Downtown Mystic and Mystic Aquarium

We are at our first private campground, with hookups. So for the first time since we have been on the road, we showered in the trailer. Rest assured, we have been showering regularly (!), but when you don’t have hookups you use the showers at the campground, to avoid flling your gray water tank too much. After we cleaned up, we headed to downtown Mystic for Mass at St. Patrick’s. It’s a very simple New England church. The altar is not more than 6 feet long and certainly not 4 feet deep. Mass was nice and the priest did a nice job with the homily, opening up with a George W. Bush joke (we’re in liberal country now!). After Mass we drove a few blocks to downtown Mystic and ate at the famous (if you remember the 80s) Mystic Pizza. We got a Hawaiian Pizza which was yummy and Elise had, predictably, plain pasta with butter. But she was happy, too, so who are we to judge?! After dinner, we wandered into a bookstore and then down the street for ice cream. I had toasted almond and Bobby had green tea. Elise went for Oreo Cream. While we were in the bookstore, a bagpipe, fife and drum corp came down the street, playing and marching. I don’t know what they were doing there but it was cool to watch.

We spent today, Sunday, at Mystic Aquarium. We were going to try and do Mystic Seaport yesterday, but by the time we got here, it would have been too rushed. I don’t know how fascinated Elise would have been with all the ships, anyway. I’ll have to do it with my dad sometime. He’s one who would really appreciate it all.



The aquarium was great. We saw beluga whales, sea lions, sharks, zillions of fish, penguins and much more. The coolest thing for me (and Bobby) was the sea anenome tank. This tank held hundreds of sea anenomes along with toad crabs (which look a lot like spider crabs), sea stars and mussels. I could have spent all day at that one tank. The volunteer was feeding the sea anenomes and crabs and it was fascinating to watch the crabs eat and the sea anenomes curl in on the piece of fish or shrimp they were fed. Bobby and I think we are going to join our niece, Grace, and become marine biologists, too!



Tomorrow we head to Cape Cod. My parents honeymooned there so it holds some sentimental value for me. We’re staying at the tip of the Cape and I’m really looking forward to it. We’ll be there through Thursday and then we’ll start heading toward Bar Harbor (where Bobby and I honeymooned!). If anyone has recommendations for either spot, we’d love to hear them.