we would change our plans and go for our walk at Planting Fields Arboretum. While driving there, I told PJ about a Food Network special I saw Saturday night where it mentioned Stew Leonard's in Norwalk, CT. I had heard that it was a great store and it looked pretty cool on tv. PJ said "Let's go"! So off we went! It was exactly one hour from home. The parking lot was packed! It was nothing like I had expected. Supposedly it's huge but it was hard to tell because they have you going in and out of areas (like Ikea) instead of straight isles. I was NOT impressed. I thought the prices were VERY high, it was too crowded and the shoppers were annoying. You couldn't stop to look at anything without someone on your tail giving 'the look'. They had some free samples. Their tangerine juice was great but if I remember correctly, it was $10 or $14 per quart!! We ended up buying some things but mostly to see what everyone raves about. One thing that was very good is their rice cakes and sun dried tomato Hummus. I'm not a Hummus kind of person but this was really good. Their rice cakes aren't like Quaker ones either.
They have a machine where you can see them packaging the milk. That was neat.
We decided to stop at United House Wreckers on the way home. We had started going there in the '70's while we were dating. 
It was the coolest place. It had TONS of salvage items from mansions all over the world. Stained glass, mantels, yankee stadium seats... everything and anything. Times have changed. Now there's a lot of reproduction items but they still had a lot of what we like... the junk!
As we made our way into the town, my first thought was YUCK! Then we made a left! What an adorable town! It was full of cute shops, lots of antiques etc. The scenery surrounding Mirror Lake was just beautiful. We got to see the Olympic ski jump, bobsled, ice rink and speed skating rink.
We didn't get to do anything with Alyssa except go out to eat and take in the cold, rainy and snowy days. She had meetings and also had to work. That's what we get for a spur of the moment trip!
We looked at land where a farm was being subdivided into 23 parcals. That was lots of fun. PJ had a great time in the 4 story 100 year old barn. There were antique gardening tools still in there.
That night we went to Sunset Park (a park specifically made to look at the sunset. It's set in a neighborhood of mansions. There's a stone wall that you sit on and just watch). EVERY time we go there we meet someone that is very interesting. This time the only guy that was there approached us and introduced himself. His name was John Hylas. He was tall, thin, long blonde hair and very tan. He looked like a surfer dude until he got closer. As it ends up, he's 50 years old. He worked at Cornells Synchrotron which is an atom and partical smasher or something like that. He was just laid off after working there for 26 years. He was just sooo interesting. He was telling us about how water won't freeze up high in the sky unless it's 55 degrees below zero because the hydrogen bond is curved etc. So when it snows, the snow particles are forming in between the rain. Therefore you get snow from raindrops. I didn't get it but PJ did. He talked about how he met someone that was a navy officer in a submarine doing manuvers in the waters off of L.I. He said that they shot 3 missles out to hit a bouy 6 miles away. Two hit where they should have and the other boomeranged and hit a plane. That was flight 800 above the Hamptons. He said that the navy quickly cleaned up what they needed before the coast guard got there to cover up. A lady walking her dog on the beach saw something come out of the water and hit the plane. She told the news and within 12 hours, you never heard from her again. Years later he was in Seattle and was at a seminar and the guy next to him was also a navy officer. John told him what he had heard and the guy said that's exactly what happened. So that is what we all thought but the navy covered it up... if it's true. John invited to take PJ and I to Cornell the next day to see this Synchrotron thing. PJ wrote down his phone # but when we went to call him the next day we couldn't read a few of the numbers. The pen was frozen so it didn't work well. So we never got to check it out. It was so much fun chatting with him though. From what we understood, he was really an interesting guy that was just so bizarre you had to stay and listen to more! As he was talking I kept thinking of how was I going to get his picture so I can use it in my scrapbook. I started taking pictures of the sun and then I said, "John, stay where you are. The sun is shining through your hair really nice". He loved that idea probably as much as he loved his hair!!
We went inside the greenhouses to see all the poinsettias and tropicals. It was so nice to see FLOWERS this time of the year. 
