if you're out on the road...
Jan. 19th, 2005 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phineasjonesbefore i tell the tale of rural connecticut and why amy sherman-palladino is a big liar, i want to let in you in on two very faulty thought processes that affected our little journey yesterday:
1. even though the weather reports on the radio and tv say it will be one of the coldest days of the entire year, i see no reason to change my plans to spend the day strolling around small town connecticut. wind chill of 15 below? how cold could that really be?
2. hmm, my car is being very noisy, much like back when the muffler was about to go. but i had the muffler and all related parts replaced not even a year ago, so it couldn't possibly be that. the best course is to ignore that noise.
and now, finding stars hollow.
well. we started out with two destinations: collinsville and washington depot. amanda had found a website about connecticut locations used in tv and movies and they listed collinsville as a source of outdoor 'promo' shots for gilmore girls. i don't really know what they mean by 'promo.' but we didn't recognize much about collinsville. except for the general feel. it's an adorable little town (actually, i think it's a village of the town of canton) with tiny shops and even a somewhat luke-ish little restaurant. we drove around the small downtown several times, in case we recognized anything and then parked and walked down the main street. and almost froze our faces off. seriously, i cannot adequately express how fucking cold it was. ouch. so we poked our heads in the restaurant and tried to go to a little town museum, but it was closed. alas. after about half an hour in collinsville, we got back in the car and headed for washington depot.
we chose washington depot as a destination because amy sherman-palladino mentions it in the dvd extras from season 1. she says she and dan were there once and it was the inspiration for stars hollow - complete with a friendly little cafe-diner where the locals go behind the counter or something like that. by the time we got to washington depot, we were might hungry and, though we desperately wanted to find the inspiration for luke's, we pretty much settled for the first restaurant we found. which happened to have veggie burgers, so we figure it was fated.
washington depot is also very cute and small with lots of cute little shops. we wandered around, went in a needlepoint and yarn shop where we were scowled at by a nasty lady. and then found 'washington food market' and decided it's totally doose's market. we went inside and everyone was being all cute and friendly and familiar with each other. we looked for cute bag boys but no such luck. and while it was very tempting to steal some cornstarch ;), i chickened out.
we stopped in a bookstore to break up the frigid walk back to the car. i went and poked around in the travel section, seeing if i could find any helpful info on the area because, cute as washington depot was, it didn't feel quite like stars hollow. there was no luke's that we could find, there was no town green... it seemed more shopping-oriented than anything else. my research was very helpful. it revealed that the neighboring town of washington had a fancy inn called the mayflower. the mayflower? why not just call it the independence?!
and so off we went! and yes, the mayflower was totally the independence. except maybe even fancier. check it out. and! it's on grounds that used to be part of the private school that is also in washington. that's right. and then we drove through the little square that makes up the downtown of washington and there was the town green, and there, on the edge, was a breakfast and lunch restaurant. the only commercial business we could see. right next to the tiny post office and around the corner from the library. sadly, it was well past lunch time and the place was closed. but we peeked inside and it was totally luke's. totally. ::sigh::
the moral of this story? amy sherman-palladino doesn't know what she's talking about. stars hollow is clearly based on washington and not washington depot. and if we'd only known that early enough, we could have eaten at luke's. which was really called the ...something cafe. can't remember. we probably have a picture.
also, part of connecticut are much nicer than i'd previously believed. based on hartford, new haven and some suburbs, i had dismissed the state as boring wealthy suburbia. but these towns were adorable. and the areas quite beautiful. my opinion is reformed.
so then it was time to head home. we stopped in litchfield - another adorable town - for very tasty coffee and then we made it as far as east granby (CT, not MA) before the car got roaringly loud and was suddenly accompanied by the sound of metal scraping pavement. i pulled into a school parking lot and things went rather smoothly - called AAA, called a friend to come get us, were let into the school by a nice custodian and thus were saved from freezing our asses off. and now i have to call my mechanic and ask why the pipe that attached the muffler to the car - the one he put on only months ago - has fallen off. and how much it's going to cost to put it back on. wah.
but fear not, we made it home in time for most of last night's gilmore girls. ;)
1. even though the weather reports on the radio and tv say it will be one of the coldest days of the entire year, i see no reason to change my plans to spend the day strolling around small town connecticut. wind chill of 15 below? how cold could that really be?
2. hmm, my car is being very noisy, much like back when the muffler was about to go. but i had the muffler and all related parts replaced not even a year ago, so it couldn't possibly be that. the best course is to ignore that noise.
and now, finding stars hollow.
well. we started out with two destinations: collinsville and washington depot. amanda had found a website about connecticut locations used in tv and movies and they listed collinsville as a source of outdoor 'promo' shots for gilmore girls. i don't really know what they mean by 'promo.' but we didn't recognize much about collinsville. except for the general feel. it's an adorable little town (actually, i think it's a village of the town of canton) with tiny shops and even a somewhat luke-ish little restaurant. we drove around the small downtown several times, in case we recognized anything and then parked and walked down the main street. and almost froze our faces off. seriously, i cannot adequately express how fucking cold it was. ouch. so we poked our heads in the restaurant and tried to go to a little town museum, but it was closed. alas. after about half an hour in collinsville, we got back in the car and headed for washington depot.
we chose washington depot as a destination because amy sherman-palladino mentions it in the dvd extras from season 1. she says she and dan were there once and it was the inspiration for stars hollow - complete with a friendly little cafe-diner where the locals go behind the counter or something like that. by the time we got to washington depot, we were might hungry and, though we desperately wanted to find the inspiration for luke's, we pretty much settled for the first restaurant we found. which happened to have veggie burgers, so we figure it was fated.
washington depot is also very cute and small with lots of cute little shops. we wandered around, went in a needlepoint and yarn shop where we were scowled at by a nasty lady. and then found 'washington food market' and decided it's totally doose's market. we went inside and everyone was being all cute and friendly and familiar with each other. we looked for cute bag boys but no such luck. and while it was very tempting to steal some cornstarch ;), i chickened out.
we stopped in a bookstore to break up the frigid walk back to the car. i went and poked around in the travel section, seeing if i could find any helpful info on the area because, cute as washington depot was, it didn't feel quite like stars hollow. there was no luke's that we could find, there was no town green... it seemed more shopping-oriented than anything else. my research was very helpful. it revealed that the neighboring town of washington had a fancy inn called the mayflower. the mayflower? why not just call it the independence?!
and so off we went! and yes, the mayflower was totally the independence. except maybe even fancier. check it out. and! it's on grounds that used to be part of the private school that is also in washington. that's right. and then we drove through the little square that makes up the downtown of washington and there was the town green, and there, on the edge, was a breakfast and lunch restaurant. the only commercial business we could see. right next to the tiny post office and around the corner from the library. sadly, it was well past lunch time and the place was closed. but we peeked inside and it was totally luke's. totally. ::sigh::
the moral of this story? amy sherman-palladino doesn't know what she's talking about. stars hollow is clearly based on washington and not washington depot. and if we'd only known that early enough, we could have eaten at luke's. which was really called the ...something cafe. can't remember. we probably have a picture.
also, part of connecticut are much nicer than i'd previously believed. based on hartford, new haven and some suburbs, i had dismissed the state as boring wealthy suburbia. but these towns were adorable. and the areas quite beautiful. my opinion is reformed.
so then it was time to head home. we stopped in litchfield - another adorable town - for very tasty coffee and then we made it as far as east granby (CT, not MA) before the car got roaringly loud and was suddenly accompanied by the sound of metal scraping pavement. i pulled into a school parking lot and things went rather smoothly - called AAA, called a friend to come get us, were let into the school by a nice custodian and thus were saved from freezing our asses off. and now i have to call my mechanic and ask why the pipe that attached the muffler to the car - the one he put on only months ago - has fallen off. and how much it's going to cost to put it back on. wah.
but fear not, we made it home in time for most of last night's gilmore girls. ;)