An Autumn day in Westport, Connecticut
Like any good NYC day trip, our journey begins at Grand Central Terminal. I love the station in the morning as the light streaming through the windows is magical and the hustle and bustle is energizing. The station itself is one of the best sites in NYC, but today we're heading through only for a moment, on our way to Connecticut and the adorable town of Westport.
As always, I'm partial to the window seat to watch as New York becomes Connecticut and the bustling city becomes a New England seaside town. Some of the first sites you see in Connecticut are stark reminders that you're now in quintessential New England. Just look at that church!
The area surrounding the Westport train station includes adorable shops and restaurants, all complete with lovely outdoor dining tents. The perfect spot for commuters to meet up before and after work. I opted to hop a cab to downtown but would love to visit these eateries one day.
Main Street, Elm Street, and Church Lane form a triangle shaped downtown area, complete with every single mainstream shop you could possibly want. I found a plethora of Fall décor inspiration at stores like Pottery Barn, West Elm, William Sonoma, Serena and Lily, and the biggest, most beautiful Anthropologie I have ever seen. Clothing stores such as The Gap, Vineyard Vines, JCrew & Madewell also offered opportunity for window shopping. I browsed books at Barnes & Noble and stocked up on craft kits at The Paper Source. Not only were the stores decorated perfectly, the outside facades were extremely beautiful and uniquely New England. I visited Westport on a beautiful fall day and the local restaurants had their windows open and their outdoor tables were packed for the lunch rush. Pretty places I'd like to eat in the area include Nomade, Amis Trattoria, and Manna Toast Café.
While I was excited to venture into a different state and spend a quiet afternoon window shopping, my main desire for visiting Westport was to explore the lovely shop, Terrain. One of my favorite plant and home goods stores has a location in Westport and I've been eager to check it out for years. I walked up Post Road/Route 1/State St (it has a lot names on Google Maps?) about a mile until I saw the horticulture mecca. There is a sidewalk along this route for most of the walk, but crossing Rt 1 is a little odd and I quickly realized this is not a walking community outside the shopping district! No big deal, I made it and even as I walked into the parking lot, my spirits were high.
Upon entering Terrain, you're immediately transported to another world. The greenhouse area of the store is bright and colorful and filled with every type of plant or pottery you can imagine. Matt was lucky I didn't have a car and could not lug a million plants home on the train. It was so much better than the Terrain of my imagination.
Venture further inside the shop and you are whisked away to even more enchanted worlds. Of course there are more plants covering every surface, high and low, but there are other goodies mixed throughout. There are sections for health & wellness as well as kitchen & cookery. There are sections for gardening and reading along with an unlimited number of household décor. There was Autumnal décor as well as Christmas favorites. I walked the entire store numerous times, finding new things to inspect. Somehow, I made it out of the shop with just a small bag with mini-pots, greeting cards, a keepsake Christmas ornament and a wooden decorative bowl. But as I left the store, there was still more of Terrain to examine.
One of THE BEST things about this Terrain location, is the addition of the Terrain Café. The beautiful space serves salads, sandwiches and grain bowls, along with breakfast favorites and kitschy classics, like bread served in flower pots.
The outdoor garden was awash in color from the hundreds of pumpkins and gourds displayed for the season. The space is also filled with outdoor plants and shrubs as well as inspiration for the best porches or backyards in the tristate area. I was obsessed with the different varieties of gourds and I'm sure you can see why :)
After spending as much time as possible wandering around, it was finally time to call an Uber and head to the train station. This little town, and Terrain especially, will definitely become part of my yearly day trips out of the city. With so much to offer and such as easy commute, Westport was a success all around!
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