The Thimble Islands are a rocky outcropping of little islands in the village of Stony Creek which is a part of Branford, CT. Readers of this blog will recall several times that we’ve stayed here on a mooring ball belonging to an MTOA friend, Ted Graves. Ted had removed the pennant from the mooring ball so Jonny had to climb into the dinghy to rig some lines so we could tie up which he managed to do with some effort.
As soon as we got settled, we called Ted because we had planned to take him to lunch at Pepe’s Pizza in New Haven. After taking Archie into the town dock in Stony Creek to do his business we left him onboard Zendo and turned around again to meet Ted who was picking us up. Off we headed to New Haven and the white clam with bacon pizza we were craving ever since we got to Connecticut. It did not disappoint. Ted was raised a notch in Jonny’s eyes when he ordered an anchovy (“fish of the gods”) pizza to take home. Ted kindly brought us to a grocery store afterwards so we could pick up a few items that we needed.
After returning to Zendo we had a quiet rest of the day, relaxing, and budging only enough to take Archie back into town for his walk. We are anchored in the middle of these lovely islands surrounded by other moored boats and homes built on the rocky outcroppings. The tree branches sticking out of the water mark the moorings that smaller boats use.
On Friday we followed a similar routine heading into shore but this time venturing further into the village (such as it is) and admiring the beautiful and interesting homes, many of which line the shore.
Poor Archie got a little confused and started barking at a dog sculpure on one of our walks!
Later that afternoon, Jonny’s cousin Michael’s wife, Debbie, picked us up and we went to to their home in Hamden for dinner. This is the same home we visited last year when during a sudden storm a tree fell on our car as we drove into their street! This visit was far less eventful but very pleasant. They have a fabulous garden, raise chickens, tend bees, all in an older and very attractive suburban neighborhood. Debbie made a great gazpacho with vegetables from their garden along with grilled char and corn on the cob. We had a lot of fun chatting and catching up which was only marred by Archie who almost scared the life out of their new but aged cat! We didn’t get back to Zendo until almost midnight driving the dinghy in the dark with a flashlight to guide us. We were having such a nice time that I forgot to take pictures!
We spent Saturday and Sunday lazily enjoying ourselves in the Thimble Islands, walking, reading, and just taking it easy.
The biggest excitement was paddling with Archie who seems to take to all his new experiences quite well (except for kitties)!
It’s been very nice for us to slow our pace of travel this year. We’ve been spending more time in some of our favorite places and savoring the experience. Stony Creek with its Thimble Islands is surely one of those places.
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