Mystic, CT
7:30a, STS left for work
9:15, I woke up and decided not to waste entire day; really took time to get ready; panoramic shot of view from 3rd floor hotel room while weather good
10:30, went downstairs for wifi to check email, IM w/ Serene for a bit; read Anita’s cake dec blog, laughing out loud, SO FUNNY her antics, she cracks me up
11, walk across street to Olde Mystic Village shops, specialty shops, individually owned, no chain stores (thank goodness!), fun to browse, but nothing I couldn’t live without; bit expensive; bought molasses cookie bc watched Martha podcast making molasses cookies, yum; bought art print “Princess” by illustrator of children’s books, Delphine Thomas, closing her store/studio after just 3 months, gave me 10% discount; business not good; no customers like me she said who understand her work, too niche; sells prints, refinishes furniture; much fun talking to her, good energy; French woman; has lived everywhere; asked her to sign my print; she told me about Lazertran product to put images onto textiles, rocks
12:20, STS met me at movie theaters; went to Five Guys hamburgers; costs twice as much as In/Out, but DELICIOUS; “little cheeseburger” $4.89, anything I want free on burger: bbq sauce, mustard, catsup, tomato; small Cajun fries; no wonder Phil Mickelson likes to eat
Starbucks, strangest building ever, two story peaked roof white building; can imagine a mortuary here; GREAT regular coffee tho EVER from a Starbucks!! Lasted me for hours; good even when cold
Tien went back to work; dropped me at Mystic Seaport
1-5p, Mystic Seaport, wow, what a cool place; was worth the $24 entrance fee; had thought about not going, haha; hardly any visitors; place to myself, almost
Tried to figure best way to tackle MS; followed map easily (w/o Tien's help for change); took pics so Tien could see what I saw
Love the old way of life (idealize); took longer to do things; laborious; non-machined; hand labor; patina of old buildings; character; original buildings moved to current site; much preservation; wood is weather worn; good light for photos w/ cloudy sky
Blockade ship building: woman caring for person w/ down’s syndrome dropped her camera in blockade ship house; found by time I left
Lighthouse, tiny, replica, discovered I love lighthouse architecture, two films shown inside on five vertical monitors, capacity 10 people; narrated by Sigourney Weaver
Stately homes along shores of Mystic River, favorite had mansard roof, three stories, covered porch
Rope making building: really long; only 25% of original building was here
Saw group of people pulling sail ropes on nearby tall ship; leader singing; pullers pulling and singing in turn
Tall ship “Joseph Conrad”: always docked; used for kids’ camp; sleeping, climbing ropes, etc; 3 level bunks below
Toured Seafaring Village: old buildings moved into place to create village, FUN!!!
Ropemaking building: listened to film as I explored
Blacksmith shop: man there making nails for ship rebuilding in dockyard BY HAND; heat metal by coal; gave me two pieces of what’s left after coal burns away; everything in shop sepia-toned, lovely rough textures
Watch/sextant shop: couldn't understand how sextants work; appreciate the boxes they keep them in; docent talked about sewing machines accuracy; urged me to see the old sewing machines in sailmaking building
Sailmaking: two stories, upstairs has several old sewing machines; original early one that Singer company would like to have back; BIG wonderful work tables; want one!; LOVE the workrooms here
Printing shop: now I understand what “letter press” means, using set type instead of printers; paper has embossed texture; must leave printed paper out for ink to dry
Burrows House: home of storekeeper and wife; wife was milliner!!! Sewing room!!! Small house; two stories; couldn’t go upstairs tho
Cooperage: watched barrel making; smell of fresh cut wood, curls in pile on floor, felt wax lining of witch hazel barrel to keep it from reacting to wood; hand tools
Bank: black vault, floor cov’d w/ thrown coins for luck, dark furniture, sparse, cold
Chapel: benches with spindle backs, warm wood everything: floors, walls, ceiling, furniture, and pulpit
School house: one room
Drug store: old glass bottles, ornate black iron wood stove, large glass bottles meant for store windows to indicate it was chemist’s shop; next door same building was doctor’s office; gorgeous old desk w/secret compartments; two doors open to reveal cubbies in desk and in doors, like my old armoire
Sailors’ Reading Room: for “rehabilitating” bad ways! Yellow building with white trim, one story, very cute building
Buckingham-Hall House: two stories, TWO staircases!!, woman inside knitting a quill wiper in embossed hex stitch pattern, blue and red yarns, decorative piece, ribbon across middle to hold old cloth for wiping quill; wore period clothing; low ceilings; weaving room upstairs; small canopied beds
Greenmanville Church: ships figurehead at front of church; small stage; blinds 2/3 closed
Thomas Greenman house: visit first floor only; upstairs MS admin offices; period furniture; arched doorways; large rooms; comparatively high ceilings; can tell they had money
Charles W. Morgan tall ship restoration: climb 2 stories of stairs; FABULOUS view at top! Can see nice houses along Water Street; docent gave me sticker, “I walked the plank of the Charles W. Morgan”; was a whaling ship; docent talked of bad smell of dead whales; “head” on ship had door, pee/poo ran out of ship thru hole, saw woman sitting below waiting for husband, haha; below deck at bottom of stairs captain’s quarters in forward compartment, had Victorian-style sofa and cubbies built-in; first mate’s quarters, bunk, desk; 2nd/3rd mates, 4th/5 th mates, cook/?? shared 2 bunk compartments; whale blubber room large; rest of crew shared one large space at rear of ship, all 6’ long bunks
Chatted w/ woman whom I could see from ship’s “head”, haha, told her I could see her feet from above, she was VERY chatty; RV is her home, they drive all over the U.S.
4:45p, EXACTLY enough time to see everything, Tien phoned (heart); what a GREAT time; figured out I really like sightseeing alone; don't have to worry whether Tien is bored; love it
5p, Tien picked me up outside, didn’t have to walk, YAY!
Hotel, ck email, decide where to eat, ck weather, thunderstorms/rain coming tonight; clear tomorrow!!
Dinner in Stonington at Noah’s; dusk driving still cld see pretty houses; some remind me of old houses in sacto
LCS: Classic iceberg wedge w/ blue cheese dressing, bacon, tomatoes; steamers with garlic broth and butter dip; sandy clams, figured out how to eat: peel off black membrane from neck/foot and lip where sand adheres
STS: Shrimp louis salad w/ avo, tomatoes, endive; cod in broth, clams
Dessert: bienenstich german bee sting cake
Began raining as we left restaurant
Drive back; no street lights here; very dark; thunder lighting up sky and rain!
9:30p Tien already asleep
LCS journaling on Tien’s cptr
No comments:
Post a Comment