Mystic Seaport

Today we went to Mystic Seaport. Mark was not so sure about it, since the last time he was there it was just a couple of old buildings. I finally asked him how long ago this was, and he mumbled something about the 70s. It has changed a bit since then. It was wonderful. Mark admitted it also.

fixing the rigging

Lon and the cigar store Indian.

How do you light this thing?

Inside the children's museum building. It was very fun. Lon went in twice. The second time the person behind the desk came up to me and told me that my child had a bowel movement and I should remove him. All right then. We did leave, and played on boats.

Swabbing the deck. (still in the museum, these are pictures from our first visit)

Playing with the puzzles

The outside boats.

After our first fun adventure at the children's museum, we went to look for Daddy and Uncle Jeffy. We did not find them in the figure head museum, or the other museum or the small boats. But we did get a good picture in front of the dolphins.

We did find Daddy and Uncle Jeffy. We had some lunch, the nice place is only for grown-ups. They do not have a child friendly menu, so we had to eat at the cafeteria. It was a cafeteria. After our lunch, we went on a carriage ride. The man who drove the horse was named Mike, the horse was named Little Joe. Little Joe likes to break out of his stall at night and eat. Little Joe really isn't little.

From the carriage.

The little lighthouse. I got this as my charm!

What's inside here?

We took this boat, the free shuttle. Very fun.

Aboard the Charles W. Morgan. It still smells down in the hold. I can not imagine how it smelled in its heyday.

This is the view from the wheel.

The Galley. I can not imagine cooking for all the hungry sailors in such close quarters.

Mike and Little Joe.

Beauty shot.

About our little boat. After our boat ride, we split up. Mark and Lon went to the car, Uncle Jeffy went aboard the Charles W. Morgan and Mommy went shopping! It was a little quick shopping trip. I did manage to get a couple of Christmas presents and my silver charm!

We had a great time at the Seaport. Maybe we will go next year.

Mystic Aquarium

Today was our trip to the Mystic Aquarium. Very fun. We like it!

Lon is looking at the Beluga Whales. They have seven whales now. They were lots of fun to watch. They swam by, rolled over, spy hopped. There were a couple of young ones that were in a center pool, we could see them when they hopped. The way you can tell if they are young is that they are grey. They turn white when mature.

Lon and Daddy watching the African penguins. The penguins were not doing much but standing there. At first we thought they were stuffed animals. They were alive, one of them moved its head and then another one moved a flipper, but not much movement other than that.

Lon and Grandmalyn watching the 6 sealions and 1 seal swim around the tank. They were fun, they were LOUD. Lots of roaring going on. It was fun!

Grandmalyn thought Mr. Wigglebottom was going to fall into the seal lion tank, so Daddy took Lon to finish watching the seal lions.

The inside fish tanks, it was sort of dark in there, so we did not take many photos. There were sleeping sharks, there were clown fish, all sorts of fish! Lobsters even!

Lon at the seal lion show. We went twice. The first one we were a bit late, we made sure we got good seats for the second show.

Coco the seal lion. He was in a mood today. He did NOT want to do some of his show, so he didn't. A 550 pound seal lion can pretty much do what he wants.

This is one of the tricks Coco did. Jump up and touch the whatever it was. There was also a two year old seal lion, named Boomerang. He needed rescuing in San Diego, so they did. They nursed him back to health, released him back into the wild, but he came back, like a boomerang.

After the aquarium, we went to McCooks Beach. It was just what Lon needed! This seagull had no fear. He refused to move for any reason!

Lon took of his shoes and his pants and played in the water. The only catch was Mommy had to take her shoes too.

The seagulls took off, and one actually pooped on me! OHMY! Ew. EW EW

We picked up rocks and threw them in the water. We also found some seaglass. Which was nice

We went back to the hotel, took a shower, I changed out of my seagull poop pants! We had dinner at Grandmalyns. More from Pasta Vita, still very yummy!

Lon went to bed early tonight, I think he is getting a cold and he has been so busy lately!

Rocky Hill

This morning we went to Rocky Hill State Dinosaur Park. Very very cool. REAL Dinosaur tracks.

The real dinosaur tracks. Lots and lots of them!

Lon is taking it all in.

They have a discovery room. It has puzzles, and all sorts of fun things.

Daddy shows Lon that bugs can be tasty.

Lon on the trails around the center. We did not stay too long on the trail, as it turned into a swamp. Even though that would have been fun, I did not bring extra clothes for Mommy.

Pretty little Connecticut town.

Another day, another ferry!

The ferry was a pontoon moved by a vintage tug boat.

Looking back toward Rocky Hill.

Pumpkin Patch. They look pretty tempting there by the side of the road!

A Connecticut tobacco barn, with tobacco in it.

We had a so-so lunch at the Portland Restaurant. I had stuffed shells that were okay, one was cold in the middle. Lon, of course, had cheese pizza. Mark and Grandmalyn had grinders. They said they were good.

Lunch may have been better here! It is a real working hot dog stand.

A beautiful church, the power lines are unfortunate.

One of the many many old graveyards we pass on the backroads of Connecticut.

Chocolate ice cream with multi colored sprinkles at Hallmark! We tried to go to Salem Four Corners, but they are only open on the weekends now.

That is how chocolate ice cream with sprinkles is supposed to make you feel!

Lon was full of energy and was very rambunctious around dinner time, so Lon and I stayed at the hotel. Daddy brought back a cheese pizza for Lon and a veal parmesan grinder from Illianos for Mommy. What a nice Daddy!