Gillette Castle State Park

William Gillette was the actor who defined Sherlock Holmes on stage, the deerstalker cap and curved pipe are basically his inventions, and when he retired he spent five years (1914-1919) building himself a 14,000-square-foot stone fortress on a bluff above the Connecticut River. Then he built a three-mile miniature railroad around the property because apparently that's what you did with Sherlock Holmes money.

The castle is gloriously strange inside. Forty-seven doors, every one designed differently, with wooden puzzle locks Gillette engineered himself. Built-in couches, a table on tracks, hidden mirrors so he could watch guests arrive from his bedroom. Kids treat the whole tour like an escape room they're allowed to touch with their eyes.

You can tell kids a hundred facts about William Gillette. The only one they'll repeat is that the Sherlock Holmes guy built himself a castle with trick doors and his own personal railroad, because he could.

The railroad is gone but its bones are the best free part: the Train Trail follows the old rail bed through stone-arch bridges, wooden trestles, and an actual 75-foot tunnel. Tell the kids they're walking where a private train used to run and the 1.5-mile loop walks itself.

Getting there is half the show. The Chester-Hadlyme ferry has been crossing the Connecticut River since 1769, takes about five minutes, and drops you basically at the base of the castle bluff. A car ferry older than the country, then a castle. That's a kid's whole week sorted.

And here's the series connection: this is Connecticut castle number two for us. Sleeping Giant's stone tower is the castle kids imagine; Gillette is the castle someone actually lived in. Do both in a season and you've got a Connecticut Castle Tour going.