Spectacular Sunday start to the main round of the Connecticut Open and how to save 25% off tickets

It was a spectacular Sunday at the Connecticut Open tennis tournament in New Haven. Gates opened at 10 and children received goody bags filled with items from companies headquartered in CT: earbud headphones from ESPN (Bristol), a PEZ dispenser from PEZ candy (Orange), and a few other items.

Children were treated to lessons with players and coaches, characters from popular kids’ movies roaming around and some great tennis matches with Belgium’s Kirsen Flipkens winning against Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova.

The lines for the food trucks seemed endless but luckily there were nine different trucks to choose from in addition to BBQ options available inside the stadium. My personal favorites are the Spuds Your Way baked potato truck and Tony’s Square Donuts whose donuts are uniquely square and handmade. If you stop by either truck, tell them I sent you!

At night, I had the opportunity to attend the Porsche Game, Set, Munch event held at the newly renovated John Davenport’s restaurant on the 19th floor of the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale. There was food from the restaurants of the Omni Hotel and nearby. 

Barcelona Wine Bar had a Potato Tortilla that was delicious. They feature items from all over Spain. Cask Republic had some delicious Short Rib Meatballs as well as a Yellow Tomato and Corn Gazpacho with garlic and onion popcorn which went down so smoothly, and to finish it off they had a Coconut Panacotta with candied cashews. Jonathan Edwards winery from Stonington was sampling some red and white wines. They are a local, family run winery that is the largest in the state.

The hotel offered up delicious bites such as gin-infused smoked salmon with picked beets and pickles, bourbon glazed pork belly and bourbon infused honey donuts.

Great tennis matches are already underway for today (Monday) as we're awaiting the partial solar eclipse which is slated to start around 2:30 pm. You can save 25% off of your tickets this week using the promo code CO17SUMMERFUN

Here are some of the other photos from the day:

Last round of qualifiers was picture perfect at the ConnecticutOpen

The last round of qualifying matches was picture perfect today at the Connecticut Open. Warm weather blanketed the courts as spectators enjoyed watching some exciting tennis matches. American Christina McHale advanced to the main round as she defeated Japan's Misaki Doi 6-4, 7-6(2).

“It’s the last American in qualifying but I’m just really happy with how I competed today and how I fought,” McHale said. “It was a really up and down match. At times Misaki was really playing well and I kind of just had to weather the storm and try and use my serve to mix it up and get myself back into the games."

“Even when I was down 3-0, I knew that just like she had done in the first set, I could do the same. The games were still really close. Sometimes there were just times Misaki was coming up with shots that were really good.”

Earlier in the day, former World No. 2 Vera Zvonareva won a match against Anastasia Rodionova in her first return to WTA Tour play since 2015. Saturday afternoon, attendees also watched a second match where Zvonareva played this year’s Wimbledon semi-finalist Magdalena Rybarikova. Rybarikova led the match 7-5 before Zvonareva retired with a left achilles injury.

During her time away from tennis (2015-2017), Zvonareva got married, earned a masters in Global Studies and Political Science from a joint program between Northeastern University and the Women's Tennis Benefits Association and became a mother in 2016.

The matches took place in the Sportsmaster Grandstand court as well as Courts 1, 2 and 3. The nice thing about the smaller courts is that you're up close to the action within 20 feet of the court. The bleacher seats are three rows high and provide a closer location to the court than ever before.

Tickets are still available for the first day of the main round. The best option for families is the Family Four-Pack of tickets which also gets you a $20 food voucher and a tournament poster.

Here are the rest of my photos from Day #2:

A rainy start to this year's Connecticut Open Tennis Tournament

It was a rainy start to the 2017 Connecticut Open tennis tournament in New Haven, Connecticut. The tournament draw was moved inside to the media center. Children from NewHYTES (New Haven’s Tennis and Education initiative) helped tournament director Anne Worcester, 3-time Connecticut Open champion Petra Kvitova and representatives from Porsche (the official vehicle sponsor) drew numbers to fill out the draw sheet. 

After 5 hours of rain delays, the qualifying matches for the tournament started and spectators enjoyed the return of womens professional tennis to the Elm City.

There’s a lot of fun activities for families to enjoy at this year’s Connecticut Open and they start on Sunday with ShopRite Kids Day! Sunday kicks off the first round of matches and the first 1,000 kids receive a goody bag!

On Monday, August 21, there is a free USPTA lesson during Session 2 from 1-4pm. Don't miss the 

Opening Night Ceremony during Session 3 (starts at 7 pm) which will have star players, local celebrities and entertainment.

Individual Stadium Box seat tickets for Sunday start at $27 and family 4-packs are $85.

Save money shopping online with Groupon Coupons

Did you know that you can save money when shopping online? I'm sure you might have your various websites you like to frequent but the latest one to offer coupons and deals to your favorite online shopping sites is Groupon!

Groupon offers coupon codes and deals right from their familiar groupon.com interface. I know I'm going to add it to my repertoire of sites to check before I go shopping on various sites online. I recently purchased something from amazon.com and even found a code to save $10 just for signing in to the amazon app with prime.

NOTE: We are part of USFamilyGuide.com Blogger Network. Compensation was provided in exchange for this post.

Summer colds... *sneeze*

One thing I've forgotten is when you have an infant and toddler you get re-exposed to many viruses. Since the beginning of the year, someone in our family has had some type of cold, ear infection, virus, etc and it's getting tiresome.

The more I think about it, the more content I am that it's just a cold/infection and isn't anything more serious. We are thankful that we are generally healthy and as the old saying goes... this too shall pass.

Have you experienced this when your kids were very little? I'm just surprised that no one really spoke about it or warned us. It would have just been nice to know!

Looking forward to times when everyone in the house is healthy!

I hope you are all having a nice summer, my readers...