Boston



Boston, Massachusetts





Yesterday and today we spent visiting with Teresa and Eric and Danielle and Danielle's parents in Quincy which is just a little south and east of Boston.  We had such a great time, they are all wonderful people. They shared their home with us and fed us, it was very nice.



South Station



Eric and Danielle went back up to Concord, New Hampshire, where they live.  We will go up there tomorrow and see them again.



Tour Boats and Ferry Boats on Long Wharf



Teresa has decided she does not need her car on campus at Yale.  So we are keeping the car and will take it back to Minnesota with us. We'll have to figure out a way to tow it behind the motor home.  I sure don't want to drive separately!





One of the Street Performers on Long Wharf



Since she had to return to Connecticut we took her to South Station in Boston so she could take the train back since we will be going north to New Hampshire tomorrow.



Legal Seafoods Restaurant on Long Wharf



While we were there we walked from the station a few blocks to Long Wharf.  There were loads of people there.  This is where you get on the tour boats and trolleys.  There is a great restaurant there called Legal Seafoods.  Unfortunately, we did not eat there this time, they were packed and the wait time was too long.  Hopefully, we can eat there next time.

 









 

Massachusetts

Our spot at Wompatuck State Park

We packed up this morning and headed northeast to Wompatuck State Park in Massachusetts, just southeast of Boston. It's a nice park, but rain is heading in.  We'll have to explore it tomorrow.

Teresa and Eric and Danielle will be joining us some time tomorrow, it should be a good day.

Lobster Landing

Lobster Landing

Today we just drove around the surrounding communities and along the CT shoreline some more.  We saw in one of the tourist magazines about this little place called Lobster Landing that was supposed to be an iconic spot for an authentic Connecticut experience.  The menu is very limited, i.e., Lobster Rolls. 

Lobster cages drying in the sun

After checking the Internet for restaurant reviews we learned that this has a top rating, so we thought we should go for it.  I cannot tell you how it smells when we first got there..um..not delicious.  It is, after all, a fishing dock and marina.  Inside the shack is a bit daunting, but remember it has been there a long long time and everything is aged.  Towards the back there were two large tanks filled with fresh caught lobsters and behind the counter were two young men cleaning and chopping up the critters.  The sign on the wall said the lobster meat was $45/lb.  We went back outside.



Deck with a view

 There is a tent near by where the food is sold, so we ordered our $15 lobster roll and chose a table on the deck with a view of the harbor.  We didn't even notice the smell any more.  The sandwich was just as described in the reviews, juicy and buttery, and the smoky flavor from the grilled soft roll (it looked burnt, but didn't taste burnt).  It was good.



$15 Lobster Roll



Mystic Seaport

Marina at Old Saybrook

Up and off early this morning while it was still cool.  We decided to go visit Mystic Seaport since we hard from a few people that it was an interesting place for sight seeing.  On the way there we stopped at Old Saybrook for a look see.  It was a nice drive around a waterfront community.  We stopped at a marina for a while and watched the boats and watched a few men fishing before we headed off to Mystic.

The $24 each price tag to visit Mystic Seaport almost deterred us but we decided since we drove an hour to get there we should finish our mission.  So we got out the credit card and went inside.  I'm glad we did.  The weather was beautiful..sunshine and 80.

Charles W. Morgan, wood whale ship

One of the first things we saw was the restoration of the Charles W. Morgan.  Built in 1841 she has outlived all of her kind and is currently undergoing restoration.  She is the only wood whale ship in the world.

Large boiler where blubber was cooked to make oil

We were able to go up inside and see what was going on in there.  The guide explained how this ship would locate the whales and then launch several smaller whale boats to go kill the whale and bring it along side.  Then the men would cut off the blubber and hoist it aboard the big ship where it was further processed for whale oil.

Preparing to recreate the masthead

I took 50 pictures there, it's difficult not to put them all in the blog.

After leaving the Mystic Seaport we stopped a few miles down the road to tour the first nuclear powered submarine and museum.  This was FREE (yay!).  Launched in 1955 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982.  She has been to the North Pole and logged over 300,000 miles.  The museum on shore gives an excellent display of the history of submarines from the very first one ever until now.

Historic Ship Nautilus (SSN 571)
The first nuclear powered submarine

Inside the Nautilus

Inside the Nautilus

Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

Peabody Museum of Natural History

Our first stop today was at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.  We arrived too early and sat on the retaining wall outside for a while and watched the traffic. 

The museum was having a special exhibit at this time:  Invasion of the Blood Suckers.



Human Bedbug

 We saw everything we didn't want to know about bedbugs and ticks and mosquitoes and lice and fleas.  They even had live colonys on display... eew.



Human Pubic Louse



The rest of the museum was the standard dinosaurs and human evolution and birds and animals and very well done.



Part of a big dinosaur exhibit



Dodo Bird

After that we went to a little restaurant downtown called Clark's Dairy.  It had ice cream, but was also a Greek and Italian restaurant.

Marble

Then back to the RV to chill for the rest of the afternoon.  Marble decided to make a rare living room appearance and hung out with us for a while.



Later, we met up with Teresa and went out for Pizza to New Haven's famous Modern Pizza.  This was a very busy place.  It was featured on the Travel Channel.  Here's a link if you wanna see a video of it:  http://www.travelchannel.com/Video/new-havens-pizza-paradise-15189

More

Inside the Rare Books Library

We were on our own today as Teresa had to get back to work.  So, we went back to the Yale campus and walked around on our own.  One of the most interesting things we saw was the Rare Book Library.  The security is very tight here, but I took a few pictures without flash and nobody stopped me. 



John James Audubon's Book



There are six levels of very rare books here, including a display showing John James Audubon's Book on Birds and one of the few original, remaining Gutenberg Bibles.

Woolsley Hall

We walked thru Woolsley Hall, the student commons, stopped at a sandwich shop for lunch, and headed back to the campground. We took the scenic route back and stopped at a beach to have a look.  Then we decided to check out that Hammonasset State Park that we decided not to stay in.  It was a very nice campground, very popular.  Perhaps, if we had advance reservations we could have had a spot with electricity.  We'll have to remember that for next time.





The Dining Hall at Woolsley



The beaches we saw were all privately owned, and posted for no trespassing.  We did stop and ask permission at one gated entrance and he was happy to let us go have a look and take some pictures.

This is the beach at Hammonasset State Park.  It had cooled off a bit and there were hardly any people out this afternoon.

New Haven, CT

It's been a busy few days and I haven't had any time to blog.  We tried to get in to Hammonasset State Park but they didn't have any spots left that included electricity.  Our generator isn't working correctly, and it's been so hot, we really wanted the power for the air conditioners.  They referred us to Riverdale Farm Campsites on the other side of the freeway and we have a good spot there for the next several days with all the hookups we want.

Home Sweet Home

Teresa joined us for a while and then we went out to dinner at a U.S.S. Chowderpot, voted the best seafood restaurant in the state.  It was very good.

Then she took us to her place and showed us where she lives, close to campus.

One of Two Ice Cream Trucks



We went to the top of Black Rock Cliff to overlook the city.  The first thing we saw there were two ice cream trucks.  Then we saw the monument to Soldiers and Sailors before overlooking the cliff to the spectacular view below.  I can imagine how beautiful it will be in the fall when the trees change colors. 



Monument to Soldiers and Sailors



From the top of the cliff we could look across Long Island Sound and see Long Island in the horizon.



View of New Haven, CT

View from cliff, overlooking New Haven, Long Island Sound.  Long Island is on the Horizon

Yale!

Teresa in her Office

The Physics Lab

Yale Buildings

A Random Hallway

More Yale Buildings

Nice, huh?

Architectural detail

Yale

"I Regret That I Have But One Life to Give for My Country"

We Made It

More driving all day yesterday, thru Pennsylvania, the very tip of New Jersey, a little of New York and into Connecticut.  It was a long hot ride.  Marble is doing fine, but she just stays on the bed the whole time.

Our campsite at Gentile's Campground

We found a campground to spend the next two nights.  Everything near New Haven was booked for the weekend.  We are staying at Gentile's Campground by Thomaston, CT, about 40 miles northwest from New Haven, where Teresa lives.

Teresa drove out to see us and will be spending the night.  She was happy to see us and happy to see Marble.  Marble still stays on the bed.  She did jump down to eat drink and potty but right back up onto the bed.

Christmas in July

The campground was having "Christmas in July" and a potluck dinner but we skipped that and went out for supper to a nice Spanish/Mexican restaurant called Acapulco and Madrid.  Good food. Then a bit of sight seeing.  We stopped at Black Rock Lake damn. 

Black Rock Lake Dam

Black Rock Lake is part of a network of flood control dams and local protection projects built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Naugatuck River Basin.  It was built in response to the destructive floods of 1955.  It protects the community of Thomaston, CT, and other communities down stream.  The last big flood was in 1985.  The river itself was barely visible right now so at first sight it looked like overkill with the big earthen dam.

Thomaston, CT