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Hidden speakeasy in Wallingford serves up 'potions' 

Road Trip Close to Home: Spirit of Christmas shines at New Haven exhibit

Central Perk coffeehouse opens in Times Square, bringing 'Friends' nostalgia to NYC

Bryant Park transforms into a winter village for the holidays

Tony-winning actress Kara Young on her new play & why she loves being a New Yorker

connecticut

Brian Heyman

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This week, we're taking a road trip to the Hyde Park home of one of the most influential women in history. News. Twelve's photojournalist, Scott Co had just visited the Eleanor Roosevelt National historic site. Be Hill was a place that the Roosevelts loved to picnic at. And in the summer of 1924 FDR offered to build his wife Eleanor a little stone cottage here so that she would have a place of her own in Hyde Park where she could pursue her interest in politics. People should come here to Val Hill because Eleanor Roosevelt was an amazing first lady. She kind of broke the mold. It does not cost you anything to see val. It's free. The guides here tried to cover her life during the White House years. And then after um she, she left the White House and we also talk about what made her into the person she became. The tour is about half an hour in length and they get a pretty good idea of Mrs Roosevelt and the kind of thing she was involved in after she left the White House, the other building was built to house the Val Hill industries as it was called. And for nine years, they manufactured pewter products and furniture. I want to prop for a few minutes when the factory shut down, ended up making this into a residence for herself. They'll see a house that is a very simply furnished home where anyone would feel very much at home when they came to visit up on the second floor of Mrs Roosevelt's home there in this wing, there are a couple of guest bedrooms in here. She had a lot of the furniture that was made at the Val Kel industries. The walls here in her bedroom are filled with photographs of people who were important to her. There's a lovely flower garden here that is a recreation of the kind of flowers that she would have had here. This former first lady used Val Kil as a home for herself. Until her passing in 1962 she was able to people here who had similar interests who wanted to make a difference in the world. Eleanor Roosevelt was a woman who really cared about people and wanted to change. Not only the lives of people in this country but worldwide.

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Well, if you're looking for some thrills to round out your summer vacation, then we have the perfect spot for you. Complete with rock climbing swimming zip lines and more. You're sure to have an action packed adventure in this week's road trip. Close to home news, 12 photojournalist, Laurie Goliath takes us to Portland in a brownstone because we wanted to have a lot of fun. The water is always warm. We are at the Brownstone Adventure Sports Park in Portland, Connecticut. It's a 27 acre flooded quarry with rock climbing cliff jumping and 11 zip lines that all end in the water. I like the like the clefts and the zip lines. All of our zip lines are water landing. So the water is the braking system and after you land, you backstroke in to where we unclip you. The long zip line is just over my right shoulder and that is 1000 ft zip line off of our rock climbing wall. We have our racing zip lines which are a little bit faster and you can go up to four people each on their own zip line. It's like freedom. I don't even know how to say it. It's crazy. It's a crazy feeling. You can't put words to it. And yeah, it's like, cool. It's like beautiful. We do have a 12 and under zone which is, uh, a sort of smaller set of inflatables for the little kids. And we have a number of attractions so you can sort of, you know, choose your challenge and, uh, go from a little bit of, uh, adrenaline all the way up to yikes. We gotta try the 40 ft cliff jump today. So going against our fears and everything in the late 17 hundreds, they started quarrying. The rock here was a soft stone, easy to work with. And some of our stone is at the base of the Statue of Liberty. The brownstone buildings in Boston and New York. Those famous brownstones are rock from this quarry or some right nearby here. We also have an overhead cable system for wakeboarding. It's a little bit like snowboarding on the water, but it's again, a cable system that pulls you up and you can wake board out there. It's scary. But you know, once you do it, you're happy, you did it. There's nothing else quite like Brownside Adventure Sports Park. It's a phenomenal summer attraction and place to come and challenge yourself and cool off. It's the best water park in Connecticut. I mean, it doesn't get much better than this Brownstone Adventure Sports Park is open seven days a week until Labor Day and hosts their last weekend of the season. September 7th and eight.

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Want to break away from the everyday hustle and bustle on this week's road trip. Close to home news. Twelve's Marissa Marcal, Marisa Santarelli. She takes us on a peaceful escape to the blissful acres of Riverdale Park. The Bronx is more than just a concrete jungle. Take a road trip with us to Riverdale Park. All right, I've got my hat on and my water ready. Let's go 50 acres of wildlife, a canopy of trees overhead and the calm sounds of nature. Wow. The perfect recipe for a peaceful walk. That's why they call it a hidden gem. Right? Meet Park Ranger Ben Young. Some of these trees have been here for a very, very long time expert on all things nature. This is the bedrock of the Bronx. This is uh Fordham. Nice. It's some of the oldest rock face here in New York City. So what we're looking at here is one of the shell mittens that would have been left behind by the Lenape people Park ranger. Ben says this peaceful escape has beautiful sights to see any time of the year in the summertime. It's kind of a cool oasis to escape from the heat of the city in the winter time you can encounter eastern screech owls, great horned owls, bald eagles and ospreys all around and fishing in the river. And then in the spring, you can come and see the different kinds of blooms and flowers that are starting to emerge. We went to a secluded spot to soak up the waterfront views. So you're looking across the mighty Hudson river towards New Jersey and the Palisade cliffs and you don't even need a car to get here. You can take the metro north to the Riverdale, stop, get off and begin your exploration through Riverdale Park. One frequent visitor says this park is his safe haven. This is a great sanctuary. It's green, it's quiet. I wouldn't be living here without this park with this beautiful greenery, these breathtaking views and the smell of fresh air. This park will have you questioning if you're even in the Bronx at all. You can actually come here and feel like you're getting away from the hustle and bustle of the concrete jungle. A little bit amazing just to see how many different things call New York City home in Riverdale, Marisa Santarelli News 12. The Bronx.

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Well, the Smithtown Ninja Academy is the perfect spot to learn how to be quick on your feet. The whole family can have fun there. Our Shannon Lanier takes us there in this week's road trip close to home TV. Shows like American Ninja warrior and here we go. The floor is lava. The obstacle course is colossal are all the rage. So to get a hands on lesson at becoming ninjas ourselves, the little Anne and I went to Smithtown Ninja Academy. Is there any tip to finishing first and beat them? Here we teach Children and adults how to overcome the obstacles with all the different techniques and skills that it takes. Can you take us through a few obstacles like the, let that be nice and quick, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Use that right hand. Yeah. OK. We finished the tutorial. What's next? All right. Now we're gonna go head on to the course and see who can do it the best is you guys ready? You got this, go. Yep, quick, quick, quick. You got it. Reach for that ring. You're there, you're there. You're there. Use those hips, use those hips. You got it move. Oh, yeah. Hit it. Everybody, you guys did a great job and I love how they were exercising the whole time as well. It's really cool. Yeah, it teaches Children a lot more than just that. We teach them how to build confidence, strength. Uh, it gives them endurance and on top of that it's the best community. So, everyone here is making a good group of friends and we just love to teach them how to overcome hospitals at the end of the day. All right, let's do it again from Smithtown with the LA family on this road trip close to.

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The unofficial authority of all things local beer as news 12 Connecticut's Greg Thompson found out it's turned into a win, win for everyone involved. Breweries are today's modern day era of mom and pop shops. You know, they're, they're family owned. They make a product by hand that people love, meet Kevin Mard Orf or as most people know the Norwalk resident Mr CT Beer, everybody that works at a brewery knows Kevin. He's been in touch with probably every brewery or close to it for over a decade. Mard Orf has run different online resources including CT beer.com and beer, fest.com promoting craft breweries and festivals around the state. I saw that a community was forming and there was like no central online presence to promote the industry. More than 300,000 followers across all his social media accounts later and it's become his full time job. The response has been overwhelming. I mean, people really love supporting local and they love discovering new craft breweries. Mar's latest project is this the Connecticut field trip passport. It features 29 and breweries from around the state. Each offering two for one beers and of course a stamp when you visit, people love to stamp, it was meant to help people get out, explore and discover and consumers. I hear from them all the time on social media and that from media about what I'm at about. This is so much fun breweries involved like Berlinetta in Bridgeport say that people are showing up because of it, giving them exposure that pays off down the road. I am more than happy to give away a beer to get that new couple people through the door because I think our place is great. I think our beer is great. And if we can just get people here, they're going to like it. Mard is already working on next year's passport saying he wants to expand it and maybe even include some coffee shops and distilleries in Bridgeport, Greg Thompson News 12, Connecticut.

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