Places to Go, Things to Do

CT Beer Trail (This one's for you Bill, Kim, Mike, Aaron, and Nick)

The Thomas Hooker Brewing Company and Back East Brewing Company (very small) are in nearby Bloomfield. Cambridge House Brew Pub, Granby (near Old Mill Pond Village Shops) comes highly recommended. The City Steam Brewery Café is in Hartford. 

Historic Simsbury Walking Tour

Find instructions for the cell phone tour and walking tour brochure here. 

Granby Town Green (near Cambridge House Brew Pub and the Old Mill Pond Shops)

Old Mill Pond Village Shops, Granby

It will be past Christmas, but these shops are very cute.

Hillstead Museum, Farmington

This Colonial Revival house in nearby Farmington, CT was designed by architect Theodate Pope. Pope and her industrialist father were early collectors of Impressionist paintings. Theodate Pope's will established the house as a museum with the provision that no painting ever leave the house. The collection includes works by Monet, Whistler, Renoir, Cassatt, Degas, as well as a collection of Japanese woodblock prints. 

Hillstead Museum

Mark Twain House, Hartford, CT

Which is right next to...

Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Hartford, CT

Noah Webster House, West Hartford, CT

A Little Farther Afield...

Mystic Seaport

A recreated 18^th century seafaring village and maritime museum. About an hour and a half from Simsbury. Kid-friendly. Includes over 60 historic buildings and the only surviving wooden whaler, the Charles W. Morgan.

18th-century sea captain and privateer, Captain Gideon Olmsted of Hartford, CT would have been familiar with the port of Mystic. Olmsted's legal fight for ownership of a prize he captured began in Continental Congress (with the help of Benedict Arnold) and ended in the Supreme Court thirty years later in a decision influential to maritime law.

21st-century sea captain, Captain Jonathan Olmsted visiting Mystic Seaport. Note the family resemblance.

Historic Deerfield and Yankee Candle Village

Authentic restored 18^th century settlement in the CT River Valley in Western Massachusetts (Pioneer Valley). A little over an hour from Simsbury. The Yankee Candle Company Village nearby is surprisingly fun to visit.

Deerfield was raided several times by French and Indians over several decades, most famously during the Deerfield Massacre of 1704, an event that unsettled the entire colony. 56 were killed and 109 taken captive. Captain Johannes Schuyler, Indian Commissioner and Mayor of Albany, was called upon  to mediate between the French, Mohawks, and English families of the captives. William Olmsted was killed in another attack on Deerfield a few months later. 

Yankee Candle Village. Surprisingly fun.

Old Sturbridge Village 

An 18^th century living history village. Kid-friendly. Just over an hour from Simsbury.

Stockbridge, Mass.

About an hour and twenty minutes from Simsbury. Visit the Norman Rockwell Museum or tour the town for this scene: 

Which is the model for this painting: 

Take Route 8 for a scenic drive. 

Activities

Ice Skating at Simsbury Farms or the International Skating Center

Skiing at Ski Sundown, a small local mountain

Snickerdoodle and Charlie recommend Simsbury Farms and the Simsbury Dog Park.

Please let us know if you're interested in information on hiking or walking trails (weather permitting!)

Another of Snicker and Charlie's favorite places: a portion of the McLean Game Refuge off of Westledge Road (past my grandfather's house) in Simsbury. The hilltop village of Pilfershire was mostly abandoned in the 19th century. You can still see some of the house foundations. (It's hard to find, so let me know if you want directions!)