Rainy Day Activities in Connecticut (CT)

You won’t care if the rain goes away when you are climbing and soaring your way through the exciting It Adventure Ropes Course inside Jordan’s Furniture. You’ll be strapped securely in a full-body harness and sling line, keeping you fully connected as you navigate the more than 100 challenges, part of the world’s largest indoor ropes courses. The four-level course features zip rails sitting at heights of up to 56 feet, zig-zag swinging beams, bridges, cargo nets and crisscross angle rope ladders. And there’s a special, Little It course, for children under 48 inches tall. On that course, platforms are less than three feet off the ground, and adult chaperones are nearby to help out if needed.

Looking for a fun activity for the whole family? It’s time to make tracks to the Railroad Museum of New England, where kids can explore steam and diesel locomotive passenger and freight cars, a crane, a plow and cabooses. (One is bright red!) There are educational exhibits at the historic Thomaston, CT Station, too. And the highlight, of course, is stepping aboard a vintage train for an excursion up the Naugatuck River Valley, over the famed Thomaston Dam, through woods and over the river. Special excursions to delight children of all ages are the Easter Bunny Express, the Pumpkin Patch train, the Santa Express and the Northern Lights Limited. The latter two trains, decorated for the season, include visits with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Visit the Mark Twain House & Museum, a National Historic Landmark, and see why the Clemens family loved this Hartford home in rain or shine. Daily tours take you to rooms richly decorated, many by Louis C. Tiffany & Co., filled with period pieces and domestic artifacts. There’s a lovely carved bed in the Clemens’ bedroom, a vast literary collection in the library, a fountain in the conservatory, and other delights of the Victorian era. (You can even see the Paige Compositor typesetting machine that drove the family to the brink of bankruptcy, forcing them to leave the home in 1891). The museum holds over 16,000 artifacts, including books by Darwin, Hawthorne, and others, with margin comments written by Clemens.