Weston

With an area of only 19.9 square miles, Weston, Connecticut, as per the 2000 census, has a population of about 10,000 people -- and 1,000,000 trees, insects and small mammals. The sister town of Westport, located just north, Weston is a charming, more rural town with two acre zoning, a very small shopping area and its own school system. Almost one quarter of the town is permanently devoted to open space use which means every neighborhood can claim some piece of recreational land nearby as its own. There is a small town center which offers residents a small market, gas pump, post office, hardware store and package store, but that's about it. To get more supplies (or not pay an arm and a leg for them) most residents travel to nearby Westport, Wilton or South Norwalk. The affluence of Weston is seemingly understated since there is much forest covering the larger estates. Weston is also home to Devil's Den, the largest permanently protected tract of conservation land in Fairfield County. The Den itself is 1,756 acres and has twenty miles of walking trails. The Den's trails are part of the extended 70-mile Saugatuck Valley Trails System, all within contiguous forest and watershed lands of nearly 15,000 acres. The Den, known formally as the Lucius Pond Ordway/Devil's Den Preserve, was created by the late Katharine Ordway through a series of donations from 1966 through 1968, beginning with a 1,300-acre purchase from the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company. It is conveniently close to neighboring towns with more shopping and I-95/New York City. Definitely more of a refuge than a destination. Yes, a lot of people here drive nice cars. But some, like me, do not. And waking up to birds and trees and clean air after years of Brooklyn/Manhattan living is so welcome.