Pair your winter with wine for this Road Trip along the Connecticut Winter Wine Trail

Americans making their New Year's resolutions for 2025

Main Street Connecticut: Chelsea Piers in Stamford

Your Road Trip Close to Home adventure guide for Jan. 2

New Jersey residents share their predictions, resolutions for 2025

Bridgeport officials announce $1M federal grant for riverfront project

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Brian Heyman

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If winter adventure is calling, then we have the perfect destination for you. And this week's road trip, close to home news. 12 photojournalist, Laurie Goliath takes us to Middlefield where snow is guaranteed. It's like a wonderland. You're just like floating on the snow. You're just gliding. We're at Powder Ridge Park in Middlefield, Connecticut. I like it. It's pretty nice. I've never actually been here before. It's fun. Really. We have something for everyone we focus on, on really what I call easy fun skiing, snowboarding, uh, snow tubing. We're bringing you to the top of the hill. You're sliding down on tubes, hold on. Try not to spin around. I know it's hard. Oh, I like it a lot. We're the only resort in the state to allow snow biking and snow skating. A winter sport. We are here. We're ready to go and ready to play Da Malenko and KT. I teamed up together to create an temperature independent snow factory can make snow up to 80 °F. You know, it feels like real snow smells like real snow. So we guaranteed snow tubing and skiing from now on starting Black Friday every year. Hi, I'm Hunter. I'm a snowboard coach. I mean, my favorite part is probably, probably just hitting some rails and jumps. I don't know. It's like peaceful when you're on the snow. Like, no, you can't really find the peace anywhere else. It's really fun. Come down, try to snowboard and I'll be more than welcome to teach you. But it's really about much more than skiing and boards. We have made Powder Ridge a year round mountain resort. We start now early spring with downhill mountain biking paintball. We've partnered with Hogan's Alley that was over in Meriden for years. We have during the summer slide, the slope which is inflatable giant water slides coming down the side of the mountain. Our Mountain Music Series Fire at the Ridge is a slopeside restaurant. You can just about ski in. It's, it's a really nice restaurant with a full bar. We have eight hotel rooms which we actually call day rooms because we set them up more like a living room set up. And we also have several gazebos that are heated which you can rent those spaces as well. So you can have your own private lodge or kind of mini lodge. This is the perfect spot to come. If you're in a family or a group of friends, just hang out with your friends or your family. We should come here because our staff are focused on making sure that your experience is fun and enjoyable for the whole family. I mean, it's really cool. I mean, it makes a lot of people happy and it's just what they need a great place to be.

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Gather around for games and fun. We're taking you on a road trip to a board game cafe run by a pair of best friends in South Orange. Here's Road Trip close to home. Let's check out the player agency. We opened in the community center on July 15th of this year. So far everything's been amazing. The kids are super excited, families are super excited. We're lifelong nerds and we'd always have game nights and such. We wanted to essentially just be a meeting space for people to come and play games. So we quit our jobs and we started this company. Essentially we wanted to bring board games and other types of games, tabletop, um, RPGs to new people. We have, uh, quite a wide collection of games. We kind of have everything because we have a really diverse clientele. We have the whole gambit of games that you can play for 4 hours and games that you can play in 15 minutes. You want to play a game? Yeah a game called Downforce. It's the game of high stakes speed. Oh Oh. And playing all these games sure does work up an appetite, but don't worry, it's the cafe and lounge operated by the player agency offers tons of different options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We take a lot of pride in our food. Our menu is really small and we make everything fresh. I think it's definitely a space where you get to have quality time with your friends and your family. You can get quality food and uh also just a welcoming space. And with more than 200 games in their collection, now it's your turn to come and play a few in South Orange, I'm Amanda Eustace.

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The cue, the curiosity. The Mid Hudson Discovery Museum in Poughkeepsie is a place where kids can wonder, think, learn and grow the entire spectrum of science. We're trying to relate and make Children feel comfortable with. Teach them uh sort of to pursue their curiosity. This museum reveals so much to Children about the natural world, whether it's gravity or the forces of wind and nature that makes the world go round and at exhibits like these, the basics of aerodynamics become the wind in their sails. I hope that it opens her mind and she becomes more curious about the world around her, which is the purpose of a place like this. Children are learning how to experiment, adjust and achieve that's hands on learning and they learn how to fail and they learn what success can feel like. The excitement of success is contagious. Even the youngest scientists can get in on the power of play. A dynamic early learning space can help them find tune their motor skills. And the imaginative village known as River Town allows the little ones to play a different role for a day from your neighborhood chef to running errands, grabbing groceries and even the local hero who knew I could be so fun to see news.

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Away from the holiday break for some and if you're looking for some indoor fun with the kids, you can head to RPM Raceway in Farmingdale. Our Shannon Lanier takes us there on this week's road trip close to home. If your kids are always moving too fast for you to keep up, bring them to RPM Raceway. Wow, all this video game and go-karts. What can I do to win. So the best ways to win on our track is to go as smooth and fast as possible. When you're taking your turns, break before your turns and hit those apexes, so you've got smooth and fast flap. We have a Eurostyle tracker type of track and our cars are Italian base. We start racing at 46 and up and at least 48 inches, and our cars go up to 45 miles. Oh my gosh, so much fun. OK, who? OK, wait, but did you guys have fun? After all that racing, don't forget to take a pit stop so you can refuel. Who's hungry? right. We have over 60 arcade games of Valor Arena, which is a 4D cage which will stand your body, multiple types of VR games and 8 lanes of bowling. B That sounds like a great idea because it's free to get in. You only have to pay for the activities you do from the RPM Raceway in Farmingdale, where the Lanier family on this road trip close to home.

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Creating harmony with complete strangers. That's the goal of the one day choir. And on this road trip, close to home News Falls, not Glinda takes us inside this unique choir to see how it's all done. Yeah. In the basement of a Bushwood church. Oh, vocal chords are warming up. This is the one day choir, a pop up event that draws hundreds of people to simply harmonize a one day choir is an event for people who want to sing with a big group of people that don't want to commit to rehearsals or don't have to audition. Matt Goldstein founded Gaia Music Collective which has been hosting these events in Brooklyn for two and a half years. Some people say that it was healing for them. We can have 250 people all singing this music and everyone can make their own meaning out of it. Everyone can be experiencing it in a totally different way. It's an intimate experience that draws people from all walks of life together as one. And if this beautiful connection isn't enough, a true treat on our visit, Star Jessica Vosk who played alphabet Wicked, lends her vocals to the choir. Now, you can book a reservation to be part of the one day choir on the bright. They throw about six events per month. There's a suggested donation of 15 to $35 on this road trip close to home. I'm Nadia.

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On this week's road trip close to home, we are exploring creativity. News 12's photojournalist Aaron Brown takes us to Fine Arts studio in Somrs. They compliment each other. What does it mean that someone tells you pay you a compliment? I incorporated my business as a true colors universe, and fine arts studio was the part in the very beginning, devoted to teaching and the commission art. Is it compliment a nice or not, so if something compliment each other, then make it look better. At the very beginning, 7 years ago, it was just an idea to teach private lessons. The studio offers classes for all ages. Typically my students start at 6 years old, children as long as they can stay focused, they are comfortable to take on tasks that they take 1.5 or 2 hours. And lizards and I just like the shape of it and how it looks. I started getting onto dragons. I started drawing them. A small studio, a small group or private, you, you get to know your students and you, you bond with them. Coasters that Oliver is making, uh, he's making gifts. This is December and December, many of my students. Open the door and walk in and say Merry Christmas, mom and dad. I would like many of my students, young or adults, to see the world that can be created just by them. Life is full of problems that need solutions. I just want my students to know that you are capable of finding a solution. All you have to do is try and do not put much pressure on it.

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Your Road Trip Close to Home adventure guide for Jan. 9

Here's a look at all the great spots to hit from this week's episode of Road Trip Close to Home.

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Pair your winter with wine for this Road Trip along the Connecticut Winter Wine Trail

Americans making their New Year's resolutions for 2025

Main Street Connecticut: Chelsea Piers in Stamford

Your Road Trip Close to Home adventure guide for Jan. 2

New Jersey residents share their predictions, resolutions for 2025

Bridgeport officials announce $1M federal grant for riverfront project

Pair your winter with wine for this Road Trip along the Connecticut Winter Wine Trail

Americans making their New Year's resolutions for 2025

Main Street Connecticut: Chelsea Piers in Stamford

Your Road Trip Close to Home adventure guide for Jan. 2

New Jersey residents share their predictions, resolutions for 2025

Bridgeport officials announce $1M federal grant for riverfront project

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