SMITH (Post 2)

We arrived late (after midnight) in Hartford and so "Day 2" was our first full day.  

Mary and I had SHOPPING to do...we had a list of dorm room items that we needed to purchase in town rather than ship to her dorm or our hotel.  These were things like a mattress topper, decor pillows, under bed storage, etc.  

After shopping 'til we dropped in the early morning, Mary and I went to tour Mark Twain's home.  I am embarrassed to say that I had NO IDEA Mark Twain and his family lived out East.  Having grown up in Saint Louis/Missouri, we were taught all about Mark Twain's childhood years in Hannibal along the Mississippi River.  We had the BEST time touring his beautiful, if not a heartbreaking-story, home in Hartford.  

Later that same day, Mary and I decided to celebrate her journey into adulthood with a special dinner in New Haven, CT.  It is crazy to this Midwesterner how short of distances lie between locations in New England.  Although we did not have time to tour Yale (that's for another day), we did enjoy a delicious meal with a fabulous maritime view of Long Island Sound. 

Tummies full, bank account smaller, and excitement for the next day's on-campus enrollment building, we headed back "home" to Hartford for the night.