9/25/04 Natalie and I on Vacation in Mystic, CT; Ninigret Park; Newport, RI, and Mohegan Sun:

Natalie and I woke up early enough to drive to Mystic, CT by midday for lunch and sights.

We parked on the main street in Mystic:

We walked down the hill to the water and the drawbridge that crosses the Mystic River.

The drawbridge in the background there has two massive counterweights that allow it to lift the roadway up 90 degrees on one side.

Looking back up the cute New England-style main street.

We looked in many of the various shoppes along the way.

The drawbridge had a pedestrian path that allowed one to continue walking along the street, over the bridge.

Small boats were able to pass underneath without the bridge opening. But taller boats required the bridge to open, which it did every hour at 40 past the hour.

The gear and counterweight system is really cool looking. I was excited to see the thing go.

In fact, we went to a restaurant with outdoor seating, right to the side of the bridge, so that at some point during lunch, we would see how it works! And I must be the luckiest infrastructure-nerd alive to have a girlfriend that was as excited as I was so see it work as well!!!!

A really loud siren went off at exactly 40 past the hour. Scared me half to death. And all eyes turned towards the bridge as Mystic held its breath once again, as it probably does every hour of every day.

The thing was far more impressive when opened than I thought it would be. We are used to roads being long and horizontal. We're not used to seeing them vertical. It seemed much taller when it was opened than it was long when it was closed. Boats began to pass through.

One boat that passed through was a tour boat! It had a little sign that had a phone number on it, and it offered guided boat tours of Mystic River!!!

Bad. Oysters with cheese. Bad. Bad. Bad.

Bad. Lobster salad on a roll. For the price... AWFUL.

THE WORST!!!! This is the single most offensive culinary thing I have taken a photo of thus far. Gorgonzola cheese over onions and mushrooms and peppers and... Oysters. I don't know what we were thinking, but when we got back home with stories a few days later, Richard yelled at us for even contemplating a mix of cheese and fish. I saw another couple at the next table return theirs. When I did the same, the waiter acted like it was the first time ever. When pressed, he even said that its one of the big favorites on the menu! Bullshit. Worst lunch AND service I've had in a long time.

An hour later, we were walking around the town.

250 TONS.

Then we drove East along the Atlantic coastline, looking for what we might find.

At one point we stopped near a whole bunch of lobster traps.

Then we went to another piece of land that jutted out into the ocean, and enjoyed the architecture along both sides of the narrow street.

At the end of the peninsula, there was a place to park and enjoy the view. So we took some photos:

Then, Natalie spotted an fuzzy caterpillar.

I grew up with the non-fuzzy kind, so I was entranced.

Then a nice guy with his deaf wife/girlfriend/sister offered to take a photo of us together.

Then we noticed some activity nearby. A bunch of people walked out of the ocean with tremendous amounts of gear, and began unloading into their cars.

It was a scuba expedition, wrapping up.

Then we went to a lighthouse nearby that had a mini-lighhouse-museum and shoppe. We cheaped out on the $5 each to climb to the top.

Driving along the coast again, we both enjoyed the look of this ornate house.

We passed a greek building that purported to be a local theatre.

Then we went to Tim Hortons for Doughnuts. I've never seen one of these before.

Then we drove for a while along roads that closely followed the Atlantic, until we came to a sign that said a park was coming up that was free and open to the public, including a beach and tennis courts. We had the tennis racquets in the car, and figured, why not? We didn't really have a plan for the day other than to enjoy the day together, so what the heck?!

We had already crossed into Rhode Island. It was very do-it-yourself. These are separate ideas.

Serve!

We played tennis for about an hour, and Natalie kicked my but. Neither of us are very good at it. It was fun.

On our way out, we saw an information center, but it was closed. I ran out and got a photo of the hand-painted map outside, just so we remembered where we were.

We continued east on Route 1 for a while until we began to get nervous that we didn't have a map of the area. I bought one at a local gas station, and we were shocked to find that we had driven almost all the way to Newport! So, we decided to go there with the time we had left in the day, and see what it had to offer.

Coming down a hill towards the water.

An abandoned road with a much older bridge was to the right of us, making this crossing all the more interesting.

We saw what looked like the Verrazanno Narrows bridge in the distance. According to the map, that was the one that would get us to Newport.

Unlike the Verrazanno, it has a gothic point at the top of its arch.

It was a BIG bridge. I never expect to see them outside of NYC, as if they are the same as skyscrapers.

I got a shot of this cruise ship WAY in the distance, docked near Newport.

Coming down the bridge.

Once we got "Downtown," we found a hugh park and ride lot. Apparently, the thing to do is park here for the day, and take the public buses to all of the mansions in the neighborhood, most of which are open as museums. Cool! Unfortunately, everything was closing down for the day, so we decided we had to come back. For now, we figured we'd drive ourselves around and see the Mansions from the outside. I took photos of the maps at the visitor center for reference:

We drove through town and past the mansions, all the way on a line of cars.

We got out of the car at "The Breakers." One of the main attractions in Newport, this was built by the Vanderbilt family around 1895. The gates alone we impressive. They were closing as we pulled up.

We were able to walk up to the building before being asked to leave.

It overlooks the Atlantic on the other side of the property.

The "C" and "V" in the fence stand for Cornelius Vanderbilt He built Grand Central Terminal, too.

So, we vowed to return at the proper time on our next CT/RI vacation, and we headed out along the road yet again.

We took another bridge to leave Newport in the other direction.

Once back at the room, we got gussied up to go to Mohegan sun. Neither of us are gamblers beyond the occasional desire to unload a roll of quarters into a slot machine. But we figured, since it was literally down the road, we should see what it was all about, and have dinner at one of their silly restaurants.

We got some major bird crappage on the window along the way, and Natalie wanted to deal with it before it dried in place.

We went to a fish-themed restaurant that seemed reasonable. Reasonable until we actually had to SIGN A FORM STATING THAT WE WERE ABOVE 21 YEARS OLD SO THAT WE COULD BE SERVED ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES!!! Give be a break! This is the most ridiculous extent to which the litigious nature of this country has manifested itself. I can't express in words how silly it made both of us feel, and how it served to completely kill off the better parts of the experience of going out to dinner. All I can say is, UNBELIEVABLE.

We were also suspicious that it was a scam to collect our contact info for the purposes of mailings. The waitress apologized a little, but has to apologize a lot, and probably spreads it throughout her evening.

Eh.

Eh. Whatever. Middle America must think this is fantastic.

Then we took the requisite photo in front of the big mountain of light.

And they had one of those cool glass sculptures that they also have at Atlantis Casino in the Bahamas.

About Mohegan Sun: I could not believe my eyes when I saw the minimum bet at every single table. $15 was the most prevalent number. Am I confused, or does that mean that you're betting at least $15 on each hand of cards played? That's obscene! There was ONE $6 table in the whole place and it was three people deep. The sheer size of the place, the hive feeling it had, and the sheer height of the stakes did not match the aesthetic of the people from across the country who did not seem like the types who could actually afford to lose all the money they were putting on the table without it hurting their finances some significant amount. The whole "scene" made me claustrophobic. We couldn't even find a slot machine that was less than $2 a pull without asking for directions. It was fun to see what goes on at a place like this, but that was the extent of it. The people sitting at those betting tables may not all be wealthy, but they are definitely all crazy. I might feel better about the whole scenario if the money they are all eventually losing is spent on enriching the lives of all Native Americans... but I've not heard anything to that effect as of yet.