New York to Hartford

This is what we did on Tuesday --

After a full day of rain ( lots and lots of it) on Monday, we left Florida NY. When we were getting ready to leave there, we discovered that this little village is the birthplace of William Seward.
Since we lived in Alaska for a long time, we are very familiar with Seward. For those of you who don't know, William Seward served as Secretary of State to Abraham Lincoln and more importantly was instrumental in the US purchase of the Alaska territory.
The main road leading into Florida is also known locally as the Seward Highway. We got a kick out of that since we think of the Seward Highway as the one in Alaska.

We drove through the rain to Hartford Connecticut where we stayed for the night. When we stopped at the Connecticut Welcome Center to pick up a map. Since we only had one afternoon in the area we thought we would look at the Mark Twain Home.

Mark Twain lived in Hartford during the time in his life when he wrote most of the stories he is famous for ( Tom Sawyer, Yankee in King Arthur's Court, etc.). He shared the home with his wife and 3 children. It was pretty modern for the time with central heating and plumbing. The Twains lived in a pretty fancy neighborhood. Their next door neighbor was Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Toms Cabin).
The home was decorated Louis C. Tiffany (as in Tiffany glass). Although there was none of Tiffany's signature stained glass, it was very fancy. The walls were hand stenciled with metallic paints. The fireplaces had elaborate wood carved mantels and the crystal chandeliers were beautiful. Many of Twain's original furniture pieces are in the home. The restoration of the house is authentic because the home had been extensively photographed during Twain's residence. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos of the interior of the home. If you would like to see photos of the interior, they are available on their website: www.marktwainhouse.org
Although we only had an afternoon in Hartford, it looked like an interesting city, one we may have to visit again.