We pulled into Mystic about a week ago and took advantage of the cloudy day to get caught up on laundry and explore the town. Back at the marina, we met some great people and asked for a restaurant location. We enjoyed talking to Lorna and Frank so much, we asked them to join us for dinner and had an amazing time. The next morning we rented a car for the week and we took off in the direction of Newport, RI. We thought going by car would be the most practical way of exploring Newport (or at least economic as the rates for marina slips in the area were triple or more of what we'd been paying). If you're a sailor and especially an America's Cup fan, Newport is somewhere you have to go to at least pay homage. On the way, we found a quaint little area with a fishing village near Point Judith and Narragansett, RI where we stopped for lunch of fish sandwich and clams. Yummy!
We found Newport and were grateful that we'd brought along our rain gear as it went from misting to outright raining. No problem! We just donned our jackets and splashed in the puddles. At least the crowds were slightly diminished. The downtown area is filled with shops selling everything you can think of, really neat very old houses and boats of all sizes and shapes. It really is a great town. We'd been told by several people that the "Cliff Walk" is a not to be missed experience while in Newport, so despite the weather, we thought we'd check it out. It's gorgeous!
As the name suggests, it is a walkway built on a cliff above the rocky shores where the Newport Mansions of yesteryear were built. The mansions are amazing (there are a lot of places where the hedges are so high that you can't really see the houses but it's still breathtaking). We walked about 1/2 of the walk so about a mile and a half one way. It was raining pretty hard at this point so we turned around and headed back to the car and back to Mystic.
The next morning, Gary had to fly out to Topeka, KS for a client so MaryAnn flew in her friend Chris to "babysit" her for the week.
With the boy away, the girls took off for a road trip. First they drove to Boston where they spent about 24 hours sightseeing and eating their way through the city. Boston is an interesting and very historical city. The girls were proud of themselves for navigating the subway system without Gary and were able to sample many of the city's sights and the ethnic neighborhoods. Despite her best efforts, however, MaryAnn was disappointed to find that she still was still too, uh, tall for the downtown Boston carousel.
The girls then started a road trip back towards Mystic by following the coast line and stopping in every small town or beach side village they could find. What an amazing area filled with beautiful old houses and just really pretty scenery. They found Plymouth MA and the famed Plymouth Rock. To make sure that Gary wasn't left out, they scoured the beach to find him a Plymouth rock of his own.
In New Bedford, MA they discovered a monument to Joshua Slocum. Slocum, rebuilt a 36 foot sloop and he was the first man to solo circumnavigate in 1898. We've read his book and a couple of others about him so it was neat to see waters that he too had sailed in.
Next, the girls stopped back in Newport, RI to complete the remainder of the cliff walk that we didn't see (the last section is much rougher terrain -literally rock climbing at some points - and I certainly wouldn't recommend it in foul weather). There is even a tunnel to go under the rock at one point.
After 2 days on the road, they made their way back to Mystic. After walking through town and finding a great restaurant in Noank, CT for lunch, the girls decided to put the dinghy in the water and explore Mystic more by water.
Chris has relatives in Mystic who own the most adorable children's clothing store called the Blue Rocking Horse in downtown Mystic (right beside the draw bridge). That evening the girls were invited over for a fabulous kabob dinner that included local caught monk fish (one of MaryAnn's favorites), swordfish and shrimp. Absolutely delicious!!!
Their son who lives next door has a dog named Eric. MaryAnn immediately fell in love with him and had to come back the next day to take him on a walk. Luckily, he was a little too big to fit in her backpack or he might be sailing with us.
Well, as it always does, time flies when you are having too much fun and it was already time for Chris to head back to Orlando and Gary to come back to the boat. We had the rental car for one more day so we found the Defender boat supply store (again with the boat repairs in exotic places) only a few miles away and then stocked up on some more groceries and supplies. We met Frank and Lorna for one last dinner in Mystic and exchanged promises to keep in touch.
Today, we got all of our laundry done and everything loaded back onto the boat so we can take off in the morning. Next stop will probably be a Newport, RI area called Dutch Harbor.
Until next post!
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