Jill's Journal: Three little girls (and one big girl) had such a fun time today. We started with a drive to Norwalk and a destination of Stew Leonard’s: World’s Largest Dairy Store. Billed as the Disneyland of Dairy Stores and in both Ripley’s Believe It or Not and the Guinness Book of World Records, this place is something to behold.
It’s like a farmer’s market/butcher shop/dairy product store on steroids. It’s technically a grocery store, but customers walk on a winding path throughout a barn-like atmosphere. Mechanized cows (and chickens, fruit, vegetables, etc.) sing and dance throughout the store. There’s animatronic animals above the shelving at every turn, a place to watch milk being packaged into cartons, and huge screens showing live web cams of the store’s cows at their dairy. There’s a petting zoo and an outdoor café. Gelato stands. Ice cream stands. Fresh mozzarella stands. They even host children’s birthday parties on their “beach”. The amount of dairy products is staggering. The produce is gorgeous. And the meat is spectacular-looking. What an experience!
We were brought down to earth with our second stop, this one in Stratford: the Children’s Garbage Museum! The girls absolutely didn’t want to go, but I thought it would be educational for them and they ended up loving it. We got a sky-box view of a recycling plant in action and saw raw trash turned into recycled materials. They were fascinated. However, their favorite activity at the plant was a scavenger hunt using Trash-O-Sauraus, a “rare” dinosaur made out of trash. The girls found all the game’s items embedded in the dinosaur, ranging from a flip-flop to a comb to a license plate. They were pretty proud of themselves.
And finally, East Haven’s Shore Line Trolley Museum closed our day. We got a three-mile ride down an old trolley line on a restored trolley. The motorman christened Erika the “conductress” and she got to punch everyone’s ticket. All three girls got to ring the bell during the ride. The museum has eight barns full of antique trolleys from all over North America, all lovingly restored and in beautiful shape. It’s amazing how different each one is and of course, each has a story. Ours was formerly from New Orleans and built to accommodate segregation. If walls could talk, I’ll bet hers would have a lot to say.
Jill's Journal: Three little girls (and one big girl) had such a fun time today. We started with a drive to Norwalk and a destination of Stew Leonard’s: World’s Largest Dairy Store. Billed as the Disneyland of Dairy Stores and in both Ripley’s Believe It or Not and the Guinness Book of World Records, this place is something to behold. 
It’s like a farmer’s market/butcher shop/dairy product store on steroids. It’s technically a grocery store, but customers walk on a winding path throughout a barn-like atmosphere. Mechanized cows (and chickens, fruit, vegetables, etc.) sing and dance throughout the store. There’s animatronic animals above the shelving at every turn, a place to watch milk being packaged into cartons, and huge screens showing live web cams of the store’s cows at their dairy. There’s a petting zoo and an outdoor café. Gelato stands. Ice cream stands. Fresh mozzarella stands. They even host children’s birthday parties on their “beach”. The amount of dairy products is staggering. The produce is gorgeous. And the meat is spectacular-looking. What an experience!
We were brought down to earth with our second stop, this one in Stratford: the Children’s Garbage Museum! The girls absolutely didn’t want to go, but I thought it would be educational for them and they ended up loving it. We got a sky-box view of a recycling plant in action and saw raw trash turned into recycled materials. They were fascinated. However, their favorite activity at the plant was a scavenger hunt using Trash-O-Sauraus, a “rare” dinosaur made out of trash. The girls found all the game’s items embedded in the dinosaur, ranging from a flip-flop to a comb to a license plate. They were pretty proud of themselves.
And finally, East Haven’s Shore Line Trolley Museum closed our day. We got a three-mile ride down an old trolley line on a restored trolley. The motorman christened Erika the “conductress” and she got to punch everyone’s ticket. All three girls got to ring the bell during the ride. The museum has eight barns full of antique trolleys from all over North America, all lovingly restored and in beautiful shape. It’s amazing how different each one is and of course, each has a story. Ours was formerly from New Orleans and built to accommodate segregation. If walls could talk, I’ll bet hers would have a lot to say.
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We're glad you enjoyed your visit to the Garbage Museum! Don't forget to become a fan of the Garbage Museum (and its sister facility, the Trash Museum in Hartford) on Facebook.
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