Search for Stars Hollow: Scarlet's New England Edition

I'm so excited I was able to convince Scarlet to write up a guest post about part of her trip to New England earlier this month! She blogs here and here. You might want to check it out :-)


photo by Copepodo

In the epically important and fun quest of trying to find the Stars Hollows of the world, Serena has been all around Virginia, Texas, and Maryland documenting her visits to quaint towns and commenting on their livability. Livability for me, and also what makes a town a Stars Hollow, is its size, its distance from a major city, and its personality. A town should speak to you. It should say, “Live here and we will have a great time.” A town is not just a place where you pay a rent or mortgage, it is your home and it should feel that way.

About ten years ago I went on the ultimate quest to find the real Stars Hollow which took me and my sister to a tiny town in the middle of Connecticut. I will never forget finding our own version of Luke’s diner and even though we didn’t find a town with livability for either of us, the trip really did spark a desire to live somewhere awesome. I want to live in a town that is small enough to know the townspeople, yet where I don’t get bored and have the option of getting to a major city in about an hour or two. I love towns that have events like fall and spring festivals, where every November the entire place gets together to decorate for the holidays, and where the residents take pride in celebrating the lives they’ve made there.

New England seems to be the ultimate place for finding Stars Hollows and much of that is because of the proximity to both New York City and Boston. Personally, I am also a huge fan of the weather and have a desire that goes to the depths of my soul to live in a place with cooler falls and springs and very snowy winters. (Is it that obvious that Virginia’s unseasonably warm winter this year really disappointed me?)

Westerly, RI

   
photo by Nathanael Hevelone

Right on the border of Connecticut and Rhode Island, this town has it all: proximity to two major cities, a beach, a great downtown area and piers! They even have a great bar where, on the night we went there, they were passing out zucchini cake in honor of the guitar players birthday. If that doesn’t scream Stars Hollow, then I don’t know what does!

 Mystic/Stonington, CT

   
 photo by simoneladybug

Both Mystic and Stonington, which are near each other, are super cute little towns with a lot of pizzazz. Both are on the water so you get that nautical feel, which I LOVE, and both have great restaurants and several bar options. We were in Mystic on 17 March, a week before their St. Patrick’s Day parade and celebration. I giggled thinking about the town council deciding to celebrate the holiday a week later to get better deals. Such a Taylor Doose thing to do!


 
photo by Indiana Stan

Stonington was home to my favorite meal while on vacation. Milagro’s is a tiny little place with the best guacamole on earth, huge margaritas, and my very first chimichanga! The town is small and condensed, but feels like a city block. We were only there for dinner, but I spotted a couple bars and several people walking on the streets at night.

While I’m not packing up and moving just yet, I feel confident that anyone looking for their own Stars Hollow would be happy in any of these towns. I’ll be back north in the fall and will report back on any new findings.