Mystic Aquarium

It was supposed to be a rainy day so we decided to go to the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut.  

 Is it a bad sign if we start out our day looking like this?  Mystic is about an hour from my parents house, thus the tired looking Grant after falling asleep in the car.

We loved looking at the Beluga whales.  We learned beluga comes from a Russian word meaning white.

 "Just a little white whale on the go"

 A kids viewing area for the beluga whales

 It was a little rainy and wet, but not too bad.  John was excited to walk

We got to see some friendly penguins.  They would swim right up to the viewing and follow your hand around.

 We got to feed some exotic birds.  These birds were better fed and less aggressive than the birds we fed at the Colorado Springs zoo.  Here is John trying to feed them.

 Many of the birds were up too high to reach

 Sometimes we could get some of them to come down on our feeding sticks

 Grant liked seeing the jellyfish

 Everyone liked the touch tank

 And we got to see the sea lion show which was fun

 Checking out some rays

 They had a big Titanic display there

It was very informative, but also sad.

 Checking out the fake iceberg

 Having a Titanic moment

We had a lot of fun at the aquarium and learned a lot.

And had some Mystic pizza after

Plymouth

While in New England I thought it would be fun to take the kids to Plymouth, Massachusetts so they could learn about all the history there.  Here we are at Plymouth Rock, or rather the sign for Plymouth Rock.

And at the actual rock.  The sign may be more impressive than the rock.  I think I had read before that pieces of the rock itself had been given away to people earlier as gifts and mementos.  Now they stopped doing that 'cause there isn't much left.  I also think I read (in the book Mayflower) that the pilgrims really didn't even mention landing on or near a prominent rock of any kind and that the idea of Plymouth Rock surfaced later on.  So, the historical importance of this rock is dubious and visually it may not be that impressive, but there you have it.   Plymouth Rock.  It does, however, mark the traditionally agreed upon disembarkation spot of the Pilgrims.  So that's something.

And here are the kids in front of the Mayflower II.  It's a replica of the original Mayflower, made in England with traditional tools that would have been used at the time the Mayflower was built.  And then sailed to Massachusetts.  It was built and crossed the Atlantic in 1957.

 On board the Mayflower II

 And here we are at the Plimoth Plantation

It's a little village recreation of the pilgrims colony alongside the Wampanoag indian village nearby that you can also visit.  I don't know if it was the heat, the humidity or the walking, but by the time we got to the little village there I was beat.  The kids ran all over the place.

 Checking out a chicken

 Talking with the colonists

I loved their gardens the most

We had a great time visiting Plymouth and learning about the early settlers there.

The Breakers Mansion

My parents live very near the town of Newport, Rhode Island.  And in Newport there are a lot of old mansions from the gilded age.  We toured The Breakers mansion, which was a vacation home (summer cottage) of the Vanderbilt's.  Here we are outside.  No photography was allowed inside, so we only have outside pictures, but the inside was impressive too.  This is our family with my mom and my brother's friend, Merry (brother John took the picture for us).

The kids loved the tour because they each got a little device to listen to (it was an audio tour) and there was a tour specifically for children.  The loved listening and exploring that way.  One favorite thing was the secret doors that seemed to disappear into the walls and the secret passages the servants used.  After our tour the kids each got a lollipop, courtesy of Grandma.

 And we went to check out the back lawn which overlooks the ocean

 There is the mansion in the background

 John stops for a drink

Then it started to rain a little so we all ran for it.  The kids liked the mansion a lot.  Grant kept asking if we could go back to the "haunted matches" with the secret door.  It took him a few days until he could say "mansion."  And I'm guessing the haunted part is just memories of Disney.

 After a visit to the haunted matches, we had lunch at the Newport Creamery

Including "awful awful" shakes

 We drank lots of shakes

 Gotta keep your eye on those shakes or they will disappear

 And ice cream too

 We also enjoyed fresh seafood at a local seafood place

The kids liked sitting in the big fish chair at the seafood place