Southwestern Connecticut's Fairfield County might remind you of the Buddhist parable of the blind men and the elephant. Just as each blind man experienced a very different creature depending on whether he touched the elephant's head or ears or tusk or trunk or tail, you'll find a variety of experiences awaiting you as you feel your way around Fairfield County.

Touch Greenwich, and you'll leave impressed with the affluence and sophistication of the region. Touch Stamford, and you'll swear you're in the heart of a major commercial center. Touch Westport, and you'll take home memories of seaside elegance and creative, cultured living. Touch Norwalk, and the sensation is of a former thriving seaport searching for a new life as a trendy shopping and sightseeing destination. Touch Bridgeport, and you'll get the notion that this is a blue-collar, post-industrial area struggling to find a new identity.

Fairfield County is above all a region of transition. The city of New Haven serves as an invisible line of demarcation between the Connecticut that could be construed to be part of New York City and the Connecticut that is truly New England. In fact, when you visit the southeastern coastal region, you will be treated to everything that New England is and has been.

You will find many reasons to return to Connecticut's coast, season after season. After all, where else can you go to the largest museum dedicated to Native American culture, to Captain Kidd's hideout, to one of the country's oldest universities, to the scene of the bloodiest battle of the American Revolution, to a re-created nineteenth-century seaport, to the birthplace of the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, and to the world's largest casino, all within an hour's driving distance?