Beautiful East Rock Park, Eli Whitney

This morning I took Patty's laptop computer to the ITS location in the Bass Library to have them try to fix the virus that the computer picked up. They are keeping it overnight, and possibly tomorrow it will be fixed. On the first day I came to New Haven when Dr. Ian Maddock was driving me in the town, I saw a tower on a mountain that looked very interesting and was definitely worth checking out. I researched more about it and found the route to go there. It is called East Rock Park, where the summit of the mountain rises over 350ft high. It worked out to where I could actually walk to the park from my dorm room, which was about two miles one way. I left after lunch at 1:00pm sharp. It was an overcast day, and I was afraid it may start raining when I was up there on the mountain. During the afternoon there was only a very light rain, which made it pleasant walking through the lush forests and trails. At first I didn't know how to make my accent up the mountain until I finally saw a trail on the side of the road. I started climbing up, and I believe I went up the route that was more straight up and vertical. I for sure got some exercise! I reached the top and what a view it was seeing the monument and the spectacular view of the city of New Haven. I could actually see the New Haven Harbor and Long Island Sound (it was a little hazy however because of the cloudy day). The Soldiers and Sailors Monument honors the men of New Haven who died in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. It was erected in 1887 and stands 112ft tall, and can be seen from nearly all over the city. I made my way back down another way on the road and by more trails. At the bottom I came to Eli Whitney's Museum and there were some small shops. I went in and there were a lot of school children working with wooden crafts such as building boats. These were wood shops were I suppose kids go to work on projects. It was very neat to see these little kids working with tools at their age. There was a beautiful dam nearby with water rushing over it (pictures below) and a lake from above. There was also a beautiful forging house. I continued on a trail beside the house and ended up where I first came into the park. So I decided to head back to the dorm since I didn't want to get caught if it did start raining hard. What a great day to get out and hike up some trails and see some more amazing sights!