"Elementary, My Dear Watson"

We recently toured the Gillette Castle in East Haddam, CT, it overlooks the Connecticut River. We first heard of Gillette Castle on a steam train/river boat excursion to Essex, CT last October, found here.

We finally made our way back to tour the actual castle this time. Our journey began as normal, until the sweet voice of GPS said, "in 400 feet, board ferry". We both exclaimed, "What?! A ferry? I thought we took the route to avoid the ferry?" Adam then said, "did you change the settings on GPS?" I looked and sure enough, I hadn't checked the box for ferry, under the tab "Avoidance's" oops!
In a panic, Adam continued to drive forward. I yelled, "stop driving, I don't want to pay $30 to take a ferry!" Adam yelled back, "what should I do?" Using my hawk eyes I scanned the nearby sign that read, "walk on $1, car $3". A nice calm came over the vehicle and we drove on to the ferry.

A quick 5 minute ferry ride across the Connecticut River, and we were back on the road. 

On to the fun! Almost. First, a quick history lesson. Gillette Castle was built by William Gillette, who was a famous stage actor who was most well known for his role as "Sherlock Holmes". In his lifetime, Gillette played the character of Sherlock Holmes more than 1300 times. Also, he added the characteristic deerstalker cap, curved pipe, magnifying glass, and phrases such as "elementary, my dear Watson".

Gillette built the castle in 1919 as his regular home to reside in.

The view from the ferry

Entry way

there are 40 something hand carved doors throughout the house

no two are alike

this guy had a thing for cats, there were cat figurines everywhere!

The view from Gillette's terrace

Pretty cool, eh? You need to check it for yourself. The house is very interesting, with it's secret passages, and trick liquor cabinet, and strategically placed mirrors in order for Gillette to observe his guests (from his bedroom) entering the house, and trying to access the liquor in the the trick cabinet! The stories about this man are pretty hilarious! Go check it and spend time talking to the friendly castle workers, they are full of fun stories and tidbits about the house and Gillette.