Day 1: Life on the New England coast
Mystic, CT
and
Stonington Lighthouse
Stonington, CT
New London County
First things, first. The E-Z Pass is a must have when travelling north! It just makes things so much easier. Driving right through the tollbooths is SO nice. Anyway, speaking of traffic, it wasn’t too bad this morning. Fortunately, I woke up early enough to miss the rush out of town for the holiday weekend.
Now the traffic on I-95N in the late afternoon in Connecticut was completely different story. After chatting for a while and catching up at my sister’s place, we headed out for our first day trip. Well, the traffic caught up with me. We crawled through the New Haven area. It took us over twice the estimated time to reach Mystic, and we only had about an hour and half before the museum closed.
Mystic Seaport
We decided to go to Mystic Seaport as our afternoon activity. I had a list of various places to go and/or things to do, and the seaport caught both of our attentions. It looked interesting and seemed different than anything we’ve done before. Established around 1930, in a once booming seafaring community, the maritime museum is dedicated to this country’s connection with the sea.
Preservation Shipyard
The shipyard, equipped with traditional tools, is fully functional. Wooden ships are brought in for repairs and/or preservation by the traditionally-trained shipwrights. Obviously, they also maintain the museum’s fleet. It’s kind of a neat area.
Tall Ships
L.A. Dunton
Joseph Conrad
Charles W. Morgan
Speaking of the fleet, it includes three tallships, the L.A. Dunton, Joseph Conrad and Charles W. Morgan. Two of those ships, the Dunton, a 1921 American fishing schooner, and Morgan, are registered National Historic Landmarks. The Morgan is actually the only remaining 19th Century wooden whaleship in the world and the first tallship acquired by the museum.
In addition, the fleet also includes two more National Historic Landmarks, the steamboat Sabino and sailboat Emma C. Berry. The Sabino is currently used for boat rides around the museum. We didn’t take the ride, but we did board two the tallships, the Conrad and Morgan before we left.
19th-Century Seafaring Village
Coastal Village
The village’s waterfront area included various shops and such you’d expect to find in a seaport. The neat part is, the buildings were actually brought in from coastal villages around New England. The short line of shops included a shipsmith, print office, cooperage, bank and tavern, among others. Each was set up just as it would have been in the 19th Century. Several of the shops were even open for business.
Thomas Oyster House
Ropewalk
The rest of the village area represented the various activities and ship-maintenance/supplying were needed in a seafaring town. Fisheries Row was made up of houses and shacks displaying the tools of the trade for catching lobster, calm, oyster and salmon. There were several buildings focused on different types of boats. The ropewalk, in its lengthy building, demonstrated the process of winding the thick rope needed for ships.
Misc
We were both starving, so we decided to check out the Galley Restaurant. Well, they had the BEST calm strips. I’m usually not a big fan, but these were good. I highly recommend them.
After our little snack, we visited two of the property’s exhibit galleries. There are a few more, but they closed before we reached them. The first was the Figureheads exhibit, then the attached Mallory Exhibit Hall. The figureheads were interesting. The room is circled with wooden pieces that had adorned a number of wooden ships.
The exhibit in Mallory was awesome. It contained large, detailed models of actual ships, displaying them with the vessels’ stories. It even included the brigantine Albatross. The ship, originally built as a schooner, served in various navies across Europe. It was later re-ridged as a brigantine for private use sailing the Pacific. During the 1960-61 academic year, the ship was used as a schooling vessel. On its voyage home, it was struck by a white squall and sank, killing two staff members and five students. Its story is loosely interpreted in the 1996 Jeff Bridges’ movie, White Squall, one of my all-time favorite films. It makes me cry every time. [tear]
Stonington
Old Lighthouse Museum
Stonington Harbor
What visit to New England would be complete without seeing a lighthouse? So, not to take any chances, we stopped by one in a relatively nearby borough. The Stonington Harbor Lighthouse is currently open to the public as a museum, but not while we were there.
The harbor itself is gorgeous. There was a small beach that would have been nice to relax at for a bit, but it was getting dark so no luck. The town is VERY small. On the way out we ended up stuck behind a small local parade. We couldn’t help but laugh. Not that it was a big deal, it delayed us maybe twenty minutes, if that. It was just so late and all we wanted to do was to go home, yet had to crawl behind a high school band marching the streets.
Today’s Flickr set: waterfront pics
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