The Beautiful Shore

I grew up in a small shore town called Branford in Connecticut right on Long Island Sound. It's a typical New England town, although much larger now than when I lived there. While we were visiting I took my grandma for a ride around Branford to take pictures of all the beautiful places there are there. I like going with my grandma because she knows all the old facts and stories about the place -- she's been living there for over 60 years! Here are just few pictures, to give you the feel for this cute little town.


Yes, that's a huge mansion out on that island (the Thimble Islands I think). That house was moved there by the owners -- not sure what they do during hurricane season!


Stony Creek -- an area of Branford. So cute! One of my favorites! Lots of fisherman there.



This is Branford Point -- the beach I grew up going to. My grandma lives less than a mile away from here and we would walk down every day in the summer when we were kids! We used to think it was a HUGE beach. Now I look at it and realize how small it is! There are no waves, it just kind of laps up onto the sand.


And this is the house I grew up in. Now it's been turned into a law office by my cousin. Sigh, I love this house. So cute and brick and charming. It used to have trees around it. There used to be a huge bush on the right side that had this big puffy white flowers in the spring. And we used to build snowmen on the front lawn when it was covered in snow. It's right in the "center" of town (that's what some New England towns call their downtown business district). Man we used to have fun living around there. The Green (a big, well, lawn, in the center of town; the town hall and a couple churches are centered around it; dates back to when the town was first settled in the 1600s) was fun to run around on and there is a festival there every year on Father's Day weekend. There used to be a yummy bakery there (Castelon's) and an adorable candy shop.


I love Branford. It has a lot of history and a lot of gorgeous houses and places along the water. Yale started on the Green there in the Center of town. Pirates used to bury their treasure on the Thimble Islands. I have a lot of nostalgia for that place!