Sunday, October 23, 2005
More Updates from New England
Rain and Pain
Nothing puts a damper on travel adventure like rain, rain, rain. (No doubt you’ve heard about New England’s wet weather) Plus I’ve been “under the weather” and in some pain, which doesn’t make for fun, fun, fun. But we’ve been doing OK. We had dinner with Fran, Celia, and the “kids”. We spent a not-so-rainy day at Hancock Shaker Village. Back in New York we met up with Carol and Bob and spent the night at their camp on Lake Sacandaga: a cozy place to spend a rainy evening. Then we drove down to Connecticut through the rain. (The next day it rained so much they closed the interstate). At least we have found a first class RV park. (in East Lyme—SE CT) Still and all it’s a long way to the “friends and family”. We met these people in New York who were on the first night of a 9 month trip around the US. They plan to spend most of it visiting friends and family. Little do they know that’s the most stressful part of traveling-- trying to find a place to stay nearby and making connections. We did make it up to Hartford today (an easy hour drive) to visit my niece Darci. We had a good visit and spent much of the afternoon at the Mark Twain House and Museum. (for our mini-theme of Victorian mansions). In the past we’ve had good luck with museum food but were not impressed with the café here so found a Mexican (Oaxacan) restaurant down the street.
Mystic Quesadilla (10/17)
(For the culturally deprived this is a sorry take off on the movie title “Mystic Pizza”)
A gorgeous, mostly sunny, though quite windy, day in southern Connecticut was a great time to visit Mystic Seaport. (major tourist attraction) We were there from 10 until 3:30 and did not see everything. The poor tour bus people only get an hour here before they are shuttled away. The school kids got 2 hours. I guess the marine/ boat thing can be a mini-theme of our trip too. There are a number of restored tall ships here and a working shipyard. I was fascinated with the demonstration of rope making—and the rope walk. Besides all the boat stuff there is a “seaport village” depicting life in the 1800’s. My most memorable experience will be talking with the one “period re-enactor” that we found. She was the wife of a Welsh sea captain and had quite interesting stories about her travels. OK—you are wondering about the quesadilla part. We were not at all impressed with the “restaurant” here but just outside the gate we found The Seaman’s Inne where we had a wonderful lunch in the pub. I guess hummus and artichoke quesadillas are not particularly 19th century food, but the food was really good.
So much for backroads…
In our stay in the northeast we’ve spent a lot off time on the interstates—they are everywhere and it is just a faster way to get around, given a finite amount of time.
Today we whizzed through Rhode Island in an hour. I have decided we get to count it on our map even though we didn’t sleep there or even set foot on Rhode Island soil. So we arrived here in Plymouth before noon. We have a lovely wooded spot in one of those “dreaded family campgrounds”. It is actually quite nice and just a few minutes drive into Plymouth. We went in mid afternoon for a look-see. Unlike Bar Harbor, which felt like total chaos from which I couldn’t wait to escape, Plymouth is a quite nice little tourist town where I could see spending a bit more time visiting shops and such. (I FINALLY found another fabric shop). We trod on the land of our forefathers, gazed at what’s left of Plymouth Rock, gaped at the Mayflower, and admired the colonial houses. Tomorrow we do Plimoth Plantation.
Nothing puts a damper on travel adventure like rain, rain, rain. (No doubt you’ve heard about New England’s wet weather) Plus I’ve been “under the weather” and in some pain, which doesn’t make for fun, fun, fun. But we’ve been doing OK. We had dinner with Fran, Celia, and the “kids”. We spent a not-so-rainy day at Hancock Shaker Village. Back in New York we met up with Carol and Bob and spent the night at their camp on Lake Sacandaga: a cozy place to spend a rainy evening. Then we drove down to Connecticut through the rain. (The next day it rained so much they closed the interstate). At least we have found a first class RV park. (in East Lyme—SE CT) Still and all it’s a long way to the “friends and family”. We met these people in New York who were on the first night of a 9 month trip around the US. They plan to spend most of it visiting friends and family. Little do they know that’s the most stressful part of traveling-- trying to find a place to stay nearby and making connections. We did make it up to Hartford today (an easy hour drive) to visit my niece Darci. We had a good visit and spent much of the afternoon at the Mark Twain House and Museum. (for our mini-theme of Victorian mansions). In the past we’ve had good luck with museum food but were not impressed with the café here so found a Mexican (Oaxacan) restaurant down the street.
Mystic Quesadilla (10/17)
(For the culturally deprived this is a sorry take off on the movie title “Mystic Pizza”)
A gorgeous, mostly sunny, though quite windy, day in southern Connecticut was a great time to visit Mystic Seaport. (major tourist attraction) We were there from 10 until 3:30 and did not see everything. The poor tour bus people only get an hour here before they are shuttled away. The school kids got 2 hours. I guess the marine/ boat thing can be a mini-theme of our trip too. There are a number of restored tall ships here and a working shipyard. I was fascinated with the demonstration of rope making—and the rope walk. Besides all the boat stuff there is a “seaport village” depicting life in the 1800’s. My most memorable experience will be talking with the one “period re-enactor” that we found. She was the wife of a Welsh sea captain and had quite interesting stories about her travels. OK—you are wondering about the quesadilla part. We were not at all impressed with the “restaurant” here but just outside the gate we found The Seaman’s Inne where we had a wonderful lunch in the pub. I guess hummus and artichoke quesadillas are not particularly 19th century food, but the food was really good.
So much for backroads…
In our stay in the northeast we’ve spent a lot off time on the interstates—they are everywhere and it is just a faster way to get around, given a finite amount of time.
Today we whizzed through Rhode Island in an hour. I have decided we get to count it on our map even though we didn’t sleep there or even set foot on Rhode Island soil. So we arrived here in Plymouth before noon. We have a lovely wooded spot in one of those “dreaded family campgrounds”. It is actually quite nice and just a few minutes drive into Plymouth. We went in mid afternoon for a look-see. Unlike Bar Harbor, which felt like total chaos from which I couldn’t wait to escape, Plymouth is a quite nice little tourist town where I could see spending a bit more time visiting shops and such. (I FINALLY found another fabric shop). We trod on the land of our forefathers, gazed at what’s left of Plymouth Rock, gaped at the Mayflower, and admired the colonial houses. Tomorrow we do Plimoth Plantation.
# posted by Carol Harma @ 2:23 PM 
