Mystical Boats

When I first moved out here, I heard about a place called Mystic Seaport. I knew it had boats, I knew it had "period stuff" and I knew it was called Mystic Seaport. It was the Mystic that threw me off - who went to a place with a name as hokey as Mystic?

Then I found out that the town is actually called Mystic, and it's been called Mystic for at least the past 150 years. Oops - my bad. It's still a hokey name, but at least it's a historically accurate hokey name!


Lo Gung had received the same response from every person he asked - Mystic was cool, and a definite must see! With a plethora of guests in town, we decided to load up our cars and head out to see what all the fuss was about. (We decided, when we moved here, that would would save "hokey" touristy stuff for when we had guests here. That way we wouldn't get bored seeing it several times, and we'd save a little bit of money...since we were POSITIVE we'd have guests out here that would want to do touristy things!)

Mystic did not disappoint. There were carriages marching all through the seaport, pulled by huge white horses. There were ice cream churning demonstrations, along with free scoops to taste. There were replicas of old famous ships (including the AMISTAD) and preserved "real old boats" (such as the last surviving wooden whaling ship).


The shoppes in town had been restored and preserved, letting us glimpse into "the days of yore." I think my favorite shoppe was a working metal smith shoppe. Two men worked bellows and forged pieces of iron. One of the men was heating up a stick of iron that he had forged previously, getting it just hot enough to make it porous, and then rubbing it down with wax. He explained that the hot metal would allow the wax to seep in, coating all available metal molecules and greatly inhibiting rust. It also made it nice and shiny.


BBJ pretty much ruled the streets.





We ended our day with a 30 minute boat tour of the port. BBJ was surprisingly good - I don't think she ever realized she was in the water!



After our boat tour, we went to dinner at Cove Fish Market. It was just what I was looking for, and came recommended by our boat captain (a former commercial fisherman, working near Mystic, so he knows where the fresh fish is!) I have read that New England is famous for its seafood (duh) and little roadside diners that serve the freshest seafood, all deep fried or mixed with butter and served in a roll. A proper New England seafood joint out to take orders from a window, and serve their food from the same window, with picnic tables outside to eat your fried goodness. Cove was all that, and more! I had fried bay scallops, Auntie W had fried fish and everyone else had lobster salad on a roll. Absolutely fresh, and really delicious. If you're ever near Mystic, Connecticut, you DEFINITELY need to eat at Cove Fish Market!

PS - So...did you notice anything about those pictures of me? Anything? Say...anything different with my head? Oh, that?! Hahaha...sorry. I'm just a little vain - I got a new haircut on the 4th of July. Of course, immediately after I got the cut, every. single. member. of my family that can talk...said I look like Wonder Woman. As in, "Oh! When you were walking up to me just now, I thought you were your sister!" Granted, we're twins, but...come on! Show a little love here! Wonder Woman, what do you think? Is my entire family justified in mixing us up. For the first time ever?