We woke out of our jet-lagged stupor around 10:00, and were on the road by 11. First stop, Norwich, CT, founded in 1659. We did a drive-through tour, so Brandon could see how the town had changed since he lived there. Brae was born at the local hospital.
Then we headed down to Groton and the U.S. Navy Submarine Base (New London) on the Thames River (pronounced as spelled, and not like the one in London). We had lunch at The Spot Cafe, a local diner and one of Brandon’s favorite places to eat. He had seafood chowder and the fisherman’s platter (fried cod, fried shrimp, and clam strips). The clam strips tasted like fried dough to me. I had chicken-fried chicken, which was really tasty.
We toured the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the first nuclear-powered submarine. Climbing through those hatches is no fun, and I was only on a tour. Getting out of a submarine in a hurry must be a nightmare. You can see more pictures in the Connecticut Gallery.
Then we went a few miles down the road to Mystic Seaport, and got there in time to tour the village for the last hour (at half price, not bad). We toured the whaling ship, Charles W. Morgan, as well as the Joseph Conrad, a tall ship used to train merchant marines. Mystic Seaport is also a living history museum, with a reconstructed New England fishing village, complete with a church and schoolhouse, as well as a boat shop, ropewalk, sail loft, and working blacksmith shop. Very cool.
We spent the evening driving to our first Vermont Bed and Breakfast. The entire trip, back through Hartford, CT, on to Springfield, MA and then up to Brattleboro, VT, was after dark, so we didn’t get to see much.
[...] car from Logan Airport and made our way south to Groton, CT. Mommy and Daddy visited here on their honeymoon. My brother got to see the hospital where he was born, and the little town where Daddy lived before [...]