Mystic CT

So I'm starting the real travelogue with pictures. Today Dad's brother and his wife came up and then cousins came up for a short visit, five hours later they're still here. That took up my entire day.

Mystic CT (I'll put pictures following, not all of them came out as well I would have hoped)

I have no idea why there is so much traffic in New England but a 56 mile trip on a 65 mph road took me almost 2 hours because it was so slow but I made it to Mystic and found the very last parking spot in the Mystic Museum ‘s public lot. I thought it was just a museum plus shops in a recreated 1800s era village (there is another one of those, Old Mistick Village as it turns out) but the whole place is a museum and 1700s recreated village on the bay and I didn’t see nearly all of it.

The actual museum were ‘story boats’ that had stories attached and it was okay but I was far more taken with the village. One building had nothing but the silver the museum owned (just put out last year) much of it is from yachting challenges, including several Astor cups. The silver craftsmanship was amazing. Another building had scrimshaw, a favorite of mine, embroidery work done by sailors and they also made household goods like pie crimpers for their wives/mothers/sisters out of whale bone and I had no idea that they did that. There was a coat rack of narwhale horns that I loved.

That same building had an amazing figurehead collection. I have been fascinated by them for years. They had some really impressive ones including a woman clutching a rosary who might have been Joan of Arc and next to her was a set of sisters who reminded me of nothing but the twins in The Shining. I need to find out more about them. I need to use them in a story.

There were homes from the time period. One had a staff member making a Victorian era sponge cake in a cast iron cauldron on live coals. That was cool. I walked onto the Charles Morgan, a masted ship. I saw a cooperage and so much more.

The only thing to eat around it is a sit down bar/restaurant or walk down the block or two to a snack shack. Well this turned out to be the restaurant I found on trip advisor that I wanted to try with the shipwreck calmari poutine with two cheeses on fries but instead of gravy it’s covered with lobster bisque and calmari. It was HUGE with at least five squid judging by the tentacle rings, it had a load of banana peppers and sundried tomatoes for acid to cut the fat (too many peppers for me).

After that I had to get to the CT River Museum which was 25 miles back the way I came. Once again traffic from hell (This is a trip of traffic). Can I say Essex CT is amazingly cute? It is however a shit ton of on street parking and nothing else. I didn’t get time to check the shops but I did get to go on the Onrust, a fur trader, Dutch ship modeled after Adriaen Block’s ship from 1614 so being Dutch it was different in construction. It cruised up and down the CT River (Omg the mansions on this river. Someone let me win the megamillions I have houses to buy.)

The downside needing Dramamine (which knocked me harder than usual. When I got back to the hotel I could barely sit up for 3 hours. I hate thinking I drove like this). The other downside was the idiot who took like 3 calls while the ship captain is trying to do his thing.

But that was minor. It was a nice ride in spite of the heat. I loved it. I love being on the water. It’s so soothing. Too bad I get seasick every time. When we got back the coast guard academy jazz band was playing. Loved it. I want to use this in a story.

When I hiked up the hill to the car it was 6 pm and would have been 7 by the time I got to the hotel so I see this fantastic inn across the street and went there. The Griswold Inn has been an inn since 1776 or something. Lovely décor. I wasn’t blown away by the menu but it was good. They had this brown bread I wish they had given me more of. I could have just made a meal of that brown bread and butter.

I returned to Mystic and see why this hotel is cheap. This day’s inn is OLD, barely even has plugs to plug things in. It’s clean and the tv is huge but this bed is broken, the mattress is shot. Ah well I’m just here for 2 days. I’ll live. Most of the other hotels were close to 300$.

( pics )