type printing press. But it is a little hard for us to read since it is in Latin. While printed by the press, it was decorated by hand. About 200 bibles were printed, but only 21 complete copies remain. 

As we walked back by the Harkness Tower, the bell tower organist began a concert. We paused our tour to listen to another of Yale's traditions.

We walked all the way to the far side of campus to make a quick visit to the famous Yale Art Gallery. This is our second speedy art tour this week, because the two-hour limit on our parking place is about to expire. So we made some fast judgements on our favorite pieces of art for the day. Denisa couldn't decided between Monet's Port-Domois from 1887 . . .

or his Garden in Giverny from 1900. We like pictures from the coast and flowers equally well.

We're getting some more exercise today, as we have to make our way across campus and across the village green (with its three churches) to get back to our pickup.

All this exercise has worked up an appetite, so we are headed to Wooster Street in the Little Italy section of New Haven. We are hungry for the food they are famous for here in New Haven--pizza.

After reading reviews, we've decided to go with Sally's Apizza. But first we had to watch a video to learn how to say this restaurant's name. It might look like a-pizza, but it is pronounced "ah-bates." When we walked up to the door, we found out that the wait for a table should be around an hour and a half, and then it would take another hour to actually get our pizza. Wow!?! Sally has been making apizza here since 1938, but could it really be THAT good?!?

Our second choice for lunch was Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana. (That took a long time to type!) But we saw that the line to get inside went out the front door and around the corner.

This street is lined with Italian bakeries and pizza joints, and this one embraced the Italian pronunciation of Apizza. But Abate's didn't get very good reviews in this pizza mecca.

Parking is also a nightmare on Wooster Street, so when we could get a parking place a block away, and could get seated outside, we settled on the very-well reviewed Zeneli's. We were surprised at how quickly our Tres Carni brick oven pizza arrived to our table. It was delicious!

As we ate, we noticed a couple guys with big cameras were taking lots of pictures. We took a picture of them taking videos and still shots of the baking process and that giant gold brick oven at Zeneli's.

Then the cameras came outside, and we had a front row seat from our outdoor table for the filming process. The spokesman for Yelp was here to make a film about Zeneli's. This restaurant is run by three brothers from Italy that have brought their pizza process to Connecticut.

At the end of the filming, the Yelp host presented the Zeneli brothers with a certificate and with the news that they had been chosen as the top restaurant in Connecticut. The visitors in the outdoor seating section applauded, and our totally empty plates indicated that we agreed. Even though we were disappointed that we didn't get to eat at Sally's, it felt like this turned out better.

We topped off our pizza with a chocolate almond cannoli from the Italian bakery across the street. Even though the long lines and difficulties with parking didn't make us feel welcome, we really enjoyed New Haven's Wooster Street!

We left New Haven and headed even further west to our next destination. We could follow Interstate 95 just 60 more miles and be in New York City. But we're stopping 50 miles short of "The Big Apple" in Orange, Connecticut. The traffic was slow, going both east and west on Interstate 95.

We're fighting this traffic to get to our next destination--the Pez Visitor Center. The entry is decorated with 792 different Pez candy dispensers.

We had to pay $4 each to enter the museum, but they gave each of us a $2 gift voucher to buy merchandise. They also have the world's largest candy dispenser inside the museum.

The self-guided tour outlines the story of Pez. Invented in 1927 in Austria, Pez was originally an adult breath mint to be used as an alternative to smoking. Pez comes from the German word for peppermint "pfefferminz." They just took out most of the letters in the middle. The company has grown internationally, and in 1973 this new manufacturing facility was opened in Orange, Connecticut.

When we first got inside the museum, we were given bingo cards so we could play the Pez bingo game. The card included pictures of 24 different dispensers that were located somewhere in the museum. 

Our job was to search all the displays in this two-story museum, to find any of these 24 dispensers among the thousands here. When we found one on our card, we had to print the year it was introduced. When we found five in a row with the correct years, we could cash out our bingo card for a prize--you guessed it--of a Pez dispenser.

It was a really fun museum, and the bingo game kept us interested in the displays. By the end of our visit, Mark had turned into a Pez candy dispenser himself.

It was a long drive home through the winding roads of Connecticut to get back to our motor home that evening. Even though we still think that Connecticut doesn't share well and doesn't make its visitors feel welcome, we did have another good day of wandering!