A Day in Mystic

 We spent our third day of vacation in the town of Mystic.  Mel joined our trip on this day, and we were all thrilled to have her with us.  We passed the morning and early afternoon at the Mystic Seaport Museum, the largest maritime museum in the U.S.  There was so much to do here.  We toured several ships- including the Charles W. Morgan, a whaling ship.

 The term "museum' is a bit of a misnomer.  It is actually a working shipyard.  We were able to enter a variety of shops and speak to craftspeople who were actually employing ancient and modern aspects of shipbuilding.  We spoke at length to a sailmaker and learned a ton about making and repairing sails.  We also spoke to someone who was worming a rope and learned about old school printing.  We didn't go to every craftsman because there was only so much learning that the kids were willing to put up with.  Still, I thought it was very neat.

 As I mentioned, this is a working shipyard.  The major project that was going on during our visit was the restoration of the Mayflower II- which is usually found in Plymouth.  We were able to go behind the scrim and view the progress being made on this ship. 

 One of the things that was on my to-do list at the seaport was to participate in the "dead-horse" ceremony.  Back in the day, sailors who were planning to go out to see were forwarded one month's salary to settle their debts and purchase supplies for their time at sea.  Because of this, they were essentially working for free for the first month.  They would sometimes celebrate the end of this time period with a ceremony in which they constructed a horse out of spare canvas, fill it with stones, sing a sea chanty about the horse (which represented their debt) while marching it around the deck of the ship, and then throw the horse overboard.  The kids got to help march the horse around while we all sang the shanty. 

We also took a tour around the seaport by boat. The captain told us a lot of interesting information about the various ships and buildings as we rode around in his boat. 

 We also spent time with the hands-on activities at the museum.  These were some of the most engaging and well-done kids' activities I've ever seen.

 After our visit to the seaport, we had a late lunch and then drove to the Mystic Aquarium.  This is a nice aquarium which became a must-see for us when we learned that they had beluga whales.  Olivia is obsessed with these animals.  There was one of the whales who was very curious about human visitors.  He stayed near the viewing windows the whole time and made faces at visitors.  The kids ate it up. 

 There were numerous hands-on activities for the kids at this aquarium.  We've been to a lot of zoos and aquariums with the kids, and I'm going to put this one in the top five aquariums that we've visited.  I liked that a lot of the tanks and exhibits were outside. 

Riding the Rail Bike

In the afternoon of our day in Rhode Island, we took a six-mile ride on a rail bile.  This was so neat.  The company that organizes this excursion took an abandoned track that runs along the water and outfitted it with these neat peddle carts and tourists can ride.  The ride was scenic and fun.  Everyone enjoyed it.

Cliff Walk

 Our second day in New England was spent in Rhode Island (state 27).  We visited Newport and walked the Cliff Walk in its entirety- about 3.5 miles.  The walk hugs the edge of the shoreline and runs between the ocean and several huge mansions.  The path starts out paved and easy to manage, but it later changes to a wilder treck over uneven rocks.  Of course, the kids much preferred the wilder sections.  Once we reached the end of the path, we caught a trolley to help us get back to our car.  This was my favorite activity of our whole vacation because the views were just so stunning.  So, I'm going to post a whole bunch of photos- even though I do not feel that they do the scenery any justice.

Lake Compounce

 We picked Brian up at the airport in Hartford and spent the day at Lake Compounce Amusement Park in Bristol, Connecticut (state 26).

Lake Compounce is a very small park, but we wanted to visit for two reasons. The first reason is that this is the oldest amusement park in the country, so it has historical value.

The second reason is that it is home to one of the best wooden coasters in the world- Boulder Dash.  It is currently the #4 ranked wooden coaster in the world.  We had several rides on this coaster and it definitely lived up to the hype.

While at Lake Compounce, we learned that the infamous Milli Vanilli "lip syncing" controversy occurred here.  I'm so glad that there was a plaque to commemorate this historic event (ha ha).

 Upon leaving the park, we drove to Mystic, CT which was going to be our base for the next few days.  We had dinner at Mystic Pizza and it was actually very good.

 After our meal, we walked around historic downtown Mystic checking out the shops and the bascule bridge.  I really liked the feel of this old town.  It reminded me a bit of downtown Fernandina.

New England Road Trip

 This year's summer road trip took us to the lower New England states.  The kids and I drove to Hartford, CT where Brian flew in to meet us.  On the way up, we made a stop to visit Poppy and Nana. It was a short visit, but we were glad that we got to see them.

 We also made a stop at one of our favorite amusement parks- Six Flags Great Adventure.  We road all of our favorite coasters, went on the animal safari, and visited some of our other favorite attractions.  After a long trip and a horrible drive through NYC that I will never do again, we arrived at our destination of Hartford ready to pick up Brian.

Summer Kick-off at Universal

On our first day of summer vacation, the kids and I headed down to Universal for the day.  We've been wanting to use our passes again and decided it would be best to go before it got too hot and before the crowds got too crazy.  We did not encounter large crowds- I think 30 minutes was the longest we waited for anything- but it was hot as hades.  We left the house around 6:30, arrived at Universal around 10:30 stayed til 4:00, and were home by 8:00.   It was a full day to be sure, but we had a good time. 

 We've decided that each time we visit we'll each pick one thing that we definitely must do.  We've also decided to eat somewhere different and to have our picture made with a new character each time.  On this trip my choice of activity was to ride the Kong ride because we've never ridden it.  Olivia wanted to go walk around in Harry Potter World and Owen wanted to ride the Transformers ride.  We ended up doing everything we set out to do and more.  We ate at the Three Broomsticks, which was very good.  I about busted out laughing at what Owen ordered for his lunch- a turkey leg and butterbeer. 

 We saw Doc Brown walking down the path toward the DeLorean and the kids ran to have their picture made with him.  They were so excited.

We ended up cooling off in the American Tale play area where the kids found a waterslide that I had never noticed before.  It was a big hit.

Before leaving, we stopped by Toothsome Chocolate Emporium to get a milkshake.  We ate at Toothsome's on our last trip and saw these yummy desserts, but were too full to order one.  We were sure to leave room in bellies so that we could get one this time.  They were amazing.