Our wonderful (and terrible) Mystic, Connecticut Adventures

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

July 26, 2022

After yesterday's rain, we had beautiful weather for our trip further east down the coast of Connecticut today. Even though our destination is Mystic, Connecticut, our first stop is in the tiny hamlet of Stonington, where the beautiful hydrangeas are at their peak bloom. Denisa loves the shades of purple and blue surrounding this old stone building.

That just isn't any old building, it's the Stonington Lighthouse. We've found another one!

It was a very nice morning to enjoy the sea views here at Stonington Point. From this point we could see parts of three different states--Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York.

We could also see another lighthouse in the water. What a great two lighthouse stop!

We enjoyed watching this cormorant, spreading out to dry his wings on one of the islands in front of us.

We were excited to find free parking at Stonington Point. Then we found out that it would cost $10 each if we wanted to go into the tiny patch of sand called DuBois Beach that was adjacent to the parking lot. No thanks!

We drove 5 miles to make another stop on our way to Mystic, Connecticut. This one was at the Barn Island Wildlife Management Area. The 2.9-mile bike ride was well-reviewed, and it started with views across the wetlands towards the coast. Notice that Denisa is smiling at this point.

That was the last smile, as we then headed into the woods. A half-mile into the trip we noticed a few mosquitoes, so we stopped to spray our hats with bug spray. In another half-mile we stopped to spray our legs and arms--and even faces. We didn't know at the time, but these woods are home to a voracious swarm of mosquitoes. We were half-way into the ride when they started swarming us so badly that it was hard to see. It was terrible!

It could have been a delightful ride through the woods. But instead, we were flailing our arms trying to beat off the mosquitoes while attempting to miss the rocks and trees along the path.

We continued onward, because we were closer to the exit if we went ahead instead of turning back. We soon found this path isn't well-maintained, with thorny brambles stretching over the trail and scratching us. Now that we are bleeding, the mosquitoes have stepped up their ballistic attacks and it got worse! They were now kamikaze flying machines attacking us from all directions.

Those brambles have thorns that are designed to break off when they are embedded in flesh. This is a vicious bike ride! We couldn't wait until we got back to the pickup, and rushed to get inside the cab. Whew, what a terrible adventure! We're calling it the worst.bike.ride.EVER!

We had mosquito bites on our hands, behind our ears, and on our arms. The only good thing about our stop at this wildlife area is the flora. Before the mosquito attacks, we stopped to take a picture of one of the lovely turk's cap lilies.

We also tasted the ripe berries along the trail before we entered the woods.

Back on the road, our next stop is our destination for the day--the lovely little tourist town of Mystic, Connecticut. This town is not a well-kept secret, as all the on-street parking was full and the traffic was bumper-to-bumper going down Main Street.

After losing all that blood to the mosquitoes, we need some lunch! So we got in line for a table at the most famous restaurant in town--Mystic Pizza. When a fellow diner offered to take our picture together, we had hoped that they would include the cafe's sign right over our heads.

We had to take the picture ourselves to get the sign for Mystic Pizza--a slice of heaven.

It only took 10 minutes to get a table. Inside, the walls are decorated with pictures and memorabilia from the Julia Robert's movie filmed right here in 1988. Thirty-four years later, the movie "Mystic Pizza" is still bringing fans to eat the pizza made famous by the waitress played by Julia Roberts.

Among the memorabilia on the walls is a screen, showing the movie non-stop all day long.

This is our second pizza of the week, and we ate every bite of this Greek-style-salty-crisp-crust-with-its-signature-sweet-tomato-sauce pizza.

A walk down Main Street brought us to the bridge over the Mystic River. Built in 1922, this is a bascule bridge. Bascule is a new word for us, and it is French for "seesaw." That's because this 660-ton bridge is able to open it's 85-foot span like a seesaw.

This motion is made possible because of the two 230-ton concrete weights that will counterbalance this giant seesaw.

After all that detailed engineering description, it's good to know that Denisa is really only interested in the beautiful lilies beside that bridge.

We took a walk further along the river, for views of the tall mast ships that harbor here at Mystic Seaport. We are actually on a mission to see if we can catch a free glance of some of the more famous ships at the pricey Seaport Museum.

While many of Connecticut's museums are free to Connecticut residents this summer, again we see that this state doesn't share well with others. It would cost us $54 to go to the museum.

On our walk down the river, we watched as a man launched his kayak into the river. What a great idea! So we inflated our kayak, and set sail on a Mystic River adventure.

It was fun rowing right beside the tall ships in the harbor.

We headed to the bascule bridge, to get a view of it from the water.

At exactly 40 minutes past each hour, the siren goes off to clear the bridge, and then those counter-balanced weights help to lift one end.

The ducks living on the river have seen this process so many times that they are completely ignoring it.

But we were amazed to watch the process up close. When the bridge was completely up, the waiting tall vessels started parading through the opening.

We continued watching from our perch on the water, until the bridge began to close.

When it was completely closed, we were still able to row our tiny kayak under.

That brought us deeper into the harbor, where boats were parked on both sides for as far as we could see. Up ahead, the train bridge had also just swung open. You can see the train tracks on both the left and right side of the picture below. When the bridge in the middle rotates on its center pivot, it will once again connect the train tracks together.

But for now the bridge is rotated to its open position so vessels like the red-hulled boat on the left can pass into the Mystic Harbor. We floated in the harbor for quite a while, hoping to watch the bridge pivot back in place, but it obviously wasn't time for another train to pass through Mystic yet.

So we headed back under the bascule bridge, and paddled toward the Seaport Museum. What a great kayak trip this is! It's 74 degrees with almost no wind--a perfect day to be on the water.

We stopped close to this rusty old ship that was parked in a far section of the harbor.

As we floated closer, we found that this was actually the living quarters of students that work at the museum.

Even though we couldn't walk along the streets of the museum, we still got water-side views of the old town shops.

The crown jewel of the museum is the Charles W. Morgan, a square-rigged whale boat built in 1841.

It is part of the floating collection of National Historic Landmark vessels here at the seaport. This is the last wooden whaling ship still afloat.

We also floated right beside this firefighting boat that was docked nearby.

As we rounded the curve near the museum, we saw that the sailboat class had just lifted the sails of the fleet of boats docked here.

It was fun to row beside that line of boats, and catch the colorful reflection of the sails on the water of the Mystic River.

As we waited for the sailboat students to launch, a tour group of four little boats puttered by. They looked a little like golf carts on the water, as their leader took them beside some of the big boats and yelled descriptions to the tourists.

With that distraction gone, the students started their timid launches from the dock. It made a colorful picture as the boats used the wind to take them out into the harbor. Instructors in motor boats were available to give directions on how to turn those sails so that they can all (hopefully) return to their launch site at the end of class.

The Mystic River has its own lighthouse, so of course Denisa needed to take a picture of it.

Beside the Seaport Museum is the Seaport Repair Facility. It looks like a new repair project is still shrink-wrapped outside the facility. We could row right beside its wooden hull to see that it is a beauty as well.

By this time, we had been on the Mystic River for three hours. It was a fun activity that we didn't even know was a possibility when we left home this morning. But we have the boat and the bikes with us in the pickup always, so we are flexible in adding adventures to our day when we find them. Some adventures turn out terribly--like our bicycle trip through the mosquito-filled forest. But more of our adventures turn out wonderfully--like our kayak trip through the wonders we found on the Mystic River.