HBGALLAVANTERS

Spent several days exploring Mystic. Fun fact, Mystic is NOT a city/town. Half (the west side) of Mystic is governed by Groton, CT (the home of Electric Boat the submarine manufacturer for the US Navy) and the east side is governed by Stonington, CT.  The first thing you realize when visiting is that in the center of Mystic there is a drawbridge that rises to let boats pass below. When this happens all traffic in this very busy summer vacation spot grinds to a halt. Traffic is a major issue in this town along with parking. That said there are some real treasures on the main drag. First is “Sift.” It’s an amazing bakery that carries all kinds of breakfast delights, high-end desserts and pastries and crusty breads. Lines are long but they move fast.  Catty-corner across from Sift is the iconic pizza joint made famous by Julia Roberts - Mystic Pizza. There are also lots of unique stores in the area with eclectic offerings. One of my favorite stores caters to men. It’s called Trov...

 Well it’s been a while since I posted. Between bracing for a hurricane and visiting areas of Maine with little to no cell service posting has been curtailed.  So to recap the last few weeks…we came back from Martha’s Vineyard and we stayed with Jim and Melanie at their home for a few days before we moved to the KOA in North Stonington, CT.  From their home and the KOA we were able to visit several locations in Connecticut and Rhode Island.  We attended the Charlestown, Rhode Island with my brother and had lobster rolls and clam cakes.  Then we explored some great restaurants in Westerly, Rhode Island. Over the course of the next week we went to the Bridge Restaurant for brunch which has a great outdoor, dog friendly deck that overlooks the Pawcatuck River (the dividing line between CT and RI in Southern New England); a great independent book store- the Savoy; and great brewery- the Malted Barley (which makes amazing sandwiches/burgers all served on freshly made...

 Thanks to Jim we were able to stay on Martha’s Vineyard for a week while we have been here in southern New England.  A family friend of his had an unexpected cancellation on their rental and offered it to Jim.  When he called us and asked if we wanted to go we hustled to get to Connecticut early enough so we could join him and his family on the island. We decided to take our jeep over on the ferry so we would have a car on the island. Little did we know when we made these plans that President Obama would have his birthday bash the same weekend we arrived.  We had a reservation on the ferry for the jeep - that’s something you need months in advance if you even want to think about getting your car over there - for Friday the 6th but our rental did not start til the 7th. We were on the waitlist for a Saturday slot and thanks to Jim’s persistence we got one - but it was for the 6:30 am ferry. Problem is that the ferry leaves out of Woods Hole, MA two hours from Stoningt...