Blogs from Groton, Connecticut, United States, North America

It was nice seeing my brother Jerry and his family last night, but that was the last of the family and friends visits for this trip. Today it's just Jody and I facing the world together! We somehow got our travel/ sightseeing sequence out of whack over the last couple of days. We normally travel in the morning and sightsee in the afternoon, but today we are riding over to Newport, RI in the morning and traveling in the afternoon. So after a quick hotel breakfast, we loaded up the bike for the 20 minute ride across the bridge to Newport. Newport is about the last place where about a dozen of the mansions built during the gilded age still exist and are being preserved. There are guided tours & self-guided tours, trolleys, buses, & walking ... read more

Just outside the gate of the Groton Submarine Base in Groton Connecticut is the permanent berth of the USS Nautilus and the location of the Submarine Force Museum. The keel of the USS Nautilus was laid on June 14, 1952 at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics, Groton, Connecticut by President Harry S. Truman. On January 21, 1954 Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower broke the traditional bottle of champagne across Nautilus' bow. On the morning of January 17, 1955 the Nautilus was the first US submarine to set sail under nuclear power. The Nautilus departed Pearl Harbor Hawaii on July 23, 1958 under Top Secret orders to conduct the first crossing of the north pole by a ship. With 116 men aboard, the USS Nautilus reached the geographic North Pole on August 3, 1958. In the ... read more

Sunday, 14 June (NYC KOA to Mystic & Boston/Cape Cod KOA): We left the NYC KOA around 9am, heading for Mystic, Connecticut before our next home base at the Boston/Cape Cod KOA in Middleboro (or Middleborough depending on where you look). The trip to Mystic was pretty much uneventful, not even getting GPS lost. Our first stop was Mystic Pizza for lunch at this famous eatery from the movie by the same name. Mystic is very picturesque, but doesn’t offer much in historic or other sights, although the traffic was pretty heavy. We shared a Greek salad and a Mediterranean pizza, both of which were quite good and inexpensive. I even got another flattened penny for my growing collection. After lunch and a brief stroll, including a stop to watch the drawbridge open and close, we ... read more

Obfuscator writes: Now, to be fair, almost any place will look worse, and be less interesting if it rains during the entirety of your stay there. That said, considering how pricey I've heard Rhode Island is, I was expecting a much nicer place. It's also tiny. We arrived in Woonsocket, RI in the previous night, and looked for a motel there, perhaps against our better judgment, since Woonsocket had a distinct and unpleasant odor. We found a motel without too much effort, but I think by that point we had already crossed back into Massachusetts. To put things in perspective even more, the scale on the map for Rhode Island goes up to 4 miles. Everything on the map should be measured in one mile increments. We left our motel after enjoying a continental breakfast (not ... read more

Dear Faithful Followers of the Foliage Blog, Today I will not be talking about fall foliage. We have shifted gears (sails?) and have fallen in love with Mystic Seaport. The aquarium is nice; it was fun watching 3 Beluga whales at feeding time and California sea lions showing off how intelligent they are, but when you compare it to our own Monterey Aquarium...it's not a "fluke" that we're #1. But, the historical Mystic Seaport is a true treasure of an era so important in our country's development. It's much larger than I thought it would be and the grounds are lovely and not commerical. It is an authentic village which was an important link to sustain a sea-going way of life. It is not to be missed. We spent the whole day there and still could ... read more