Memorial Day In Essex, CT!

Love how New England coastal towns decorate for Memorial Day. Its so quintessential and aesthetic. It inspires me to move here but I am grateful that we are only a 2. 5 hour drive away from some of the cutest towns in Connecticut. Essex is one of my faves and I captured a lot of red white and blue while we came here. I've explored this town before but not over memorial day weekend. It was quaint and pretty and we had a lovely time taking in the peace and the sounds of the ocean as well! 

Essex steam train & riverboat ride.

Can you believe this humidity! I think the entire U.S. is dealing with high temperatures reaching 100 + degrees.

Luckily we are used to it & that nothing is stopping us from enjoying ourselves on our trip. 

Today we took a train ride  aboard vintage railroad cars pulled by a steam locomotive as well as a "Mississippi style" river boat across the Connecticut river valley.

You can tell that he was relaxing and enjoying the train ride.

It was a two and a half hour train/boat ride & the scenery was absolutely breathtaking! 

Just take a look at my Instagram videos. 

The breeze aboard the train cooled us off & when we got on the boat it was a lot cooler. 

I'm grateful for two self sufficient daughters because Jon & I fell asleep on the boat for about 15 minutes. That's how relaxing it was! 

I woke up & saw Lexie & Noah playing...

Chelsea was looking at the scenery...

and I glanced over the next bench & saw Sierra napping (sorry, no picture.)

I heard 95% of the tour guides narrative history of this valley.

Noah has a penchant for collecting maps & pamphlets of the places we go to. Here he is studying the pamphlet on the boat. 

We started in Essex station which is a quaint town full of antique shops. 

We meandered through the countryside & saw the Gillette Castle & the Godspeed opera house. So many historic sights with lush scenery. 

When we returned to Essex station & exited off the train I took a closer look at this unique steamed locomotive & was amazed at how this one still runs. Not too many of them around anymore. 

Pretty cool huh!

This was a special treat for Noah because he lives for trains & now loves boats! He didn't care how sweaty he was. Flavor ice was a life saver on this trip.

We participated in a scavenger hunt on the way back to Essex station & kids 12 & under who participated got a treat at the gift shop. 

Noah & Chelsea both got train whistles.

He whistled on this thing for two hours & was so happy that he climbed aboard another train & another boat. 

Here are some more pictures to prove just how happy these kids were aboard the train & the boat in this 100% humidity! 

And we were happy too! 

Hope y'all are somehow staying cool in this killer humidity!!