Date of visit: Saturday, February 2, 2019
Places visited:
Hall Memorial Library
Oakridge Dairy
LuAnn's Bakery & Cafe
Crystal Lake
Hockanum River Trail
Ellington Farmer's Market at the Indian Valley YMCA
Cold Creek Tavern
After living in Connecticut for over 30 years, my husband and I have decided it is time to visit each of its 169 towns and cities. This quest is being aided by the book Connecticut 169 Club: Your Passport and Guide to Exploring Connecticut by Martin Podskoch. We do not expect to see everything that each town has to offer, but to do enough to get the flavor of the place.
We chose Ellington as our starting point for the simple reason that they had a fun event planned: Mini Golf @the Library. This was perfect because we had also decided that we should go to the library in each of the towns we visit and get our book stamped passport-style.
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| Map from Wikipedia |
When we approached the library, it was clear that Mini Golf @the Library was THE event. The parking lot was full and we circled back around and parked at the church across the street. Hall Memorial Library is simply stunning. A beautiful old building that has been married very well with a modern section. The residents of Ellington are quite lucky to have such a large and beautiful library.
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| Hall Memorial Library |
Things were quite busy when we arrived, so after paying for our putters and balls, we decided to start on "the back nine" or the upstairs holes. There were 25 holes in all, each sponsored by a different local business. The fanciest hole, and the one where you are guaranteed a hole-in-one, ran all the way down the stairs in the old part of the building.
After finishing play, we purchased some raffle tickets to enter the teacup auction. All proceeds were going to support the Friends of the Library. Then we went down to the basement and spent a few minutes in their used book store. An excellent collection and I would love to go back.
Francie, our connection to all things Ellington, suggested we go take a look at Oakridge Dairy, the largest dairy in the state, and watch the cows being milked. The dairy was not open to tours when we were there, but we could peek in the windows.
The dairy has a pretty cool 72-stall carousel for milking the cows. The carousel revolved slowly and sometimes stopped, I assume to let a cow off or to let a cow on. When a cow takes one of the empty bays, an employee must attach the milking equipment. When the cow is done milking, the equipment automatically detaches. I assume the cow gets off when it is done being milked and the carousel has rotated around to the position where she can step off.
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| Milking carousel. You can see some cows are being milked and some are done. |
As you can see from the map at the top of the page, Ellington has a panhandle shape. The panhandle area of Ellington is called Crystal Lake. We headed over to check it out and found that there was an ice fishing tournament going on.
After Crystal Lake, we were headed to the Indian Valley YMCA, but we stopped to take a short walk on the Windemere Road section of the Hockanum River Trail.
After our walk, we went to the YMCA to visit the Ellington Farmer's Market. The market runs all year, but during the winter it is moved inside to the Y and is open every other week. There was a good selection of products including dairy, meat, fish, sauces and spreads, and hand-made products. We got a tasty peanut sauce to use on noodles (or it could be a dipping sauce).
Our final stop was Cold Creek Tavern. The brewery itself is only used for production. At the tavern we were able to have lunch. Unfortunately, they had only one of their beers on tap and it was a style that my husband doesn't care for. He ended up with a beer made by a non-Ellington brewer. Oh, well. Our lunch was tasty, and a good way to end our tour of Ellington.
One town done, 168 to go!
