Sean Henri

We're Engaged!

August 08, 2011 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

Just went on the trip of a lifetime - a ten day long tour of Ireland with the love of my life...  and came back engaged! 

It was on the second to last full day of our trip when I proposed.  We had taken a boat out Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands off the coast of Galway, and biked our way out to the "Man of Aran Cottage" where we stayed for the night. Man of Aran is modeled after the old fashioned thatched roof cottages that were once common in Ireland, but was actually built in the 1930's for the documentary "Man of Aran".

Arriving at the cottage via bike

Our view while we enjoyed some wine in the backyard

Joe Watty's - best pub on the island

Walking up the trail to Dun Aengus, an ancient fort built around 900BC alongside an extremely high cliff... and where I proposed.

Kelly lovingly scaring the sh*t out of me

I could see the headlines - "Woman falls off cliff to her death seconds before boyfriend proposes"...

Fortunately she stepped far away enough from cliff where I could feel safe enough to get down on one knee and ask her to marry me.. and SHE SAID YES!!!

After we got back I did some reading about the place and learned that the name Dun Aengus translates to Fort of Aengus.  Aeungus was the pre-Christian god of love, youth and poetic inspiration.  The myth says he had four birds flying about his head, which supposedly is where the xxxx's symbolizing kisses at the end of love letters come from. Cool!

Couldn't be happier!

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Aran Islands, BlogSherpa, County Galway, Inishmór, Ireland, Ireland 2011, Irish Travel, Travel | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

Moose Country

May 17, 2010 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

My brother Kevin and I took the weekend to drive up to what we were told was Moose Country - the Great North Woods region of northern New Hampshire. We stopped at a few spots in the White Mountains along the way. While no moose were ever found, we still had a great time.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, BlogSherpa, Franconia Town & Around, New England, New Hampshire, North Conway & Around, Travel, USA | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

Manhattan

April 25, 2010 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

Just another trip to the city.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, BlogSherpa, New York, New York State, NYC, Photos, Travel, Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

A Tri-State Hike: Brace Mountain to Mount Frissell

March 24, 2010 // 2 Comments  // Add yours »

This past weekend my friends and I drove to Taconic State Park in New York for our first major hike of the year. We took the South Taconic Trail, which brought us along the top of Brace Mountain and then over to Mount Frissel, Connecticut's highest point.

It was a steep climb when we first started off but the views were rewarding.  From the top of Brace Mountain we could see clear across the Hudson Valley and even as far as the Catskill Mountains.  At the top we came across three paragliders who were having a bit of trouble due to the strong winds.  We stuck around about 20 minutes or so to watch a launch only to see the guy spin upside down and then crash into the bushes - a firm reminder why I avoid doing that sort of thing.

From the top of Brace Mountain we continued on for about another 2.5 miles along the ridgeline towards Mt. Frissell, the highest point in Connecticut. The peak of Mt. Frissell is actually in Massachusetts, but the south slop lies across the Connecticut line and is slightly higher than Bear Mountain, the highest peak in the state. 

It wasn't the most enjoyable part of the hike.  Along the way the trail dipped down a bit and suddenly we were walking through a foot of melting snow. We made a quick stop at the tri-state marker and at the CT high point before eating a late lunch and heading back towards Brace Mountain for a few more great views of the Hudson Valley.

Continue reading "A Tri-State Hike: Brace Mountain to Mount Frissell"

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Adventure, BlogSherpa, Catskills, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New England, New York, New York State, Taconic Mountains, The Outdoors, Travel, USA | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (2)

Burlington and Vermont's Scenic Byways

February 26, 2010 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

This was round 2 of traveling around Vermont in less than a month, this time with my friends Mindy and Kamil for a weekend in the Burlington/Lake Champlain area. To be honest, we didn't spend a heck of a lot of time roaming around Burlington itself aside from checking out some of the restaurants and bars/pubs/breweries at night for a few rounds of Switchback as well as some other local brews.

The best part of the trip was leaving Burlington and exploring the area. Saturday morning we went out for breakfast at Magnolia Bistro and then hit the road, driving north through the outskirts of Burlington before merging onto RT. 7.  We reached a small town called Milton and then swung right towards the mountains.  Our first real stop that day was the Boyden Valley Winery.  We had hoped they might have some cheese to snack on but it was just wine, good wine.  My favorite was the Glogg, which is served warm and apparently popular around the holidays.

From there drove to Stowe, stopping at the Stowe Mercantile to sample some food, and then continuing our drive south with stops at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, Cabot Store Annex, and the Ben and Jerry's factory.

On Sunday morning we took the long, scenic route home, sticking to the scenic roads and byways. This gave us the best views of the trip.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, BlogSherpa, Burlington, VT, New England, Photos, Road Trips, Travel, USA, Vermont | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

A weekend in Stowe, Vermont

February 07, 2010 // 2 Comments  // Add yours »

I recently spent a relaxing weekend at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont with some good friends of mine. When I say Trapp Family, I mean the real Trapp Family, the ones made famous by the Sound of Music.   Back in the 40's they settled in Stowe Vermont and eventually opened up their lodge to the public.  You can read about the place here.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, BlogSherpa, New England, Stowe, Stowe, VT, Travel, USA, Vermont | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (2)

The Berkshires & Newport

January 13, 2010 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

This past weekend started off with a drive through the Berkshires with stops at the Barrington Brewery for some great food and microbrews, the Norman Rockwell Museum, and a brief visit to the city of Pittsfield. It ended with a spontaneous drive to Newport, RI, where we stopped for a tour and wine tasting at Greenvale Vineyards, and then enjoyed some food and a traditional Irish music seisiún at the Fastnet Pub.

These two dogs kept trying to knock us over during the tour of the vineyards.  The vineyard also had two massive Scottish Highland steer which they are using to eat away the treeline.  Apparently they can't use machinery due to restrictions of the local preservation society, so they brought the animals in to do the job instead. I missed the opportunity to snap a good photo of them, but you can see what they look like here.

This shot was from our table at the Fastnet Pub just before the musicians started strolling in. You can see a video of that below the cut.  The place has a great atmosphere and the food was halfway decent.  It's definitely worth checking out if you're looking for a relaxing way to end your day in Newport without spending too much.

Continue reading "The Berkshires & Newport"

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, BlogSherpa, Food and Drink, Road Trips, Travel | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

Flipadelphia

December 27, 2009 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

Lately I've been watching a lot of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.  It's a great show. If you've been watching this past season, you'll probably get the reference in the title of this post.  Anyway, while watching a recent episode I started to think about how that in my 25 years of life I had yet to take the 3 and a half hour drive to Philly, so I decided it was time to make my way down.

I had limited time so I made sure to visit all the "must-see" historical spots in the city - Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the "Great Essentials", the Betsy Ross House, and the City Tavern where I enjoyed some colonial style venison meatloaf and a pint of Thomas Jefferson's "Tavern Ale".

It was just two days after a major snowstorm blew through the area and the streets were a slushy mess, so I decided to cut things short and skipped out on the required Philly Cheese-steak at Genos and my plans visit to Eastern State Penitentiary. Next time around.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, BlogSherpa, Travel | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

Driving from Yellowstone to Connecticut in a rental truck

November 23, 2009 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to travel to Yellowstone National Park for a work. The company I work for had been selected to restore nearly 200 lighting fixtures from the historic Old Faithful Lodge , so my co-worker and I were sent there to photograph the fixtures and then drive them roughly 2,800 miles across America back to Connecticut. (Project details here.)

The trip started in Salt Lake City, where we picked up our 16' rental truck, a bunch of packing supplies and a ton of snacks for the road.  That afternoon we drove nearly non-stop for 600+ miles through Utah and Idaho to West Yellowstone in Montana where we crashed for the night.

Since Yellowstone closes to the public for the month of November, we were one of the very few people within the 3468 square miles of the park when we drove in the next morning.  That meant if something were to go wrong, we' would pretty-much on our own. Fortunately we made it in and out without incident. No flat tires, no angry bison attacks, and no geyser burns. 

Since I was there for work I didn't explore the park as much as I would have liked to, but I did manage to see some cool stuff, including several geysers and a ton of wildlife including some bison and wolves.  The lodge where we were working was literally right along-side the Old Faithful Geyser, so every 90 minutes or so we'd take a short break to watch it go. We actually had to hike up to a scenic overlook of the geyser basin to sign the paperwork so we could leave - not exactly the worst way to spend a work-day.

The drive back took us several days, with brief stops at Belgrade in Montana, Mount Rushmore, Sioux Falls in South Dakota, and Chicago.  After a good night's rest in Indiana and a quick meal in Ohio, we pushed straight through back to Connecticut and got home early Saturday.  It wasn't exactly the classic all-American road trip, but it was still a great experience.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, BlogSherpa, Cross-Country Road Trip 2009, Photos, Road Trips, The Outdoors, Travel, Work Life | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

Bulls Bridge

October 28, 2009 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

My friend Mindy and I have been going on little adventures the past few weekends. Recently we drove up towards Litchfield County on a quest for some food and hot apple cider. We were successful, but only after wandering around for a bit near Bulls Bridge in Kent  - one of the few remaining covered bridges in the state.    

There's a bunch of cool stuff in the area.  There's the bridge, rapids, a scenic overlook, and a huge waterfall coming from a power station just a short distance up river.  The hiking trails bring right down along the water and eventually will connect you to the Appalachian Trail.

We did eventually find our cider at a small cafe tucked away in the corner of a shopping area in the center of Kent. In line next to us was Seth MacFarlane and Mila Kunis. We didn't recognize them at first but after hearing them talk for a bit we realized who it was.

If you want directions to Bulls Bridge I've got a short write-up of the area on the Connecticut Weekender here.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, BlogSherpa, Connecticut, The Outdoors, Travel | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

The weekend in Inishmór

October 27, 2009 // 3 Comments  // Add yours »

The other week I made my second visit to Ireland this year. It was a much shorter trip than the one I took in August, and had a very different feel to it.  This time around I was there primarily to visit some friends of mine, whereas the last time around I was there to tour the country. My friend Rachel and her boyfriend James were kind enough to let me stay in her home in Limerick for the few days I was over, and for the most part we just relaxed. 

The one big plan for the weekend was to visit Inis Mór, one of the Aran Islands located in Galway Bay. The islands are known for their strong Irish culture and loyalty to the Irish language and are only accessible by a small plane or boat.  To get there we had to take about a three hour drive north past Galway and through Connemara to a ferry in Ros a' Mhíl. The ferry ride was about an hour long, and we arrived on the island sometime after dark.

The first thing that struck me was how quiet the island was. Aside from the few cars that were waiting at the pier when we arrived, there wasn't a vehicle in sight.  The sky was perfectly clear and we could see ten times as many stars as I could ever see back home in Derby, and aside from the waves crashing and a few teenagers playing on the steps near our hostel, there wasn't a sound.

At night we walked up the hill to a pub called Joe Watty's.  They had some of the best Guinness I've ever had and the experience was a memorable one.  There were some regulars, some sober, some drunk.. one guy with no teeth and drool all over his face who was stumbling from one table to a next trying to find someone to join him for a dance.  Then there some people visiting from the mainland of Ireland, including a man from Dublin sitting on a stool in front of the musician singing along, who dropped his pint on the floor then made his way towards our table for a sloppy sing-a-long of the Saw Doctor's "N17" - a song I had never heard before until that night.  By the time the night was over we found ourselves acquainted with a number of people, including three other Seans - a first in my life.

In the morning the three of us rented bikes for the day.  Since there aren't many cars this is the primary way to get around the island.  We rode from Killronan, the main town of the island, to a prehistoric fort on the cliffs about four miles away known as Dún Aengus.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Aran Islands, BlogSherpa, County Galway, Inishmór, Ireland, Ireland 2009, Irish Travel, Photos, Travel | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (3)

Labor Day in Portland, Maine

September 08, 2009 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

With a long weekend in front of me, I was determined to go somewhere new.  After taking in all the suggestions people gave me (Woodstock, Montreal, Stowe, Philadelphia), I decided to take a trip to Portland, Maine with my buddy Kamil. 

Besides discovering that I had a flat tire upon arriving in Portland, it was a smooth drive up.  We hardly encountered any traffic, allowing us to make very good time (about 3 and a half hours from Connecticut).  The hotel, a Travelodge, was very cheap at only $65 a night.  The room wasn't that bad considering the low price, and it was only a few minute's drive from downtown.

We spent most of our time in the Old Port section of town - an area littered with microbreweries, restaurants, shops, and cobblestone roads.  My favorite place was Gritty McDuffs, a brew pub where I tried the "Halloween Ale" and met up with my friend Mindy, who was also in town that night.  Another good spot was Oasis, located right down the street, where they had $3 22oz cans of PBR's, a live reggae band playing mostly Bob Marley, Sublime, and Vampire Weekend songs, and giant versions of Connect Four and Jenga.

Even more impressive than the pubs was the coastline only a few miles away.  Before driving back to Connecticut I took a drive to Cape Elizabeth - home to Two Lights State Park and the Portland Head Light. 

Driving back to Connecticut wasn't as pleasant as the drive up.  We hit miles and miles of stand-still traffic in the area between Portland and Kittery.  I opted to drive US-1 instead of I95, which at least provided some scenery along the way.  A few things I noticed about the southern Maine coast: they love their lobster, mini golf, and amusement parks.  

Once in Kittery we took a break from the traffic and visited Flo's Hot Dogs for some of the famous steamed hot dogs, and then stopped in the Kittery Trading Post, an outdoor megastore packed with guns, bikes, kayaks, fishing equipment, and more.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, BlogSherpa, Travel | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

The drive from Dingle to Limerick

August 07, 2009 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

At this point in our trip we had given up entirely on worrying about any sort of a schedule, so we took our time driving north to Limerick.  We made our way through Conor Pass blasting Beatles the entire way, and then slowly wound our way back down from the mountains to the coast, pulling over to stop whenever something interesting caught our eyes.

By the time the mid-afternoon had come, we had already seen and done enough to fill an entire week. In need of a boost, we stopped at the first "coffee" sign we came across. We pulled in thinking we had come across a small cafe, but instead found ourselves drinking coffee in a someones kitchen and chatting about the weather.

Some of our stops included Lislaughtin Abbey, Ballyheighe - a place where I enjoyed some of my first beers in life ten years earlier, and a pub Kildare where we stopped for dinner. It was close to ten by the time we arrived in Limerick.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Adare and Around, BlogSherpa, County Kerry, County Limerick, Dingle, Dingle Peninsula, Ireland, Ireland 2009, Irish Travel, Limerick City, Photos, Travel | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

Fungi the Dingle Dolphin

August 07, 2009 // 1 Comments  // Add yours »

After getting lost in the mountains we found ourselves arriving in Dingle about an hour and a half behind schedule.  In fact, we never actually pinpointed where our bed and breakfast was for the night.  Instead we just drove around until we came across it.  Prior to arriving I had exchanged emails with the owner, Katharine, and agreed that if we were going to be late we would call in and let her know.  Unfortunately we never got around to doing this, so by the time we arrived the door was locked shut and we were stuck out on the sidewalk.

Fortunately the people in the pub across the street where more than helpful.  The bartender called her on her cell and she raced down to open back up for us.  While we were waiting, the owner of the shop next door came outside and offered his assistance as well.  Nice people.

That night we followed the advice given to us by someone we had talked to on the street and made our way to a yellow pub down the street. After a few pints and about an hour's worth of traditional Irish music we stepped outside for some fresh air and were told about the "fine hourses" at the races that weekend in Dingle.

With a long day behind us and another planned for the following, we enjoyed one more pint then headed back to our B&B, the Lantern Townhouse, for some rest.

In the morning we took a walk from the B&B and visited the church where the study abroad program for Sacred Heart University is based.  After a quick, memorable tour of the church and a somewhat uncomfortable conversation with an English author about American culture, we walked towards the water with the hopes of taking a boat ride.

We spent the next hour chasing around Fungi the Dingle dolphin.  It was a lot of fun, and even a bit funny to zoom back and forth with a bunch of boats going "there's the dolphin!" every few minutes for an hour as if we had never seen one before.   Then again, I suppose it isn't every day you see a dolphin.

We finished our morning with lunch in a pub down by the water and then began our drive to Limerick.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, BlogSherpa, County Kerry, Dingle, Dingle Peninsula, Ireland, Ireland 2009, Irish Travel, Photos, Travel | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (1)