Mystic day 4

Our fourth day in Mystic, was spent exploring the town. We went to a grocery store to buy snacks for the trip home and some canned goods for the Mystic Seafarers Museum canned food drive. They were offering free admission if you brought a canned food for the food bank. We went to the Mystic Seafarers Museum as they were opening and spent several hours exploring each building. The museum is made up of a bunch of different buildings and houses, mostly original to the site. Each building had what would have been a shop, factory, or house except a couple gift shops, a whaling museum building, and a couple restaurants. They even had old whaling vessels to explore. Going below deck on the whaling ship was a great contrast with the submarine yesterday. The space on the vessel seemed bigger, until you realized most of the sailors had to sleep with their supplies and they had to process an entire whale on deck after they killed it. Some of the whales were bigger than the deck. It was a nasty, greasy, cold, wet, dangerous job. Yet they were able to create beauty with their scrimshaw and sailor's valentines. Everything on the ships was made in the port towns, the ropes, chains, barrels, masts, sails, medications, clothes, and tools. The sailors had to know how to do everything necessary on a ship as well as how to navigate using the stars and how to defend themselves and keep themselves alive. After we visited all of the exhibits in the museum, we went downtown again and parked by the harbor. We found out the art museum was free for the day. It was the last day of the exhibit by local artists and crafters who had artwork to sell for presents. Some of it was very good, some was average. I enjoyed looking at the photographs and discovered that I have taken some that were as good or better than those on display and for sale. I need to print and frame mine and find exhibits for them. Who knows, I may be a good photographer one day, able to travel the world (or country) and create photos.  I know we ate at some point, but don't remember where. We went back to the Mystic Seafarers Museum to watch and listen to the Christmas caroling. The first concert was inside. People crowded into the tiny church to hear the carolers. They were really good. After the inside concert, thee carolers took a short break and moved outside. The courtyard was packed. We stayed for about half the concert before we left to meet Josh in downtown Mystic. We met Josh and his friends at a pub, said hello to his friends and congratulations to his friends who had just gotten engaged. Josh has a good group of friends. Josh then was out tour guide and directed us up a winding mountain road to the largest casino by square footage in the United States. Tammy and I were glad Josh had been there before. They didn't seem to have many signs to tell you where to go. We found a parking spot in the parking garage and took the elevator and long hallway to the main building. It is a huge place. He took us through two of the casino areas on the way to the outlet mall. The people were very serious about their gambling, whether they were using the colorfully lit slot machines or the tables with the games like roulette, blackjack and others that I didn't recognize. The people running the casinos are good at triggering the reward points in people's brains to make them want to keep playing and spending their money. I could see people getting the adrenaline rush when they put their money in the slot machine and it lit up like crazy and they almost won. They they could hear another slot machine dispense change to a winner nearby, so they put more money in. Maybe they would be next. The outlet mall was more interesting and fun for us. They sold name brand, well made, designer stuff for less than Walmart prices. You could buy a Coach brand leather bag for less than $20 and a wallet for less than $10. People were excited over the deals, and the companies got to sell off the stuff that wouldn't sell at their expensive stores. We looked at a lot of stuff, but didn't decide we needed anything. I did regret buying a wallet at Marshall's a couple days before. I could have bought a nicer one here for less than I paid at Marshall's. I had already been using it though so couldn't return it. I also really wanted a Coach bag with Chewbacca from Star Wars on it to put my laptop in. Unfortunately, they were not the right size. I was briefly tempted to buy a new computer so I could use the bag. Well, no. I don't want to go smaller on my computer. When it dies, I will get the same size.  I think if we weren't worried about fitting stuff into our luggage on the way home, we may have been tempted to buy stuff. We ate at Fudrucker's. I haven't eaten there since college.  The burgers and fries were still as good as I remembered them. If you ever get a chance, eat at Fudrucker's. They are a bit expensive, but delicious. They are probably less expensive, not at a casino. After Fudrucker's we went back to Josh's house. It was warm and cozy with the heater working. He has mastered the art of making a cozy home.  We left early for our hotel. We planned a New York adventure the following day and would need to start early. 

Mystic day 3

The next morning, Josh had to be on duty from 8 am til the following day at 8 am. They take 24 hour duty shifts.  He invited us to visit him to at work later in the day, but we had the morning and part of the afternoon to explore. Josh had told us about the best bakery in the country called, Sift. We decided to go there for breakfast, and get lunch to go.  It was amazing. We ate way more than we should have and promised to go back often.  This visit, our first of 3 visits in six days, we got a delicious, tall, sticky pecan cinnamon roll with caramelized pecans, a braided yeasty roll covered with cinnamon and sugar, and some buttery, very buttery croissants, 2 ham and cheese for Tammy and Josh and one vegetable and cheese for me. We also had some good coffee. People walk their dogs everywhere downtown. They even have rings outside to tie your dog while you go in an pick up your order. And  no one reacts like they had never seen a dog before. They can walk with their dog as part of their family and not have strangers try to pet their dog while ignoring the person at the other end of the leash.  After Sift, we drove south to Ocean Beach, a beach town in Connecticut. The drive was beautiful. The houses and landscape are exactly what you would expect New England to be. We explored a beach where a river ran into the ocean. It was neat to walk up the river a bit, follow it down to the beach and watch it join the ocean. The beach had a huge boardwalk with an amusement park and a couple restaurants and a giant parking lot. I bet it is packed in the summer. In the winter, everything is closed, parking was free, and there were just a few people there. Once we got too cold to explore the beach, we got in the car and drove back to Mystic. It was time to meet Josh at work. We went on base again (thank you husband David) and met him at the bowling alley. He took us into the secure area and brought us to his workplace (submarine). We left all phones/ cameras in the car and he took us out to the sub, introduced us to a few of his shipmates and gave us a tour of the sub. Wow. How do they not fall and get hurt. The top is rubberized, but not flat. You walk along the top and around the fin that sticks up to get to the entry hatch. There is a cable below the walkway that you are supposed to catch if you fall, but it is about halfway between you and the water, a long way down. The goal is not to go in the water. Once you get to the entry hatch, you have to get onto the ladder that goes down into a hole. Little tiny metal steps go down to a secret, machine run world. There were few people on duty when we were visiting, but I could imagine how crowded it would get when everyone was on board. They must have strict rules of politeness to be able to get along when confined to such a tight space for long periods of time. All the sailors, except the top ranking officers, even have to share bunks, no space of their own. Josh knows his submarine well and told us what he could about it. He even told us some travel stories. Eventually, we had to climb back out. Going up wasn't as bad and going down, and neither of us fell. I sure would have hated being the family member who fell off the sub while it was in port. Fortunately, that hasn't happened yet. Once Josh went back to work, Tammy and I decided to explore the nature center that was near our hotel. More hiking in the cold. It was beautiful walking in the woods full of fallen leaves, big rocks, and occasional ice. The center does some wildlife rehabilitation and they have a few birds of prey that couldn't be released. I like watching owls. They also do a lot of education for children. We went to dinner at a pub Josh recommended. The waitress wasn't great but the food was good. I forgot what we ate, but we watched it get dark out the window. I guess it was a sunset, the sky was pretty but not really colorful like Florida and Texas sunsets. 

I put a lot of pictures in these Mystic posts. I understand completely why Josh so loves the area. What I am posting is only a tiny bit of the photos and videos. Eventually I will do a longer video combining all the short ones and a huge album with many of the photos. That will wind up on my website when I get to it.  

The trip home from Florida

When we went to Falling Waters State Park in Florida, we were on our way home. We had reservations to stay at a state park in Louisiana called Lake Faussee Point State Park. On the way, we made our preferred gas stop at Bucky's. They have lots of room at the gas pumps and great parking. We parked and went in for snacks and I walked the dogs. On the way back, I did my usual look at everything on the van and camper and noticed the front driver side tire didn't look right. The wires were sticking out. The tires were six months old from Pep Boys. I had picked a nationwide chain because I knew I was planning to travel. We looked at google maps and there was a Pep Boys 6 miles from us. I called and verified they could check the tire and we could get the camper in the parking lot. I actually backed it into a parking space, unhitched and they looked at it within an hour. They didn't have the right size so pulled the spare out from underneath (a major deal) and installed it for me. They didn't charge, but asked for a tip for the mechanic who wrestled with the spare. We were on the road again and still on schedule to make camping before dark. We followed the GPS directions and on the turn off to the road to the park there was a sign "Pontoon bridge, 9 foot clearance" We hoped it was after the park. We need around 10 feet. We went further down the narrow country road, another sign "Pontoon bridge, 9 foot clearance, strictly enforced". We checked GPS, couldn't find where the bridge was in relation to the park. But it was looking like we were on the wrong road even though GPS was directing us still. Mom spotted another campground next to us. I made a last minute turn (not knowing if I could turn around if I passed it). We spotted a camper and asked about the campground. He said it was $10 a night, they had been stranded there a while waiting for an axle. The man who came in the morning was really laid back, so just pick a spot. We did. They have full hook ups along a peaceful Louisiana bayou. The hook ups were the nicest designed set up of any campground we have stayed at. The sewer port was downhill from the camper pad, It had a big concrete drain sloped to the hole and a dedicated hose to rinse your sewer hose.. The hose bib for the water didn't leak, and the power was in good shape. I liked this campground. It was off the I-10 bridge through the Louisiana swamps. The next morning we hung out to wait for the man who collected the money. At 9am we were watching the weather deteriorate. Another camper came over to chat. He said they stay there every year. They love the surrounding area. There is a lot to do. He said some days the man comes late, some days not at all, they were very relaxed about collecting payment. We had already paid for our reservation at the state park we didn't find, so figured we would just head on and call it even. We beat the rain storms. We stopped at the welcome center to Texas when we got there. That is a really nice welcome center. The people were friendly, they had lots of travel information, and a nice boardwalk through the swamp to walk on. We made it home with no problems.