Hartford Connecticut
Trip Dates
November 16 - November 18 2018
How I Got There
I was in New York City for a business trip and I booked a ticket to Hartford on Amtrak. The trip ended a bit early so I sat around at Penn Station waiting for the late train up north. For some reason neither Google Maps or Apple Maps told me that there was a local commuter train that I could take from Grand Central Station to New Haven and then catch another commuter train to Hartford. This trip takes roughly the same amount of time as Amtrak and is half the cost. I was able to refund my ticket, and took a cab from Penn Station to Grand Central Station. I've never had a reason to go to Grand Central Station, so I was glad to finally get a chance to experience this majestic and historic train station.
Where I Stayed
I stayed at the Residence Inn in downtown Hartford. The hotel is inside of the historic Cheney Building. It was a short walk from the train station and one of the nicest Residence Inn's that I have been in so far. The room was a massive bi-level loft with plenty of space to relax and work. If I ever wanted to lock myself in a room for a month and write a book, this is definitely the place where I would do it.
How I Got Around
Other than the train ride in, I used Lyft and walked to most places around the city. Hartford does have a public transit system that consists of busses, but like many other capitals that I have been to the routes are limited and the schedule is unpredictable.
What I Did
I arrived in the evening and got a quick bite at the restaurant downstairs from the hotel. The next morning I wandered around in the snow. First I went to the State Library, then walked through the park near the Capitol. After a quick taco lunch, I made my way over to the Mark Twain House and Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. That evening, I caught a minor league hockey game and watched the Hartford Wolfpack demolish the Utica Comets in a 6 - 3 victory. Afterwards, I went to the same restaurant that I visited the night before, but this time I went down to the basement and saw some of the best comedy local comedy that one could hope to find in a basement.
On Sunday I went to the oldest Art Museum in the country. I walked down to the riverfront, but there is no much to see or do there during the winter. After a late brunch I headed to the airport for my flight back to San Francisco.
What Was The Fuss
Hartford has undergone many transformations in its history. It was founded in 1635 and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. It contains many of the countries "oldest X" and "first Y". Hartford was an industrial center, a manufacturing center, and one of the wealthiest cities in the United States for a very long time. Although it remains the Insurance Capital of the World, it has experienced a sharp decline and today is one of the poorest cities in the nation. Like many cities in the US, Hartford is still trying to reinvent itself for the 21st Century.
Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on mastodon or via email.
Check out some more stuff to read down below.
Most popular posts this month
- Dagger Feels Like Magic
- Now What?
- SQLite DB Migrations with PRAGMA user_version
- 20 Years of Ubuntu
- Types and Roles If Not Exists in PostgreSQL
Recent Favorite Blog Posts
This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.
- Sabotage from jwz
- It’s the “1998” of the AI Revolution. So Why Can I Safely Ignore It? from The Internet Review
- University & Adversity from Isaak.net
- War on Malaria from Isaak.net
- Serendipity from Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
- Andrea Veri: GNOME Infrastructure migration to AWS from Planet GNOME
- A Whale of a Time from https://popagandhi.com/
- Pluralistic: You should be using an RSS reader (16 Oct 2024) from Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Articles from blogs I follow around the net
MetaWin casino hacked for $4 million
Hot wallets used by the MetaWin crypto casino were drained of around $4 million. According to the company's CEO, the attacker "t[ook] advantage of our frictionless withdrawal system". The attacker then moved the stolen fu…
via Web3 is Going Just Great November 9, 2024Echoes of Time
Wong, et al Light near a black hole can travel different paths to create echoes of a single flash. The most amazing thing about light is that it takes time to travel through space. Because of that one simple fact, when we look up at the Universe we see not …
via Brian Koberlein November 9, 2024New microblog with TILs
I added a new section to this site a couple weeks ago called TIL (“today I learned”). the goal: save interesting tools & facts I posted on social media One kind of thing I like to post on Mastodon/Bluesky is “hey, here’s a cool thing”, like the great SQLi…
via Julia Evans November 9, 2024Generated by openring