Mystic Seaport, Connecticut

We are in Mystic, Connecticut and we have spent the day at the maritime museum, Mystic Seaport. This is no two-bit building with old pictures. It is a living museum, with large exhibition spaces for displays on particular topics, such as photography in relation to the sea, whaling, etc. Then there are the shops and houses associated with a seaport town, some with very friendly people in them to guide you and answer any questions. There is the ship building area, as Mystic did once have a thriving boat building industry, building cargo ships, whalers and even the smaller fishing boats. Now they have turned their craft to restoration and here we found the Mayflower II that wasn't at Plymouth when we visited last week. And of course we have the various ships that have been saved and restored and are now used for education purposes to show school children (and tourists) what it was like aboard some of these fine sailing ships. If you would like to explore yourself, have a look at the web site: www.mysticseaport.org/explore/

Scrimshaw

The shops

A two story house

A sailing ship ready for her masts to go up

Steering the ship

Sailing ship

As it is Memorial Day, they have a special service in the church. It is the 1876 version, Decoration Day. There is a short service and then a march, in time to the fife and drum, down to the docks, for the last post and the firing of the canon. We then throw flowers into the Mystic River to remember the fallen. It is very nice to be a part of the day.

Throwing of flowers

The last post

It did rain in the morning, then stopped during the service to allow everybody to take part in the parade, and then started again when we were ready to leave. It was pretty close to 7 hours of walking, looking, climbing and studying. And we all enjoyed it very much.